The Sardars from Kabul

The Patriarch (c. 1860–1900)

No one remembers his first name now. That detail got lost somewhere between the mountains and the delta, between the generations that remembered and the ones that didn’t care to ask. What the family knows is this: sometime around the 1860s, a young man left Afghanistan, Kabul, and walked east toward India with goods on his back and credit in his name.

He was a kabuliwala.

The word carried weight in those days. These were traditional, nomadic Afghan street traders who moved through the subcontinent on foot and by cart, selling dry fruits, fabric, small luxuries, and extending informal credit to villages that had no banks. They were trusted because they always came back. They were feared a little because they always collected. They lived between worlds, never quite settlers, never quite strangers.

He came through the trade routes that passed Punjab, then Bengal, then kept going east, further than most kabuliwalas went. By the 1870s, he was in the eastern corner of the subcontinent, the flat, wet land that would one day become Bangladesh. He was perhaps 30 or 35 years old. He had money, or the reputation of it, which in those days was almost the same thing.

Something made him stop here.

Maybe it was a woman. Maybe it was the land prices. Most likely, it was both the heart and the ledger that rarely work independently in men who survive long journeys. The land in this part of Bengal was extraordinarily cheap compared to what he had seen further west. Rich soil. Low cost. A man with accumulated trading capital could buy more here than anywhere else he had been.

So he bought. Then he bought more.

By the 1880s, the family had put down roots in Jessore district. The Sardar name, a title of leadership, of landownership, of standing, became attached to them not by birth but by accumulation. You earned that name by becoming someone people answered to.

He had done that.

Land, Labour, and the Making of a Family (1900–1940)

The land multiplied across the 2nd and 3rd generations. What one man started, his sons expanded. By the early twentieth century, a significant portion of Jessore’s agricultural land was under the family’s name or influence. They were zamindars in practice if not always in formal title, landowners who hired labour, collected rent, managed crops, and sat at the top of a small but real local economy.

With land came people. With people came politics.

The eldest of the 4th generation found his way into the Muslim League in the 1940s, the political current that was carrying Muslim landowners and professionals toward the idea of Pakistan. He was the family’s public face, the one who sat in meetings and shook hands with men in white caps. Politics suited him. Or he suited it.

The middle brother was different. The family money had softened him. He didn’t build anything. He spent what others had accumulated and called it living well.

And then there was the youngest, and by most measures, the most serious. People called him “Putta Sardar”, meaning the youngest of Sardars.

The Grandfather (c. 1940–1987)

The youngest Sardar of the 4th generation did something his brothers didn’t bother with. He got educated.

He completed his bachelor’s degree and studied architecture in India, a deliberate, practical choice for a man who could see that the subcontinent was about to be redrawn and that whoever was going to build the new cities, the new institutions, the new infrastructure, would need men who understood structure and design.

He came back with a drafting board, a quiet confidence, and a decision: he would not mix his business with his brothers’ noise. He separated himself from the family’s political entanglements and the inherited land disputes and started building, literally.

Through the 1950s and into the 1960s, as East Pakistan was trying to construct itself into a functioning place, he built. His construction company took on projects that required scale and reliability. More than half of the Jessore Army cantonment went up under his supervision. The Pabna Mental Hospital. The Ashuganj Power Station. Large civic and government structures across the region. These were not small contracts. These were the kinds of projects that required trust from the government, capacity to manage large labour forces, and the ability to deliver.

He was known as a fair man. Not soft, fair. He paid his workers. He didn’t extract more than what was agreed. In a world full of men who inherited their status, he had built his with his hands and his mind.

By the 1970s, after Bangladesh’s independence and into the early 1980s, he was at his peak. The family name still carried the old weight of land and lineage, but now it also carried something he had added himself, a reputation for competence.

He died in 1987. He was, by any measure, one of the best versions the family had produced. And he left almost no instructions for what came next.

