BY CASEY MONTEIRO
The Metals and Minerals Trading Company of India (MMTC Ltd), one of the highest earners of foreign exchange for India, was set up in 1963. Goa got its regional office two years later, in Vasco.
To celebrate 60 years of the company’s inception, the MMTC Retired Employees’ Welfare Association Goa Region recently hosted a grand reunion of employees, who worked for MMTC Goa.
The MMTC is a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, informs Assis F Sequeira, the President of the MMTC Retired Employees’ Welfare Association Goa Region.
The company deals with, not just exporting iron ore and other minerals, but is also into bullion and other allied businesses.
SIXTY YEARS OF MEMORIES
At the 60th anniversary, the association felicitated members who had completed 75 years of age. The association, which currently has about 150 members, aims to look after the welfare of its members, states Assis.
On the occasion, the first Regional Manager of MMTC Goa, CR Das, who is now a glorious 98 years, and lives in Goa, released the book Pangs and Pleasures of Growing up in Corporate Life, a collection of 28 memoirs, written by former MMTC employees.
“Most of us joined the company when we were very young, say about 20 to 21 years. We worked hard and rose to various positions. I joined and rose, too, in rank over the years,” says Assis, citing his example.
CR Das, the first Regional Manager of MMTC Goa, went on to become the CMD (Chairman and Managing Director) of the MMTC, the first to rise to the position from within the company ranks.
THE GOA EXPERIENCE
The MMTC was one of the first government companies to be established in Goa. In a sense, it gave employees a taste of corporate life soon after Goa’s liberation.
However, the corporate life was not a rat race. The help rendered by fellow staff in each one’s success helped alleviate the pangs of growth, writes Assis in the editorial of the book.
Former employees reminisce of how the workplace became a second home to them. Some talk of how they shifted to Goa after quitting their lucrative careers elsewhere because there was something about Goa that beckoned them.
For some, it was the sports activities that was enough for them to want to come and work at the MMTC. A contributor writes how, after work irrespective of rank, employees would rush to the Recreation Club of the company for a game of table tennis or badminton.
Another writer details his work life from the point of view of living in different quarters the company had.
The book, through these memoirs, also chronicles the history of what the port town of Vasco was like after Goa’s liberation. Writers pen down memories of the waft of fish in the air, foreign sailors sight-seeing around, etc.
The book, which is priced at a modest ₹ 50 only, also provides a peek into the iron ore operations.
Overall, it’s a pleasure to read Pangs and Pleasures of Growing up in Corporate Life as readers go from high points, such as staffers meeting their future partners at the company, to lows such as the closure of the Goa regional office in 2020 which they remember with tears in their eyes.
For more details or a copy of the book, Pangs and Pleasures of Growing up in Corporate Life, you can e-mail assisfsequeira@gmail.com
