News: Hemacharya
Mumbai, Sep 10: Well known senior writer, inspirational speaker and a divergent thinker who lived in Bandra post-retirement after serving many multinationals passed away on September 10 at his residence on St Paul Road, Bandra. He was 89.
George was the recipient of many awards during his lifetime including Life Time Achievement award by the National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences in 2011.
George was known as ‘George Menace’ due to his popular blog by that name and he was also a celebrated columnist. His popular column, ‘Pardon, your middle is showing’ appeared in many newspapers such as The Times of India, Indian Express, The Illustrated Weekly of India and debonair. His columns were both informative and witty in nature.
George was a liberal long before the word became fashionable and long after it fell into disrepute. He was the eldest son of the eminent Professor Armando Menezes, and lived in Dharwad/Karnataka where his father worked, Goa, where he was born and Bombay where he eventually decided to settle down. He has written extensively on his life, his closest relationships, youthful experimentations with marijuana, joining the BJP, and being an outspoken Lay leader of the Catholic Church. He has many books to his credit including ‘Pardon, your middle is showing’ and his anthology edited by Selma Carvalho, ‘The Naked Liberal’ was published in 2013.
George Menezes wore many hats in his illustrious career. He was designated as President Emeritus of the All India Catholic Union, has been an Award winning writer, an Indian Air Force officer, a diplomat with the Indian Embassy in Paris, a member of Pope John Paul's Pontifical Council for the Laity, a member of The Asian Bishop's Think Tank and a member of the Nation Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He retired as Director Human Resources of Hoechst Pharmaceuticals after which he had a stint as Associate Director of the Xavier Institute of Management.
George Menezes has played an important role as a secular writer and a HR strategic partner in the different stages of growth of his organization, including Hoechst Pharmaceuticals.
His reproduced columns appeared regularly in 'Daijiworld Weekly' by special permission.