BLURRED VISION: GRATITUDE - Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Writing on All Fools' day makes 13 lucky for all of us.

Hello folks, I am back and shall move the story forward.

CG Visvanathan, an ex Esso Personnel Manager himself, whom I knew only by reputation, was then the General Manager Personnel of Crompton Greaves. He arranged for me to be interviewed by the working Directors. At the interview with the Board, the major topic for discussion was my Industrial relations ‘battles’ at Esso Refinery and not so much the Best Practices that I had learned in Esso.

Moral: you never know which of your strengths works when.

They offered and I accepted the job of Industrial Relations Manager in Feb 1971.

The company was embroiled in a series of confrontations with the Unions over wages and huge temporary employment. The conflict I had seen in Esso was cakewalk comparatively. We had series of lock-outs and strikes and atmosphere was very tense, unproductive and at times violent. Also the company had a huge portfolio of labour litigation and resources had to be devoted to that fruitless and never ending activity.

In those days, a truism in Industrial Relations circles used to be: You can change your job, but you can not change your Industrial lawyer: P.K.Rele. I had got to know him due to the wage litigation in Esso Refinery. It was very reassuring to find him handling Crompton’s portfolio of litigation. He was a soft spoken but hard working lawyer. Soon after my joining Crompton, GT Gokhale of Greaves, PK Rele and I were camped in Delhi to deal with a residual litigation in the Supreme Court. A great personal friendship ensued. We remained family friends till PK and then Gokhale Passed away.

A few months later, Mr. Bhagwan Bhagchandani joined as the Industrial Relations Manager and I was kicked upstairs as Asst to General Manager Personnel. In the company lingo this ‘Asst to’ was a successor position. Little did I know that succession was around the corner!

I submitted a long charter of Best Practices that we should introduce in personnel management. To my pleasant surprise the Managing Director approved all but one. The exception was: introduction of five day week. (Esso did not mean Every Saturday Sunday off).

I was sent off as member of a task force to study and reform the Marketing Organization. However halfway through I was recalled, since the Company faced tremendous industrial relations conflicts. I returned post haste and was ushered in to a large Conference with full board attending including the Chairman Mr. NM Wagle and the Mr. Thapar head of the Thapar Group. At that forum, I suggested that we should initiate the process of negotiations for a Long Term Settlement. But, as years progressed, we were in the never, never land.

Soon, perhaps within the first year itself, I was taken by surprise when it was announced that Mr. Visvanathan was retiring and I would be his successor.

Within our own Department, Bhag and I had developed a very great friendship. He was a veteran of Industrial Relations. He was fearless in the face of turbulent conditions and a great pillar of strength.

Allow me to jump ahead: In later years, Bhag was instrumental in our buying the property in Asuda Kutir where he had already purchased an apartment. It turned out to be an excellent investment and is now the Family headquarter. He also got me to subscribe to membership of Khar Gymkhana. At that time it seemed to be diversion of precious money; we poured more money to buy memberships for Mickey n Vicky. Just as well, since in later years it too has turned out to be a boon. Today that membership costs an arm and a leg. Thank you Bhag.

As I mentioned earlier, we had leased Krish’s house and had started to live in Ranjni in Chembur: Later n 1971, my Sister Harjit Kaur got married to Amrik Singh ji. In those days he was working for Kwality Ice Cream Factory at Worli. Now he is a very successful Insurance agent. They have two children:

*daughter Preeti married to Bobby Arora and they have a son Gurudev. They have a flourishing business of their own.

*son Arvinder aka Bittoo married to Sonia and they have a daughter Harsimran. Bittoo works along with a cousin in a Dairy. Sonia teaches students at home.

Let me get back to work at Crompton.

We had a large Personnel team in the HO and in the Factories. We added a Training Manager. There was a competent team of Works Managers. In the atmosphere of conflict and unrest, great friendships developed amongst Management members. Much off hours socializing also took place. Many of those friendships survived long after I left the Company. Bhag and Savitri live upstairs from us. She is an active ‘Hon Secretary of the Housing Society we live in. I have some contact with Devinder Sodhi who headed the Personnel Team in one of the major Divisions. I have fond memories of Joglekar n Sujan, who are unfortunately no more. I am in touch with the Joglekar Family.

My job as head of Personnel, entailed active involvement with PR Deshpande and VV Dhume; Managing Director n Commercial Director respectively. They made a strange duo but complemented each other admirably. PRD was a tall and austere person. A stickler, if there was one. VVD , though equally demanding and scathing at times, kept a friendly relationship at work. To my good fortune, VVD and I became very close.

There were several whole time directors and senior General Managers and we would socialize at each other’s home. Dhume n other seniors were quite informal people and stayed true to form. But, on these occasions, PRD showed that he was a very tender hearted human being. I recall once at a dinner at our home, he hoisted young Vicky on his shoulders so very playfully.

The spearhead of the Union was an ex employee of Greaves Cotton, a hard man to budge. He had tasted great victory in Greaves whereby the ‘workers’ were awarded the same Dearness Allowance as office staff. His ambition was to achieve that in Crompton. Also the company employed a very large number of temporary workers at starting wages. Their regularization in regular cadre, justified though it was, involved a huge cost multiplier.

The situation was very intractable. While there was much friendship within Management group, the working conditions were very tense and demanding.

.....oooooOOOOOooooo.....

PHOTO GALLERY.

Any errors in Captions are regretted

But do point out the errors please.

Neighbours all.. clockwise from left: Mommy Sajnani,
Savitri and Bhagwan Bhagchandani,
Drs Pravin and Anjali Sajnani
at our 50th Anniversary

r-l Bhag, Guljit, Jagjeet, Jasbir and Bhabi Harsharan

Bhag n Savitri with Sukhjit

l-r GT Gokhale, Ramu, Ashok, Khanvilkar and Chetan Gokhale

l-r Khanvilkar, GT and elder son Chetan Gokhale

Harjit and Amrik at their Wedding Reception
(photo courtesy Harmohan Singh our cousin)

Amrik Singh ji n Harjit

clockwise l-r Amrik, Harjit,Harsimran, Gurudev, Preeti,
Bobby's dad Narinder Singh ji, n Mom Harsharan Kaur ji, Bittoo n Sonia
(photo courtesy Facebook)