Ode to Grindlays

Grindlays bank was an old and venerated British international bank where I trained and grew up before parting ways. It was also the oldest and biggest 'foreign' bank in the Indian subcontinent.
It merged with Standard Chartered Bank in the year 2000 and this week the brand name 'Grindlays' was officially discontinued and the 'elephant' logo is no more. This is a poem written on the death of a historic organization.


Ode to Grindlays
__________________________________________________

Interest rates and prices
Banking law and practices
Credit,collections and advices
Learned it all at Grindlays
In those sepia colored images
And many splendored, magical days


Beyond all the ghosts
Champagne and the toasts
I’ll remember the quaint old ways
A lifestyle that remains only
In those sepia colored images
And many splendored, magical days


Of exotic conferences
And double menu lunches
Sexy merchants cup dances
Scandals and glances
In those sepia colored images
Many splendored, magical days


Of flats and inventories
And fat old directories
Of transfers and new faces
In all those territories
Those sepia coloured images
And many splendored, magical days


There was hope in the air
When there was strength to bear
In good times and in bad
The constant changes that we had
In those sepia colored images
And many splendored, magical days


And in the bitter end
Only friendships remained
All the rest is gone
But the elephant dances on
In those sepia coloured images
And many splendored, magical days