My first encounter with Veerappan

Yesterday (17th Jan'09), was the Sports Day for the Junior Division students at my daughter's school. The one thing I like about her school is that the teachers ensure that every student participates in one thing or the other. My daughter was part of a dance and also the "Hoopla race". The children's events were followed by some fun events for parents and teachers. After the events as I was leaving with my wife and kids, I met a friend of mine... whom I have not met in ages... We were colleagues at L&T Mysore works. His children were studying in the same school. We quickly exchanged updates, our numbers and promised to meet soon and bid good bye. This chance meeting took me back to my "Mysore days"......
.... I had joined L&T Mysore in 1992 and if my memory is right, the incident that I am describing below probably occured in 1992 or 1993. It was the time when Veerappan was always in the news and was very much active... (Who doesn't know Veerappan... the dreaded Sandalwood smuggler and Poacher). At L&T, I was part of the Electronics QC department at that time. I was responsible for inspection of all the semiconductor devices that are used in various departments. Every other members of the team had work related to specific departments like DMP, Medical, T.Com, FDD/HDD etc. My work involved testing of semiconductor devices for all these departments (with the exception of FDD/HDD departments). So, I used to get calls from all these departements to enquire if a particular IC / transistor / diode or any such components has been tested and sent to the stores. We being in QC, had friends in all the departments. I was familiar with almost everyone in the production departments as I interact with them very often. One day a call came to my department asking for me... As usual it was Phadke (Diwakar Phadke was a colleague who used to inspect non-semiconductor items for Medical department) who picked the call. He shouted for me.... "Suri, call for you". I went to the phone and answered the call... I knew it was someone from the "Materials" department or Manju (Manjunath was almost always at my desk and he used to take the items as soon as I finish testing ... his items were always high priority for him) from TCom department or someone else from the other production departments who were waiting for one of their items. I said "Hello, Suresh here..." (I was expecting someone to say...Is 74LS138 ready? or 74HC139 ready? or when will the diode consignment be cleared? etc...). But what I heard from the other end, shocked and surprised me... The unfamiliar voice said..."Hello Suresh, this is Veerappan"... My head went reeling for a second... (Veerappan?? why would Veerappan call me?? Veerappan was in news around this time). I knew someone was playing a prank on me.... but it was not a familiar voice and thats what surprised me... I blurted out... "Yes, what is it regarding?" Veerappan replied, "I heard that the "Kontron" consignment has been inspected and I wanted to pick some ICs." I said "Okay, you can pick them up... but bring some Sandalwood when you come over" as I knew someone was playing a prank on me. After couple of minutes, a person walked into my department and asked - "Excuse me, who is Suresh?" Invariably, everyone who comes to my department used to first talk to me as my seat was just at the entrance of the department. (I had seen this person a couple of times in the medical department as we pass the departement when we guys used to go for lunch. But I did not know his name). I said "I am Suresh. What can I do for you?". This figure in front of me streched his hand and introduced himself - "Hi Suresh, I am Veerappan". This time my head really went reeling and was also embarassed. I asked for sandalwood assuming that someone who I know was playing a prank on me... and here is a person standing in front of me in flesh and blood and his name is Veerappan. I apologised to him for asking him to get sandalwood and told him that I assumed it was someone palying a prank on me. He took the items that were required and went away. That was my first encounter with Veerappan.
Over a period of time we became friends due to more frequent interactions. Then, I moved out of Mysore works (moved to the Cement Marketing division in Chennai) and he too moved out of L&T... I guess he probably joined GE...
During all these years, once in a while I used to remember my first "encounter" with Veerappan and smile to myself not knowing where Veerappan is now settled. Until I saw him at the Sports Day of my daughter. Yes, it was the same Veerappan that I met at the school. And to my surprise, he lives very very close to my home and his office is even closer which is at a "stone throw's" distance. I am hoping to have more frequent "encounters" with this "warm and friendly" Veerappan...
(P.S: There is another funny incident which is related to the dreaded Veerappan. I shall write about that later).