Tell us about yourself when did you join MFC?
I am from Madurai, India. It is called the "Sleepless City" or "Thoonga Nagaram" in Tamil, the reason being there is always some activities going on across the city throughout the day and night, especially considering the many historical temples. I came to Dubai in 2012 and joined a logistics company, and within a year I managed to get my motorbike license, which enabled me to improve my job prospects. In December 2014, I applied for the role of a bike messenger in the MFC customs and forwarding department, popularly called CNF in MFC. The job was to deliver documents for customs inspections and for the collection of goods. Luckily, I got appointed and never looked back. Its nearly 10 years now, crazy how time flies.
How did you get your nickname 'Tiger', does it have a movie connection? Because almost everyone here knows about your love for Tamil movies.
Most people who know me, know I love Tamil movies, and they often think there is a movie explanation for my nickname. But in actual fact the nickname stuck with me because of the WhatsApp group I had created when I was promoted to Assistant Operations and was heading a team of 8 bike messengers to coordinate the operations.
I called the group ‘Tiger Team’. The reason being, our bike messengers are the most agile and fearless members of our customs team, they can reach any place at any time on short notice. But always driving safely and within the law.
I don't know how, but very soon after my name became 'Tiger'. Sometimes I wonder whether my colleagues remember my actual name or not. Even my boss calls me Tiger.
You are known to be very meticulous about your work, how do you de-stress?
Our work is such that we have to be very focussed on what we do, there are times when I have to handle multiple shipments at the same time and I am on call all hours of the night. It becomes stressful since there is no margin for error. But once my work is over, I have a large collection of movies to unwind with.
My favourite hero is Rajnikant and in these last 40 years I haven't missed a single one of his films. I watch all the Tamil movies released in Dubai, even if I know it's not a good one. I am so passionate about movies I have even taken accommodation in a location so that I just have to cross the road to get to the theatre.
Sometimes my colleagues also join me to watch movies together, we are like family here. It's fun. So look out for the ‘Tiger Team’ when you’re next at the cinema.