GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations. Chapter 17

Copyright reserved for text and pix.

Chapter 17

My dear Family n Friends:

Breaking News:-

Nepal:

The massive earthquake in Nepal has been described as a Himalayan Tragedy…Pun intended. It brought to mind the historic May 31, 1935 Earthquake in Quetta Baluchistan. This was before Papa ji shifted his base to Quetta. But the devastation was still there to see after several years. A makeshift town had come up called Tin Town. The day was marked with religious prayers n gatherings each year.

Jasbir:

My sister No. 1 turned 75 on 27 April. She celebrated the big day in Melbourne with her son Mintoo and daughter Mini. We wish AG many happy returns. Lots Love Sis. God Bless you.

Pritam Singh Ji:

Today marks the 50^th anniversary of the passing away of Sukhjit’s Father. We remember him fondly.

                                                             …oooOOOooo…

And now on to my journey in Forbes:

On my first day at Forbes Building, the good retired Maj General, knocked, entered my office and struck a pucca, pucca salute welcoming me! Aha, I had got the Army; I recalled my days in the Military Office in Poona.

Mr. SY Gupte who had been in touch with me earlier was to be my immediate colleague. He was a soft spoken, diligent man and he took the brunt of the IR paper work. The Office staff comprised of  Mr. Poredi, Mr. Ponkshe.  Sheila Raman supervised the office staff and also functioned  as Secretary. She had no Stenography in her skill set and that was provided by Zanobia Mirza.  There were Personnel Managers  located in Group  Companies: Gankar at Patel Volkart, Talashilkar at Goodlass Nerolac,  Hukeri at Gokak Mills.  In years to follow, Mr. Khanapurkar joined IVP in place of Trivedi. .

As I mentioned earlier, steel shelves housing leather bound Labour Law Gazettes n Journals took up the only solid wall of the office. They were a symbol of the “Labour” orientation and  I was determined to change that orientation. The Law books had to go.  Thankfully, my predecessor had obtained permission to carry away some of those. The rest were moved by Mr. Gupte to his office since he would now be the only user.

I had a nice blank white wall.

At the HO we had a Management trainee, Bharat Dabholkar. He put in his papers soon after I joined. In mock seriousness, I asked him if he was leaving because of my joining. He laughed and said: No sir, I want to make my future in advertising and the theatre. He went on to be the Bharat Dabholkar, successful ad man and theatre n movie personality. I recall inviting him to stage his play Bottoms UP at the 1997 Indian Paint Conference that I convened. It was the year I was retiring as Managing Direction of Goodlass Nerolac Paints. 

It is a small world, I keep discovering: Bharat’s daughter got married into a business family that lives in our building. And we have an invite to the latest edition of Bharat’s Bottoms Up this opening week. He has sent me some lovely pictues of his.

I had been introduced to Forbes thru Mr. DM Kothari then Managing Director of GNP. They used to occupy a whole floor in the building. By the time I joined, they had moved to the newly constructed Office Building at Lower Parel. In fact, the introduction was first done by Bipin Desai who was a friend of Nalin Thakor. Bipin, an affable man who later became my good friend, headed the Wine Division.

Of course the person to dominate my work life at Forbes was Girin Khandwala, soon to be the Chairman of the Group.  He had embarked on a campaign to dislodge the current Trade Union leader and the plan was well advanced when I joined. Workers at the Head Office had already formed their own internal union and that was a done deal. The process was a more difficult and drawn out at the factories. A wily IR man from Gokak Mills was masterminding the nuts n bolts of weaning the workmen. It was messy and not something to be proud of.  

The workers who had ‘disowned’ that Union leader had formed their own internal Union and had engaged a lawyer to take care of their interests in the Industrial Courts. This was the Union Lawyer who had handled the defense of the sacked Refinery worker, albeit quite unsuccessfully.  And for the 3^rd and not final time, PK Rele was the Company lawyer!

Astad Parakh was the Director in charge of the manufacturing Units where this battle was underway. So I had a lot to do with him in the early days. Also quite often there would be War room conferences chaired my Khandwala.

One day, Khandwala, Parakh and I had gone on a visit to the Factories at Chandivali. After some discussions in the Manager’s Office, we took a break and Khandwala was walking away from the office. The Manager came out to say that there was a telephone call for the MD.  Khandwala was at distance from me so I called out: Girin, there is a call for you. He turned around, walked towards me, put his hands on my shoulders, looked me in the eye and said: Mr. Khandwala to you.  He was that to me for the rest of his life.

