BLURRED VISION: GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations. Chapter 23

BOTH FOR TEXT N PIX.

Chapter 23

Congratulations! To Nikki aka Asmit, daughter of Pinky n Honey Chawla, grand daughter of Sarno. She scored 95.4% in SSC Board Exams. Champ! She wants to pursue Medicine. Go for it Girl. Had a super (veg n teetotaler sans tea) Party at Food Court Desi Tadka at Growel Mall out in Kandivli Suburbs. Good Fun. Good Luck.

My love n sympathies go out to Tara Chand Chawla on the sad n untimely demise of his 49 year old daughter Resham Wadhwa. Tara Chand is a director of Kamani Oil mills and a very dear friend. We played golf together and became very close. Our prayers for the departed Resham and for courage for her parents n Family.

We have had house guests: Rani and and her husband Gurmeet. She is daughter of Gurdip Singh, Sukhjit’s first cousin. Rains did not stop us and them from having a good time. So short though the visit was.

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And now , my dear family n friends, back to work… Fasten your seat belts.

We are now on the cusp of a cataclysmic event and far reaching changes in the fortunes of the Forbes Group and its Executives.

Let me delineate the persona of Girin Khandwala aka GK, at this juncture.

He was perhaps our age. I don’t know anything about his early life; nor about his career in Forbes before I joined. As I mentioned, he was graduate of the Columbia Business School. His peers in the Group were Dilip Madan and Devoo Kothari. Both were MDs of their respective Companies.

After Kemple left, GK was made Vice Chairman of FFC and Chairman of the other Companies. After the demise of the Chairman, he was elevated as Chairman of FFC also.

There is no doubt that Khandwala was an ambitious man. He had married a former secretary who, perhaps, stoked his ambitions. They had a son n a daughter. Their son, as a teen-ager, would often get into bad traffic accidents n had to be rescued in the middle of the night. The daughter seemed more in control of herself.

Although GK was a Professional Manager like most of us, yet he regarded himself as an entrepreneur and industrialist. In conversations, he would often liken himself to the Mafia Godfather. Upon the death of his resident Mother in Law, there was a huge gathering at his house. The coffin was laden high with flowers, garlands n wreaths. It was obviously a tribute to him and not the good old lady. He remarked to me: it looks as if it is the funeral of the Mother in law of a Mafia Don; does it not?

GK was a generous man and man of his word. If he made a promises, he was not afraid to put it in writing and carry it thru. For example, when one senior executive was demurring to take up another job within the Group, GK promised him a house for himself. He took the offer and asked GK to put it writing. GK did that and the promise was fulfilled.

Khandwala was also a very sensitive and perceptive man: I recall on one occasion, he was with a couple of other colleagues when he sent for me to join them. I don’t recall the subject. I seemed to have nodded my agreement to the subject at hand. After the others had left, he said to me: You said YES, but your eyes were saying NO NO. Which was the very truth. I had not wanted to let him down before others; but had planned to put my reservations to him, after they left. But he had read my mind before I could get around to it.

GK was also a strict disciplinarian. Once he had pulled me up for approaching Mobil Shipping for a job for Kaka. He said: if you need anything from the Associates, come to me. I learnt my lesson and avoided such potential conflict-of-interest situations scrupulously.

Although there were Managing Directors running the other two main companies in the Group, yet he tried to establish his writ within those Companies. He set up identical Chairman’s Offices in the Head Office of GNP and Patel Volkart and would visit those offices regularly. He would often conduct Management Meetings at Gokak Mills to establish his mark. He was a seeker of Power and pursued it methodically and relentlessly.

GK was elected Chairman of the General Committee of the Breach Candy Hospital. He was very active in that role. He charted and pushed thru major expansion n modernization of the Hospital. He got me n Uday also associated; me on the HR n IR Committee of the Hospital and Uday on some other subjects. He also tried to establish an association between Breach Candy and Columbia Hospital New York.

Khandwala got both his children admitted to the Universities in USA. His son was a sweet boy. He would often visit our home and was very comfortable to be treated alongside our own sons. Also we would get together during my visits to Columbia and would have a meal together. I could see that he was happy at those occasions. In later years, we heard he had committed suicide in US. That was very sad and we felt his loss too.

GK’s daughter married an American and settled in the States. I have lost track of her.

Now, I am dancing around the main point of this Chapter.

The thing that was weighing on GK’s mind the early months of 1983, came to pass. One morning, Government agencies descended upon Forbes Building and homes of some of our colleagues. It was a raid. Apparently the authorities had found some incriminating evidence and suspected wrong-doing in the Foreign exchange area involving the Group’s overseas activities. One of the officers searched my office; asked me a few questions and that was it. They took Khandwala along with them to their office to question him.

He was there all day and was sent home late that night. I spent some time with him. I don’t recall who else was there. But there was some coming n going. Khandwala was very tense. He wouldn’t share what had transpired. He was very disturbed and kept blaming himself for the development. We tried to reassure him that whatever was there, we shall face it together; etc etc. He had been called to the Investigators’ office the next day. We left him late at night but were quite disturbed ourselves.

I don’t recall what kind of a night we had. But early the next day a frantic call got us rushing to the Office. We were told that GK had fallen from the 4^th floor window and had been taken to the nearby Hospital. We rushed to the Hospital to find his body on a trolley and were told that he was dead. From what we could see, there was no injury on the visible parts of his body. The staff confirmed that.

Thankfully, Dilip Madan, rallied the senior staff and we had a longish conference. Since we did not know what had actually happened, it was agreed to take the stand that GK had fallen from the 4^th floor. That was the answer we gave to the various queries that came on that day n later.

The worst had come to pass. With his passing away, the Investigation petered out.

The visionary Girin Khandwala was no more and the future of the Group changed forever.

Que sera sera, what will be, will be….

More in my next… Suffice it to say that these events changed the course of my career. And that, more than once, Dilip Madan and Devoo Kothari have been steadfast well-wishers n supporters.

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