Car seva

D K Mehrotra, who is three or four months into his job as chairman of LIC, the country’s largest insurer, was so solicitous of the comfort of financial services secretary D K Mittal that he managed to create a traffic jam in Mumbai. Both were at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Mittal for the central board meeting, and Mehrotra for the customary lunch RBI hosts afterwards. Later, when they were waiting for their cars outside the central bank headquarters, Mehrotra’s was the first to drive up. He then offered Mittal his car but the financial services secretary chose to wait for his car instead. But Mehrotra continued to press his offer, apparently oblivious of the long line of cars forming behind his. Eventually, he reluctantly got into his car after Mittal literally forced him in. Even then, he asked his driver to pull up a little ahead and wait till the car assigned to Mittal, who has been in the news recently for sending public sector banks detailed suggestions on their functioning, arrived.