Week 3 of 52

In 2003, I resigned from Reliance industries and went to Kazakhstan for my new job with a steel company named Ispat Industries. During my interview for this job, I asked my future employer about availability of vegetarian food in Kazakhstan as it was a completely alien place for me and I had read online that finding anything vegetarian there is very difficult. The CFO of the company was on the interview panel. He chuckled and said that if he has survived being a Marwari vegetarian, he did not see why I would face any problem. Those words comforted me quite a bit.

So I flew from Delhi to Almaty , where I took another flight to Karaganda, from where I then drove down to Temirtau. When I reached the hotel there, I was allotted a room. The receptionist told me that the CEO/CFO would like to meet me in an hour. I quickly went to my room, got freshened up, and came back to the hotel’s restaurant to have some tea and breakfast. In the restaurant I met an Indian guy and felt very happy at finally seeing another Indian face. We started chatting in Hindi. He introduced himself as Rajendran, a Keralite, who was working as the manager of the hotel. He ordered some tea and breakfast on my behalf and asked if I was interested in a tour of the hotel, which I accepted. It was an interesting place, of classic Russian style architecture, with beautiful chandeliers in the halls, and corridors.

Just before returning to the restaurant, we passed through the kitchen... and Good God! That sight still haunts me. On the center table, there lay the severed head of a horse. It seemed so alive that I felt as if it were staring at me. But at the same time, the blood dripping off it made it so difficult to make eye-contact with it. It was a most horrible scene, something that I always try my best not to think of. As an Indian Jain vegetarian, I did not ever eat meat to begin with; and was now confronted with the severed head of an animal staring at me from the centre of the dining table. On top of this, the head Chef came up to me and insisted that as a welcomed guest, I eat some meat from that horse along with a glass of Vodka. I could not stomach even a sip of water and somehow managed to get out of there. On coming back to restaurant, I even could not have any tea and decided to meet CEO and CFO straightway as I had made up my mind to go back to India.

I was taken to meet the CFO first and after the usual exchange of greetings, immediately asked for permission to go back before even having formally joined the organization. Once I explained the situation, the CFO realized my situation and hastened to explain that displaying the horse head and offering its meat were meant as a sign of respect to guests. A new location with fresh crockeries and utensils was arranged for me, and I calmed down after moving there and having some tea. But for a long time afterwards, whenever I closed my eyes, I would see the face of the horse staring at me from the dinner table.

With Prakash Jain

Picture credit - Prakash Jain