Multifaceted Mumbai Goan Isidore Domnick Mendis Age is no hindrance to this bespectacled Goan who at the ‘young’ age of 81 is as busy as any person would have been in active phase -before retirement. In a recent visit to Goa he had an extremely crowded schedule. This whirl wind tour involved “conducting training programme that was spread over couple of days at Cidade de Goa. Then there were litany of social events ranging from months mind Mass to a wedding. ” says the HR whiz kid - George Menezes who after his brief tour of Goa left immediately for Mumbai his domicile to conduct a two days Effectiveness Programme for Teachers of St Joseph's School. Time management for him is the key to be successful both in professional as well as personal life. “I have never had problems about balancing my time between work, writing, and family. Among the many things I teach in my management programs is Time Management. I'm a good manager of time. I have clear set goals, and I use management tools to get my priorities right. There is the concept called the 20-80 Paretto,s law. 20% of the things you do produce 80% of your results. I concentrate on doing the 20%. I'm able to control my time, I'm able to make or create time. I am not like the man who was riding a horse through the village in Goa, seated on the saddle, the reins in his hands and when somebody asks him where he is going he replies " why are you asking me ask the horse".. opines the multifaceted Mumbai Goan who started his career with the Air Force and called it quits after becoming the Squadron Leader. Later on he became the Director for Human Resources of Hoechst Pharmaceuticals Ltd. He had also done his internship in Human Behaviour at the National Training Laboratory in at Bethel, Maine, USA while pursuing Post Graduate diploma in Business Management There is no doubt that George is a man who wears many hats. He is a renowned writer, a terrific management guru , excellent trainer, voice of Christian community. His books “Pardon your Middle is Showing” and “One Sip at a Time” and “ Sugar and Spice “ have all been showered with excellent appraisals. Incidentally the second edition of Sugar and Spice carries a book mark remembering Eustace Fernandes of Amul fame who had done the cover of this book with George’s’ two granddaughters on it. By the way late Eustace was the creator of Amul moppet that was part and parcel of the world’s longest advertising campaign spanning for nearly 43 years. Published by the Bombay Saint Paul Society, Sugar and Spice priced at Rs 150 has Georges’s collection of 58 articles that have been published over the years in various journals and newspapers. In the piece Where has all the culture gone he laments at the cultural decay of Goa. “Today Goan culture is an absence of culture. People don’t return your calls. They don’t keep appointments and don’t bother to call you in case they are not coming. Or the chapter Open letter to Thackeray he ridicules Shiv Sena supremo’s right wing views “God gave you the gift to be able to make people laugh .Today in Bombay there is no laughter, only tears .” Or he rubbishes the prevalent view about Goans being alcoholic in Goans are…… drunkards? “Most Goans have a sip wine with their meals or a peg or two of hard liquor at sundown. But the drinking is an accompaniment to intellectual conversation, gossip or the telling of naughty stories. For Goans, alcohol is an ‘hors d’oeuvres’, not a ‘plat du jour’………..Complete the following statement: All Goans are easy going, fun loving-yes! Drunkards, certainly not!” The two previous works Pardon your Middle is Showing and One Sip at a Time were replete with wit and humor. “Wit and humor is a great stress reliever. It is also a practice in humility because genuine humor requires the writer to laugh at himself before he pokes fun at others. Most of my humorous writing has been during times of personal stress.” states George whose website is incidentally named as georgemenace.com The book Spice and Sugar has touch of more anger and agony. “The world and the society around us have changed so dramatically that we are faced with happenings that lend to anger rather than humor.” Says George a firm believer in God . The grace of God is truly loving overlooking the fact that I do everything that I should not be doing. I eat eggs every other day, I am generous with butter, I love cheese and I have a sweet tooth. I could live on Goans sweets.. In lighter vein I can say that God has blessed me with a medical condition that is called "irritable bowel syndrome" a frequency of bowel movements that is mostly a nuisance but ensures that all the dangerous things I consume are not absorbed into the bloodstream” opines George in a philosophical tone who as a young boy nurtured dream to become an outstanding lawyer and then the Prime Minister . “I am delighted not to achieve either of the dreams and to be what I am today” he says gleefully.