The Collapse & The Father (1987–2000)

When a man builds something with his own hands, he sometimes forgets that the people who inherit it didn’t have to. The discipline, the hunger, the judgment, none of that transfers automatically with the property.

His children, sons and daughters both, did not hold together after his death. What followed was the old, ugly, entirely predictable story of inheritance turned into ammunition. Brothers and sisters who had grown up inside the shelter of their father’s success now turned that shelter into a battlefield. Land disputes. Business disagreements. Old grievances dressed up as legal claims. The construction empire didn’t get sold or mismanaged all at once; it got pulled apart slowly, from the inside, by people who each wanted their piece more than they wanted the whole to survive.

By the mid-1990s, a family that had once controlled a significant portion of Jessore was in a kind of quiet freefall. Not poverty, there was still land, still some assets, still the title. But the momentum was gone. The business was gone. What remained were arguments.

His eldest son, the eldest of the 5th generation, was not the loudest voice in those arguments. He was trying to hold something together in a situation that was past holding. He kept his head down, stayed out of the worst of it, and focused on one thing he could still control, making sure his son got an education. This was not easy. There was money, but not the kind that flows freely. There was pride, but not the kind that pays tuition. He managed.

The Son (2000–2004)

The son, the eldest of the 6th generation, who uses no title, who tells no one where he comes from, left for Australia in the late 1990s.

He knew enough of the family history to understand what had happened. He had grown up watching an empire become a dispute, watching cousins grow up entitled and undirected, watching uncles and aunts fight over the diminishing remains of something his father, and his father’s father, had built, and the man from Kabul had started.

He finished his studies. He came back in 2004. He didn’t come back to claim anything. He came back to build.

The Epilogue (Dhaka, 2026)

The family fights continue in Jessore and Dhaka still. There are still lands. There are still lawyers. There are still relatives who measure themselves against each other by what they managed to hold onto from what their grandfather built.

The son, on the other hand, measures himself differently. He helped build two multinational corporations in the past 20+ years, not with inherited capital, not with the family name, but with his brain, good business partners, and the kind of focused, grinding work that his grandfather would have recognised immediately. The construction empire became an MNC. The zamindari instinct, the capacity to manage people, to hold complex operations together, to build institutions, found a new form.

He doesn’t use the Sardar name. Partly to avoid the weight of old associations. Partly because he wants whatever he has built to stand on its own. His grandfather did the same thing, a generation ago, in a different industry, with a different set of tools. That’s the line that held. Not the land. Not the title. Not the money. The instinct to build something real, and the discipline to see it through.

From Kabul to Jessore to Dhaka. Approximately 160 years. Six or seven generations, depending on how you count. One man who started it, the patriarch. One man in the middle who carried it the furthest, the grandfather. And one who is writing the next chapter, without waiting for anyone to hand him the pen, the son. This is the story of the Sardars from Kabul.

Escalation Is Not Management

As organizations grow, one pattern becomes clear: not every problem needs to travel to the top. Customers will raise concerns. Pressure will rise. Emotions will be involved. That’s part of any delivery environment. What matters most is how managers respond in those moments.

Escalation has its place. Significant risks, contractual exposure, or decisions that alter direction should be brought to the attention of executive leadership. But when every customer issue becomes a C-level issue, something important is being missed.

Management is not about passing pressure upward. It’s about absorbing it, creating clarity, and guiding teams and customers toward resolution. The people closest to the work are usually the ones best positioned to solve the problem. Bringing senior leadership in too early often adds noise instead of progress. At the end of the day, the fix still has to come from the team.

Premature escalation can unintentionally create panic, defensiveness, and frustration within teams. Instead of focusing on solutions, people start worrying about optics, blame, and consequences. That shift in focus slows down the outcome everyone is trying to achieve.

There is also a responsibility in how escalation is used. It should never feel like a threat, a way to pressure teams into working harder or faster. That approach erodes trust and builds a culture driven by fear rather than accountability.