That much for the Americanization process of the Company, I said to myself.  In fairness to him, he was as much for change, as for maintaining the culture. So on paper, managers continued to address each other with an ESQ after our initials. So he was GK Esq and Astad was ANP Esq. It was Esq whether legible or not.

‘How many times do I have to tell you,’ he said, in a very proper accent ‘that gentlemen are always addressed as “Esq.”, never, never, never as “Mr”? …. Notes Hugh Gantzer in his story The Blue Hills Where the Sun Never Sets.

The campaign of workers forming their own internal trade union ultimately worked its way into reality. Mr. Gupte had been negotiating a wage Settlement with the Union leaders. While I was aware of the contours of the Settlement,  and costs entailed, I had not looked at the detailed arithmetic of it. One fine morning, as we were getting ready to move to the Factories to sign the settlement, Gupte came to be worriedly saying: “there is a problem… The average cost is okay, but some workers are getting only a pittance and the Union wont accept it”… Last minute but one: So I confided to Astad and without batting an eyelid he suggested: well just let us state that the minimum gains are guaranteed at so n so an mount. Phew.  That was quick n bold thinking on Astad’s part and that was his trademark. He did not beat around the bush and usually came to the point fairly quickly. It was a pleasure working alongside him.

My senior colleagues in the Forbes Group were all very different personalities. Yet they pulled together quite well. But do remember that there is always an exception to the rule. 

Forbes story continues......

                                                  .....oooooOOOOOoooo.....

Picture Gallery follows;

Please pardon any errors in captions.

But do please point out the errors.

Our sister celebrates her 75th birthday in Melbourne

With her son Mintoo and daughter Mini

Late Mr. PK Rele, the Company lawyer
in Esso, Crompton, Forbes, Nerolac!

Sharad Gupte my colleague in Forbes

Bharat Dabholkar with Big B at the shoot of KBC

Bharat calls himself 'serial kisser'.. of animals

we believe him. 

GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations - Chapter 16

COPYRIGHT RESERVED - FOR TEXT N PIX

Chapter 16

My dear folks:

Continuing with my move from Crompton to Forbes:- 

The six months’ notice period was a relaxed period of my tenure at Crompton. Bhag was the designated successor. I did a ‘progress report” of the Charter that the MD had approved. I was pleased that we had made substantial progress in implementing almost all, but one, of the items. Of these, the major ones:  installation of Training n Development, and updating of salary structure of Office and Sales staff, Officers, Managers and Directors. An important failure was the IR situation. You cant win them all.

I was asked to prepare a Personnel Manual…. A favourite hobby horse of Managements when they find a Personnel Man at a loose end. Jaydee Parekh was likewise given the same task in Esso. But he had done better than I. For my part I had written up a few chapters and submitted to the Directors. Since there was no come back, I took it easy and let the project die on the wine.

During this lean period I spent my time conversing with some good friends in the Company: Directors Dhume, Mohile, Vinod Desai, CFO Soni and Chief Accountant Gulati. Of course the Divisional/Works Managers and their Personnel heads. Also PRD’s Secretary Jane Athaide. She had a lot to say about PRD’s Jekyll n Hyde personalities. She was particularly disappointed since PRD did not secure her future when he retired and she was left to fend for herself. She and I are in touch even now.

During, the notice period,  Astad Parakh and Gupte from Forbes kept in touch with me to get my inputs on the happenings at their end.

I came to know that Anand Sujan had also signed up with the Forbes Group: as Works Manager of Goodlass Nerolac Paints Factory at Lower Parel. He and I were destined to be comrades in arms in an equally fruitless Industrial Relations struggle.

At last the six months’ notice came to an end. After a large ‘farewell’ function in the staff Canteen, I put Bhag in the Personnel Manager’s office and wandered off to say goodbyes to a few good friends in the Office.

Let me pause here and take a look around at the country at that period in history: 1975-76. The period marred by National Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi after the Supreme Court nullified her re-election. I quote:-

Wikipedia:

President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declared a state of internal emergency upon the prime minister's advice on the night of 25 June 1975, just a few minutes before the clock struck midnight.

As the constitution requires, Ms. Gandhi advised and President Ahmed approved the continuation of Emergency over every six-month period until her decision to hold elections in 1977.

