Pleasant Pleasy

Antony: Dear Pleasy your name sounds very interesting, any significant reason for this name?
Pleasy: I was named on the pleasant nature that is me. One of the most beautiful names people comes across. I owe it to my mother... and the name has taken shape in me.

I was named well before I was born, when my parents attended a Christian Charity Convention in Calcutta on the way from Nagaland when my mother was deeply moved by the preaching of a certain Russian Christian Missionary whose name she understood as Pleasy... so she thought... boy or girl the name is Pleasy... and here I am.


Antony: How about your new role as Branch Manager?
Pleasy: 'When a man opens the door of his car for a woman, you can be sure of one thing: either the car is new or the woman is.'

It is a welcome change for me, which I had wanted. A great level of learning I had from my experience as a member of the Rural Team - Team Nurture where I got nurtured as a team player and as at Team Thiruvalla we basically adopted the strategy of the Musketeers - 'One for All... All for One'.

The metamorphosis comes naturally to those who were part of Team Nurture... coz we were nurtured to rival the war veterans. There are misgivings here and there though, I love this game and we will emerge triumphant as the Leading Team. We have a wonderful team in, Mavelikara.

Antony: From Front Line to Middle Management, what difference you feel in terms of work pressure, job satisfaction, monetary benefits and status?
Pleasy: Work pressure is more. 'Mumpu swanthamayittu theri kettu, ippo ellavarkkum vendi theri kelkunnu...' that’s the difference. Job satisfaction is more when your team achieves together. I am in the learning state though, newly married to middle management has to go a long way and understand, accept and move with the challenges of the new role.

Monetary benefits are like the 'Economics of Marriage... you get paid big time for a life time of...’ Just joking... It is good and steady.

Status... I look at the change as a further step towards a long career. I love the job and enjoy it. There is dignity in every role you play when you play it ethically keeping faith in the core values you are nurtured in.


Antony: What is the most important thing you learned as a Unit Manager, now effectively practicing as a Branch Manager?
Pleasy: It’s Team Work - A successful team beats with one heart. Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success. Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.

We in Team Rural Thiruvalla understood the importance of sticking together and patting each other’s back on achievement, supporting when there is trouble, helping out in times of need. Partying it out when we together achieve. Everything we stood up as One was for the Togetherness... Oneness. We were One for All... All for one.

That’s the one thing I am whole heartedly practicing in my new role. We need to preach and practice that dividing is easy but Teaming Up is time enduring - but lasts a life time.

Antony: What future do you see in Insurance?
Pleasy: Insurance in India has a greater future. It’s just the beginning. With only 0.2% of the population is covered under Mediclaim and just about 24% of the insurable population is insured so far, there is a long way to go. Insurance has not yet reached the rural population in realistic terms. Need specific insurance in a broader spectrum is yet to happen. There is a huge need and potential for Wage Insurance in India where lots of job displacements happen often. The industry is yet to mature and grow. With FDI being raised to 49% in Indian Insurance, lots are yet to happen.

Antony: What was your biggest achievement in life?
Pleasy: My friends - my biggest assets. Friends who stands by in happiness and sorrows alike. They are the ones who will let you be yourselves; they stand up to your anger, your shortcomings and still love you.

Antony: Something about your family?
Pleasy: My parents are both retired Govt. Servants from Nagaland Civil Secretariat. After retirement they are running a School and a Goat Farm in Thiruvalla. Father was also adjourned ‘Mikacha Karshakan in Pathanamthitta District' for his mixed crop farming in Pathanamthitta Dist this year.

My wife is a Math teacher with BCRS, Thiruvalla, we have two wonderful kids. Son is 3 and daughter is 2yrs old.

Antony: Your biggest dream in life?
Pleasy : I have many dreams and most of them are big…
To see our grandchildren being successfully nurtured and raised by our kids.
To travel across all the continents with my family.
To maximize my share holdings to reach the target set by me.
To expand and continue my father’s school and farm in Kerala as well as in Tamil Nadu which will keep me busy post retirement... and many many more...

Antony: Your role model?
Pleasy : Warren Buffet, who says -
Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years;
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective;
Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing;
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

Antony : Your message to Rural Mama?
Pleasy : It’s a great initiative. Special thanks to Antony for considering me for this piece of interview. Let’s be together as One forever. Let’s think about getting together as well. Let’s bring in more and more ideas and power to Rural Mama. I'll be there with you always. All for trust and friendship. ‘The beats of friendship.’

Pleasy Philip
Mob-9847755111
Thankyou very much Pleasy for sharing your valuable time with RURAL MAMA. May God Bless you and your family with Peace and Happiness.