“Let’s call Kersi” — this was a common line whenever there was a problem in our Bank’s software. That was some 35 years ago. Today, the same line is used when someone is unwell.
Kersi was officially a clerk in our IT department. But in reality, he was his own boss — he had coded our branch software single-handedly. The software was called ALPM (Advanced Ledger Posting Machine) because the unions did not want to hear the words software or computer in those days.
Kersi’s world was filled with coding jargon — arrays, syntaxes, arguments, variables… (and of course the famous Parsi slang like Bhejaa no dahi, Konna baap ni diwali, etc.). He once tried teaching me programming, but to his frustration, I couldn’t get beyond printf(“Hello World!”).
Then life moved on. I shifted from banking to IT, and we lost touch.
Decades later, when I met Kersi again, he was a different person. The Gagne and Tanenbaum books had disappeared from his shelf, replaced by Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine.
His vocabulary had also changed. No more programming jargon. Instead, he spoke a new language — borborygmus, epistaxis, sternutation...
The bank had made him its welfare officer. And in that role, he became a bridge between employees and the medical world. Colleagues now go to him for guidance on the correct diagnosis, the right doctor, or even a second opinion before making anxious decisions. Debugging code has transformed into debugging lives.
But Kersi is more than one story. He is a symbol. Every organization has hidden intelligences like his — employees whose passions and networks extend far beyond their job descriptions.
Imagine if HR and CSR leaders built a Kersi Community inside companies: people who could support colleagues with healthcare guidance and extend the same wisdom to schools and villages through CSR. Preventive awareness talks, health camps, trusted doctor referrals — all powered by employees themselves.
🌱 To HR and CSR leaders: Who is your Kersi? And how might a community of such hidden gems transform both employee well-being and your CSR impact?
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