INDIA TODAY – Dark Hour

In a list of parliamentarians in jail in 14 countries compiled by Amnesty International on April 6, 1976, India had the highest number (59) behind bars. The government deployed censor officers to vet newspaper reports. Dissenting journalists were put behind bars.

Sanjay Gandhi's cronies ran amok with their sterilisation programme. The M. Karunanidhi government was dismissed.

And the good news:

Spurred by Sunil Gavaskar's brilliant hundred, the Indian cricket team beat West Indies at Port of Spain chasing the highest fourth innings target of 403.

Mother Teresa was nominated for the Nobel Prize and Shyam Benegal's Nishant was released.

Such were the times in which I made the transition from Crompton to Forbes.

 And now. please let me share a bit about the state of ‘Labour’ relations in Forbes. The department was headed by a Chief Labor Officer and the function was ‘negotiations’ with the trade union and  fighting labour cases in industrial courts.  A ceiling-high shelf full of Labour Law judgements dominated the office of the Chief. I baulked at the  proposed designation, Manager - Personnel n Labour. And it was changed to Chief Personnel Manager.

I did not know but I was part of the ‘change’ that was overtaking the Group. The life long British Chairman, FH Kemple was about to repatriate to England. And a young Indian,  Girin Khandwala, schooled at the Columbia University’s Business School was taking over. He was at war with the over-weaning trade union and was determined to ‘modernize’ i.e. ‘Americanize’ the organization.    

Let me dwell a bit on the ‘history’ of Forbes for it was rather ‘different’ from  Esso or Crompton that I worked for.

The East India Company which was established in 1600,  had united British traders operating in the export -import trade with India. The Company was granted a charter by the British crown which gave it a virtual monopoly over such trade in cotton, jute, spices  etc. As the Industrial Revolution reached the shores of India, manufacturing industries were set up, financed by the same traders. In course of time many of these ‘trading companies’ offered their services as Managing Agents not only for their own businesses,  but also that of absentee owners,  for a fee. Forbes, Forbes Campbell & Company were one such Managing Agent. They managed companies in diverse businesses like Goodlass Nerolac Paints, Indian Vegetable Products, Gokak Mills, Bradma, Facit.  In decades following Independence of India, the Managing Agency System was abolished. Tata’s acquired a major share of FFC and  together took shareholding positions in the companies they managed. FFC  thus emerged as a Holding Company of the Forbes Group but  also had some manufacturing operations of their own. (thank you Mr. Madan for vetting this paragraph.)  

That was the Forbes Group, which I joined in Feb 1976.

I had been introduced to the retired Maj Gen who was the man in charge of the facilities. I had been allotted the apartment in Mehrabad. And I was in touch with him regarding the renovation n fitment of that apartment before we actually moved.

These were critical months preceding the 10^th Standard exams that Mickey had to sit for. He continued in the Chembur School. After we moved house, I gave him use our car n driver to commute to his school and write his exam.  However, for long he complained that ‘daddy just looked after his career; he did not bother about my education’.

Never enough can be said in favour of striking a work-life balance.

More of this story in my next.

                                                          .....oooooOOOOOooooo.....

Photo Gallery

Pls forgive any errors in captions

Do pls point out the errors

Crompton accepting Sep 75 resignation in Mar 76
6 months' notice.

Forbes appointment letter
note: amended designation

Astad Parakh, then Director of FFC's own Divisions
my earlier business exposure to my new job.

Dilip Madan, on his Leap Year birthday 29 Feb 2012
A friend and well wisher par excellence

Girin Khandwala
at the pre-wedding paath of my sister Guljit.
Mr. Viccaji, the auditor is in right corner

GRATITUDE - Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations. Chapter 15

 COPYRIGHT RESERVED - for TEXT n PIX

Chapter 15 

 Hello folks:

My work life in Crompton Greaves continues.

The years rolled by without much lasting improvement in the IR environment of Crompton Greaves. We would arrive at some understanding on a particular issue and things will settle down for a few months. And then again trouble would raise its ugly head.

During prolonged lockouts or strikes, it would be like a siege. I remember one instance where we were under siege in Kanjur Marg complex. Bhag, Sujan, Joglekar  and some others would hold the fort inside the Penthouse office. We would take turns and would be escorted in and out with police protection. Those who came in, would bring fruit, food and booze. Once Bhag walked in with a huge water melon on his shoulder.