Strong managers take a different path. They work with their teams to understand issues clearly. They align on facts, options, and next steps. They communicate with customers calmly and confidently. They bring in additional expertise when needed. And only when a decision truly requires executive authority do they escalate, with context, a recommendation, and a way forward. That’s leadership.

Escalation is a safety net, not a shortcut. Used wisely, it supports the organization. Used too often, it weakens ownership at the levels where ownership matters most. As a manager, your role is not to move problems upward. Your role is to lead through them.

Because real management is not measured by how quickly you escalate, but by how effectively you help your team solve what’s in front of them.

The Keanu Way

I’ve always admired Keanu Reeves. Not just because he’s in some of my favorite films. Not because he’s famous. But because of how he carries himself when he doesn’t have to. That quiet, simple, humble, grounded energy, even when the world is watching, even when life has been cruel. That’s what made me stop and really take notice.

The more I read about him, the more I realized, this guy has been through hell. Loss, hard years, being underestimated, being misunderstood, all of it. And yet, he walks like someone who’s not trying to prove anything to anyone. He rides the subway. He stands in line. He keeps his life simple. He doesn’t talk about his pain, and he doesn’t wear his success like a crown.

I’ve always felt that pull, the need to show I’m right. To speak up when someone disrespects me. To correct someone when they try to push me down. And I’ll be honest, I still struggle with it. I still lose my cool sometimes. And the moment it happens, I regret it. Every single time. Because I know better. Because I don’t want to be that guy.

I’ve never liked showing off. Even when I’ve done things I’m proud of, I keep them quiet. I don’t name-drop. I don’t flex. I don’t say “I know this person” or “I’ve done that project” because it just doesn’t feel right. It feels fake. It feels like insecurity wearing a suit. And I hate that. I want to be the guy who gets things done, walks away, and lets the work speak for itself. Like Keanu.

But it’s hard. It’s hard when someone’s being rude. When someone tries to measure you by how you look, how you talk, or what you wear. I don’t wear suits. I don’t try to impress. I still dress the way I did in school, plain, simple, comfortable. Because that’s who I am. I never changed that part of me. And I don’t want to.

But ego… ego’s tricky. It sneaks up when someone crosses a line. It whispers, “Say something. Show them who you are.” And some days, I listen. Some days, I react. Some days, I raise my voice, even when I don’t need to. And every time I do, I feel smaller, not bigger.

The truth is, I’m still learning how to hold on to calm. Still learning how to let people’s noise pass through me instead of pulling me in. Still learning how to walk away without carrying their energy with me, it's hard. And Keanu, without even knowing it, keeps reminding me that humility is not weakness. That being silent isn’t surrender. That being kind, even when you don’t have to be, is a kind of strength most people will never understand.

That’s who I want to be. Not the right one in the room. Just the one who doesn’t need the room.

They made an offer no one could refuse!

Puzo, Coppola, Evans, Ruddy

Caan, Brando, Pacino, Cazale

Anyone who loves The Godfather should definitely watch The Offer. It's a brilliant behind-the-scenes story that adds even more depth to the classic.

The Roar and the Silence

I grew up in a house where cars were more than just machines. They were part of the family. Like the dogs in the yard, they were always around, needing care, attention, sometimes causing trouble, but always bringing joy. Fixing cars with my father was probably the most consistent quality time we shared. We didn’t need to talk much. The work itself was the conversation. Learning, without even knowing I was learning. That’s how I learned what love looks like, not in words, but in effort.

Cars have always been my thing. I always believed in the magic of internal combustion engines, big, loud, gas-guzzling. The kind of car that makes you feel something the moment you turn the key. A proper engine makes you feel connected. You start the car, and it talks back to you. You feel every vibration, every hesitation, every surge. That connection is hard to explain, but once you’ve felt it, you never forget it.

I never liked EVs. I thought they were boring. Soulless. Quiet in the wrong way. No smell, no sound, no soul. But then on a recent company trip to Bhutan, something changed.

