BLURRED VISION: GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations

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.

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Photo Gallery

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Do pls point out the errors