On another occasion Devinder Sodhi, the Worli Division Management  and I were held inside the Worli factory. The workers demonstrated outside the Main gate. For some time they would be full throated since the offices were right close to the Main Gate. Then they would get tired and be quiet for a while. In those long boring days, with not much to do, Devinder n I would engage in long conversations on the situation, and a lot of other subjects to take our minds off the fruitless exercise we were engaged in. Devinder was of a philosophical bend of mind and conversing with him was stimulating. He was also a trainer and would often join in as Faculty in training programs within the Company and outside. He left the company much before I did. He prospered in other jobs in the North.  He and i got together again when I was ready to embark on my work life in Viet Nam. Devinder tried to persuade me not to leave my family and country. He said that there was lots I could do within India. History tells that I did not allow myself to be persuaded. Sukhjit and I caught up with him n  his lovely Rita in Gurgaon a couple of years ago, when Vicky n Anu had set up home there. Vicky got a lead to them thru a colleague in Max Bupa where he was working then. Do well good friend. 

In those days, when there was relative peace at the Factories, we would spend much time at homes of colleagues. The ‘party’ atmosphere provided much relief after a tense interlude. Some of the bonds built in those days lasted through the rest of my working career. We lost touch after my retirement since we went away to Viet Nam. We did pick up some of the links on return.

Permit me to dwell on the subject of smoking. In our early working life, there was no awareness of the evils of smoking. We non smokers would blithely sit thru meeting rooms, party rooms where many others were smoking. Many of my close colleagues of that era fell a victim to the ills of smoking. We lost Joglekar the year after we moved to Viet Nam. Then Sujan and a few years ago Khanapurkar also passed away.  Gokhale was a smoker; but he was a devout Yoga practitioner; therefore he lived to a ripe old age. Khanu was a very successful consultant after retirement. His wife had been the Principal of the Dadar Blind School. God Bless the souls of our friends who have gone ahead of us.

Little do they know that my longs absorbed all the second hand smoke. So much so that in 2004 I was diagnosed with Bronchiectasis – a condition in which some bronchi are damaged. I became prone to lung infections; some time I would have serial episodes of infection and fever. I would be  subjected to long courses of antibiotics apart from bronchodilators of one kind or the other. Last few years I had to take recourse to Nebulizers also.

I am mentioning this in detail, to bring home to the smokers that they are putting at risk, not only their own life; but also the lives of their family and friends.

Thankfully, now there is plenty of awareness on the subject.

While I am on a personal note, let me cover two happy events that took place a year before I signed up with Forbes:

Sukhjit’s sister Narinder Kaur had come to stay with us after finishing her education. In 1974 she got married to Inderjit Singh Kahandal. He worked with Coca Cola in India and then other brands in Dubai. They are now settled in Amritsar. They have:

*Daughter Sonu married to Gurmeet Singh Jaspal of Kolkatta. They have a son Devansh. They are partners in Manthan Broadband Services, running a business of Multi-system Operations in Cable TV.

*Daughter Smita aka Chimpi married to Jasdeep Kent a businessman of Ludhiana. They have daughters Simran and Gurbaani. Since her school days, Chimpi would spend her spare time and holidays with us and developed an intimate bond with us. During Sukhjit’s several hospitalizations, she and her mother would be her primary care giver. Thank you  Nini and Chimpi.

*Daughter Suprit, aka Sweety married to Harvinder Singh Ahluwalia (Lali) of Batala Punjab. They have daughters Harmeet and Harnoor.  Lali n his elder brother Hira  have several businesses and Hira is also politically active.

Folks, some of you know this for a fact that Nini and Inderjit have been very fortunate in having their daughters married to such fine gentlemen. So much so that they never feel the want of a son of their own. In a larger sense, God has been kind to us in that all our in laws and outlaws are very decent and God fearing people. I keep telling you:  Good things happen to good people.

Later in 1969 my younger brother, Ravinder, (Kaka) had finished his schooling and was searching for a career. I asked Joglekar and he promptly offered to talk to Dr S.S. Rajadhyaksha, a professional colleague who was Personnel Manager of Mazagon Docks. Raja immediately inducted Kaka as an apprentice Marine Engineer. In course of time Kaka qualified as Marine engineer and has adopted that as his career to date.  Raja has an important place in my future career. I will get to that on another day.

As I said, Forbes had made me an offer and I accepted the  job of their Group Personnel Head. I had signed up with  Forbes Group around the autumn of 1975.  Rather an exceptional case, but Crompton required 6 months notice, and they made no exceptions. Fortunately Forbes were willing to wait out the long notice period. However, as much was happening in Forbes, my would-be colleagues Astad Parakh and SY Gupte would keep in touch and seek my advice on their activities.

