A friend of Bangalore

Subir Roy: A friend of Bangalore
Business Standard

We all have to go to Bangalore Club this evening, said my senior colleague at the office, as if giving notice that the pages better be released in time for it. Any doubts I had over misplaced priorities disappeared when I heard that Bob Hoekstra had invited the entire Business Standard staff to have a drink with him and say goodbye.

You couldn’t miss saying bye to Bob, not after the way he had always been ready with a quote when you needed it, like yesterday. His fun piece in the yearend issue of the paper’s Weekend section on his vision of Bangalore in 2010 only captured for others the man whom we have known so well for so long.

Bob is hanging up his boots at Philips, saying goodbye to Bangalore after seven long years during which he has not just become an important part of the landscape but made it a bit better. In this city of exponential growth, the least of his achievements has been taking Philips Software, now designated the “innovation campus” of the Dutch leader’s Indian operations, to great heights. Not only has staff strength gone up over five times in his time, the stuff Phillips engineers are churning out is really top tech.

Bob has in these years found time to write two books, one on his travels around India and the other entitled An Exemplary Family in Bangalore and other short stories. His writing is as jovial as he is and richly anecdotal. He himself has become a part of the city’s anecdotal landscape, driving round in his tiny Reva electric car and regularly biking to make environmental points through personal example.

But again there is more to him than this. To my mind, his crowning moment came barely six months ago when he led a group of software companies in declaring that they would give the go-by to Bangalore IT.Com, more ambitiously rechristened IT.In, to protest against the state of the city’s infrastructure. Others more exalted than he have fallen foul of the local administration by daring to criticise it. Bob did that bravely, despite being a foreigner — and Indians remain quite third world in being unable to take criticism from first world people. The amazing thing was everyone took it so well. Nobody doubted his sincerity and desire to do good by the city.

I like to think I am like Bob. There is this syndrome about Bangalore. Outsiders come to it noncommittal, curious maybe, but nothing more. Then as they get to know the place, they fall in love with it. And over time the ardent commitment turns them into crusaders, ready to risk being misunderstood, if only to do one’s bit to keep alive what’s good in the city.

These last couple of weeks have been hectic for Bob. His staff always knew he has a great fan following, going beyond the Philips family. Why else would outsiders seek permission to come for a minute to an office do that they had got to know of, just to shake his hand and say hello. He’s already attended around a dozen farewells.

On his part he also has hosted a large number. But easily the most distinctive is the one at 4 pm on Tuesday. It will have had 32 invitees, from the housekeeping and security staff of the office. I don’t know but I am certain he has not forgotten to say goodbye to the lady who would sell him tender coconuts when he got up to Nandi Hills on his bike.