A Wonderful Boss

It was a joy to work for Mr. Arora when he was Executive Director at the IMF.

Some of my memories:

When I first started working for him, I had a hard time with the cigarette smoke. So after about a month, I asked him if he would mind if I brought in an air purifier because the smoke was affecting me. Without any hesitation he said that he would not smoke in the office. Soon after, the Alternate ED came back from the Board meeting one day and remarked that the Boss was walking the corridors because he did not want to smoke in the office!

He asked me once to draft replies to letters he received of a general nature because of the volume of mail and his busy schedule. After drafting the letters, I put them up to him for his approval with a note saying, “Your style and language are inimitable. Please feel free to make changes.” In his characteristically generous way, he approved them all saying that they were fine.

When he wanted to make an intervention in the Board on a particular topic, we would borrow from the library all the journals and books on that country that were issued for the previous 3-5 years. He would thoroughly research the matter before writing out his intervention which was usually quite brief. But when he delivered it, I understand, people listened.

Whatever he wrote, whether it was a Board intervention, a personal letter, or a performance evaluation for his staff, it was a piece of literature. He was a wordsmith and had just the right word to give something the right meaning and color. It was a joy to take dictation from him.

Mr. Arora was kind, gentle, soft-spoken, intelligent, and generous. But the characteristic that I admired most was his humility. He exemplified that a person who was highly intelligent and influential could also be humble.

Hepzhi Ohal