I was driven around in a BYD E6 EV through the mountain roads. Nothing fancy. Just a practical, nimble electric car. But while the big SUVs were losing traction, revving too hard, and slipping around, this EV just quietly and confidently moved. Smooth. No drama. It handled everything without needing to prove anything. That’s when it clicked.

EVs are like smartphones. They’re fast, clean, and efficient. Fewer moving parts. You don’t have to warm them up or worry about blowing a head gasket. You plug them in, they charge, and they're ready to go. Like using an iPhone, no instructions are needed; it just works.

Internal combustion cars, though, they’re like mechanical watches. A Rolex. An Omega. They don’t tell time any better than a phone, but they carry history. Craftsmanship. Personality. You care for them. You don’t throw them away when something goes wrong. You take them to someone who understands how they work.

That’s how I see it now. EVs are for daily life. Get from A to B, don’t worry about maintenance, no oil changes, no noise. Perfect for the everyday grind. But ICE cars, those are for the soul. You don’t drive them because you have to. You drive them because you want to feel alive.

So here’s where I’ve landed. I’ll probably get an EV for daily use. Something quiet, clean, and low maintenance. Something I don’t have to worry about when life is already too full. But I’ll always keep those old ICE cars. The kind you can open up and get lost in. The kind that makes you look back after you park.

Because as much as I understand the purpose of electric cars now, I still believe in the magic of combustion. And I still believe that machines can have a soul. Just ask Jezza.

Trust is the Strategy

In IT projects, we talk endlessly about tools, frameworks, timelines, and efficiency. But the more I’ve seen, the clearer it becomes that none of it really works without trust. Trust is the strategy that keeps a project moving. Without it, you can bring in senior managers, even C-level executives, and still nothing changes; the cracks remain.

With juniors, it’s natural to expect some inefficiency. They’re learning, they’ll stumble, and with guidance, they grow. That’s manageable. But when trust starts slipping with seniors, it’s a different story. At that point, the issue isn’t efficiency anymore; it’s belief. If you’re questioning the intent, competence, or commitment of people who’ve been in the trenches for years, you’re essentially shaking the foundation of the team. Oversight doesn’t solve that. In fact, it often makes things worse.

I’ve seen how this plays out when the people dealing directly with the customer start to feel “we can push more.” Customers will always want more; that’s expected. The real challenge begins when internal teams lose faith in their own delivery colleagues. Instead of managing expectations, they push harder. Suddenly, the delivery team is stuck in defense mode, spending more energy proving they’re working hard than actually moving the project forward. That’s when progress stalls, not because of a lack of skill, but because trust has broken down.

So how do you build it back? It’s not through tighter control or more escalations. Trust is built when leaders choose to assume competence first, instead of assuming failure. It grows when effort is recognized and not brushed aside, even in difficult times. It strengthens when people can speak openly about blockers without fear of being blamed. It shows up when leaders protect their teams from unrealistic demands and educate customers about what’s truly possible. And it’s reinforced in the small things, celebrating small wins, being consistent, and standing by each other when things get tough.

It’s also a two-way street. Teams need to be transparent and accountable so customer-facing colleagues know they can rely on them. Managers need to communicate honestly with both sides, bridging the gap instead of widening it. And customers, too, will trust more when they feel they’re being dealt with honestly and consistently, even if the answer is sometimes “not now.”

In the end, project management is less about timelines and reports and more about creating an environment where people genuinely believe in each other. When trust is strong, juniors learn faster, seniors deliver better, and customers respect boundaries. When trust is weak, no amount of oversight or process will hold the project together.

I know I might sound like an optimist, maybe even like I’m romanticizing something soft and abstract, but after a long career, this is what I’ve come to believe. I used to be a pretty shrewd project manager, convinced that tighter control, sharper processes, and constant follow-up were the only way to get things done. My seniors would talk about trust, and I’d shrug it off. Now, 22 years later, I catch myself saying the exact same thing they once told me. And if a lesson stays with you that long, passed down through experience, then there must be truth in it, don't you think?