Soon after my leaving Crompton in Feb 1976,  PR Deshpande went into retirement. Mr. Padhye took over; but he did not live long to make a difference. A year later, SK Mohile was appointed Managing Director. He changed the Industrial Relations climate of the Company. Of course by then the workers had got frustrated with the earlier leadership. They chose a much more virulent and violent Union leader. There was serious violence and some fatalities. Ultimately Mohile made IR Peace with that Union leader.  Those who live by the sword, die by the sword: that Union leader was himself murdered a couple of years later. Such was the IR climate in Mumbai in those days. While I was glad to be out of the worst of it, but not entirely.

That is another long and happy story and I will get to that by n by.

                                                     .....oooooOOOOOooooo.....

Please pardon any errors in Captions.
But do please point out the errors.

Prabhakar Joglekar

Devinder n Rita Sodhi

Inderjit Singh Kahandal n Narinder Kaur

Sandhoos
r-l Amarjit, myself, and Inderjit

Sisters
l-r Sonu, Chimpi and Sweety

Rommy, Sonu and Devansh

Manthan Partners

Chimpi n Jass with Simran n Gurbani

the Bond
Chimpi with Anu, Vicky and Mickey

Lali with Sweety and Harmeet

Sweety with Harmeet

from Chapter 14
Harish and Pinky with their daughters Nikki and Simar

Kaka

GRATITUDE - Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations - Chapter 14

COPYRIGHT RESERVED - FOR TEXT N PIX.

Chapter 14

Dear Young folks:

Working at Crompton Greaves gave some job satisfaction. We were able to recruit a Training Manager in the person of Mr. Nari Mirchandani and started the training and management development activity. We also were able to conduct an area survey and revised the salary structure of the Management staff: Junior and Senior Officers as they were called. In tandem, Mr. Dhume also conducted a review of the salary structure at the General Manager/Division Head level. For the first time, the Company started providing some fringe benefits and furnishings/equipment to senior staff.

Apart from the two directors, I developed good equations with other Division Heads and their Works Managers. SK Mohile who headed International Division got particularly close. He perhaps evaluated me better than I did: He would often say:  you are a Line man in a Staff job; You are a Lion in the garb of Sheep.

On Industrial relations, it was a frustrating experience. We had some periods of relative peace, following a minor ‘understanding’ with the Union. But soon it will give way to slow down, canteen boycotts, strikes, lockouts. There was much personal danger to managers. The Personnel n Works Management bore the brunt of it. Late hours, tense working conditions, targets missed, et al.  Working in Crompton was a high pressure job for all of us.

Therefore, let me divert to happier tidings.

A year after joining Crompton, we trooped to Panjab for the marriage of  Sukhjt’s brother Mohan Singh who was in the Indian Air Force.  He married  Jasbir Kaur of Amritsar. He is now retired and lives in Amritsar. While he was posted in Madras (now Chennai) I would often drop by their home whilst on tour and would be treated to a piping hot home meal by Jasbir.  They have three children:

*Daughter Sukhbir aka Mini, who married Shiv. They are both IT people and  live  in Silicon Valley USA and have sons Tarun n Varun.

*Son Sukhvinder, aka Montu, who married Amandeep Kaur. They have a daughter Eknoor and son Angad. Montu runs a business in pharma industry i.e. Spirex Pharmaceuticals in partnership with Harshvir Singh Kochhar. Aman is a Teacher.

*Daughter Sonu married to Taranjit Singh aka Bawa of Jallandhar. They have two sons Mehtab n Kirat. Bawa is a partner in The Roller Company along with Inderjit Singh Paintal n his brothers. Inderjit is a multi talented person: a poet, photographer, Radio Jockey apart from being a full time successful industrialist.

And later the same year,  in Nov 1972, my sister Swarnjit Kaur got married to Baburam Upadhyaya who was a Textile Manufacturer. Unfortunately Baburam ji passed away three years ago. They have:

*Daughter Pinky married to Harish Chawla and have daughters Niki n Simar. She is a school teacher and he an Officer in Government service.

*Son Vikas married to Prima both of them are in Logistics business.

*Son Vineet married to Sofia and have a daughter Naisha. He is Marketing MBA and works for an MNC. She is an entrepreneur and operates Saloons and a Bakery outlet.

Shall we now get back to work?

