We are doing this column a bit differently this issue of CONNECT. Having established that all TCS couriers regularly travel the extra mile for our valued customers in the line of duty, this time we look at how TCS couriers have progressed personally and professionally during the course of their employment with TCS, in the line of duty.
MUJEEB HASHMI joined TCS in 1982 as Operations Assistant at a time when TCS and DHL were one entity. He has done his time on the frontlines delivering time sensitive documents and packages. 24 years later Mujeeb is in the HR department as TCS Manager for Training Resource, making training video guides for TCS couriers on personal grooming and client interface, and saving the Company the expense of hiring external trainers. This career progression has emerged out of Mujeeb''s personal passion for the performing arts that has seen him deploy his considerable talent as actor, scriptwriter, director, producer, and concept originator. Eight of his plays have run on PTV and other channels, and include ''Rishtay Anjaney'', ''Phir Yeh Hua'', and the serial ''Take It Easy''. He has performed the role of a ''malang'' in the music video ''Ishq Ishq''.
Mujeeb says his career highpoint was in 2003 when he led the TCS ''Karavan-e-Azadi'' from Karachi to the Khyber Pass, covering a distance of 3062 kilometers in 11 days on a Honda 70 motorcycle, along with five other colleagues that included Amir Nazar. Mujeeb and Amir went the entire distance, while the three other members of their five-man entourage came onboard from station to station. "It was the most memorable time of our lives. Mr. Saqib Hamdani made it possible with a Rupees 1.5 million budget. We were given VIP protocol right along the journey, and in every city we were joined by hundreds of people. At the Wagah border there was a grand ceremony, and in Lahore''s Food Street we met Lallo Prasad Yadav who was visiting from India, and he questioned us in depth about our journey. Both PTV and India''s Sahara TV interviewed us at length, and we made headline news in the local newspapers of the towns and cities that we traveled through.
Another instance that he is particularly happy about is the skit that he and colleagues performed at the 20th anniversary occasion of TCS, as a result of which the 49 percent courier commission that the Company was deducting was restored to the couriers, with Mujeeb receiving a windfall of Rs.90,000 from the couriers as an expression of their gratitude to him.
Mujeeb is married and has two kids, daughter Ilsa (13) and son Sahil (7). To keep fit he is a regular at jogging.
AMIR NAZAR is equally thrilled about the bike ride to the Khyber, and mentions it as the defining moment of his life. "We were really treated like visiting royalty where ever we went, and I can''t thank TCS enough for that experience," says Nazar, who joined TCS in 1992, and has recently been made a TCS Franchisee for the New Sabzi Mandi area, that also includes the Baqai Medical and Cadet Colleges, as well as Gulshan-e-Maymar. "It is a matter of great pride and prestige for me to be the first TCS employee to be elevated in this fashion." While his investments are in the rentals and payroll, TCS provides him with the crucial back-end support. Earlier in his career with TCS Amir worked as sales solicitor and courier. Both he and Mujeeb concur that there is a considerable burnout factor at work as a courier. "The city streets are quite stressful, and to negotiate them on a daily basis all day long does take its toll." They have both been in some serious accidents that resulted in broken bones, and in Mujeeb''s case a blood clot that took four months to dissolve and afflicted him with recurring blindness during that period.
A shared passion between Amir Nazar and Mujeeb Hashmi is fishing, which is not surprising living on the coast as they do. Amir acknowledges Mujeeb as the senior expert angler, even though they fish in different groups. Amir''s biggest catch this season has been an 8 kilo ''Dhotar'' amongst a 1.5 maunds of assorted fish catch. "There is no comparison to eating fish that has been freshly caught," he says with a relish, preferring to have it either fried, or cooked with an assortment of herbs and spices. Amir is married with daughter Yusra (7), and sons Harris (5) and Afwan (1).
Still very much in the prime of life, both Mujeeb and Amir have a long career ahead of them yet, and it is entirely possible that when we next visit them a few years hence, Mujeeb may well have transited to maker of LollyBollyHollyWood movies, and Amir the owner of a fish and chips franchise operation, in addition to being a TCS Franchisee. As they say in Swahili, ''Kay Sera Sera''!