Long after leaving Crompton Greaves, I joined the Rotary Club of Bombay Main, which met at the Taj.  PRDeshpande was a member there and he and his  wife showed much love and a sort of pride in what I had achieved. I had always respected him and now love n affection tinged my feelings towards him. Their younger son was the  President of our Club. Unfortunately he, our beloved President died in a road accident while on a Rotary visit to the USA. It was a huge blow to the Deshpandes and we grieved with them. Both of them have passed on to a better place. I can never think of them without a catch in my throat.

Why I mentioned PRD again? Well it was the general feeling that the IR situation was intractable due to rigid positions held by the two persons most crucial to the equation:- The Managing Director with his policy stance and the Union leader and his high expectations. PRD had been the MD for decades and his word was the law. The Promotors, Thapars were aware of the situation and many wondered why they were not intervening.

Into this situation, parachuted my old boss Nalin Thakor. He had retired and was an independent consultant by then. He had been taken on the Board of the IT giant-in-the-making WIPRO.  One of our young colleagues in ESSO, Yasmin Chinoi had got married to Azim Premji, a prosperous businessman of of Bombay. Azim went on the found WIPRO and I  had many  contacts with him while serving on the General Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce n Industry.  Just a few years ago, Vicky ran into Yasmin on a flight and she recognized him. But at the time Vicky did not know whom she had married.

Nalin, with my best interested at heart,  started to question as to how long would I want to continue in such an environment. At first I did not want to address that question. But then his enquiries became insistent. He was a frequent visitor at home and he kept addressing this question to Sukhjit too. She had seen from close quarters what quality of life I had had since joining Crompton.

Ultimately, I took the bait.  He introduced me to Devoo Kothari, the Managing Director of Goodlass Nerolac Paints which was part of the Forbes Group of Companies. The Group was looking for a successor to Mr. Rajwade their retiring  “Labour” head.

Devoo arranged an interview with Girin Khandwala, the nominated successor Chairman of the Group along with Mr. Dilip Madan the Managing Director of Gokak Patel Volkart, the largest employer within the Group. We met at the Chambers of the Taj. They did give some credence to all that I had learned at Esso. Khandwala, having been an alumnus of Columbia University USA had a soft corner for the fact that I had ‘American’ exposure. Yet, their overwhelming interest was IR conflict handling. Forbes Group was facing another intractable Union leader and Khandwala was determined to dislodge him. The Companies that dealt with that Union Leader had to surrender part of their Management to him. He dictated terms and employers’ accepted. Khandwala was a lot more independent minded than that. 

Pretty soon, another interview followed; with Mr. Kemple the retiring and life long Chairman of the Group. He held the interview in very English environment i.e. at the Yacht Club. He kept making notes on a tiny chit of paper.

Ultimate Forbes made me an offer….

Shall we cover that in the next chapter? I shall also cover the sea change that occurred in Crompton management after I left. Also some important family events that occurred before we made the move.

My job in Forbes was to be a life changing experience. Our family moved into another orbit altogether: Town life, town office, extensive overseas travel, etc.  

As I said some place:

It helps to have resourceful friends and benefactors. I am grateful to Nalin for ‘placing’ me in Forbes, even if for a fee. I am grateful to Khandwala, who is no more, and Madan for the tremendous support they lent me in my two decades with the Group.

                                                             .....oooooOOOOOooooo.....

PICTURE GALLERY

Please pardon any captioning errors.

But please do point out the errors.

Mohan Singh n Jasbir Kaur  - early years

at Chimpi's marriage in 2003

Mohan Singh with Pope John Paul II

Mini n Shiv

with their boys Tarun n Varun

Montu with Mini n Sonu

Montu n Aman with Eknoor in the lap

Montu with l-r Eknoor, Aman and Angad

with Partner Harshvir Singh Kochhar

Sonu n Bawa with Mehtab n Kirat

Bawa with us at Gateway of India

Multi talented Inderjit Singh Paintal with his  Family

Baburam ji and Swarnjit

Sarno with Sukhjit

Sisters at Vikas wedding... Pinky at left
 

At Vikas n Prima's ring Engagement

with Vikas and Harish

Prima n Vikas

Sofie n Vineet

Vineet n Naisha

Sofie's Salon

Pinky

Pani  Puri Baburam ji n Amrik Singh ji

with Sukhjit

with Harish at our 50th

Three Generations!
Simar is 2nd from left and big sis Nikki behind her