GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations. Chapter 27

COPYRIGHT RESERVED

BOTH FOR TEXT N PIX.

Chapter 27

Dear Family n Friends:

I am sitting down to write this while history is being made:
People's President APJ Kalam passed away.

Sad happenings in our parent district of Gurdaspur.

Today was the birth anniversary of the late JRD Tata. He had passed away in the year 1993, the self same year of bomb attacks in Mumbai. Just as well that, today, the Supreme Court has not stayed the hanging of the perpetrator. 

Uncle of our Bhabi, Sweety, has passed away in Burhanpur.

Pray to God to grant peace to the souls of the departed.
Also pray to God to spare the Nation more agony at the hands of Terrorists. 

..........................................................................................................................

Let us get back to the Eureka Forbes Story.

In 1987 Akhil Marfatia, President of EFL,  introduced his former colleague from J&J,  Suresh Goklaney to be hired as his deputy.  Suresh was a personable young man and came thru as an upright Manager. We had no hesitation in supporting his recruitment as VP Sales n Marketing. More of this later in this chapter. 

In the post Khandwala era, the educational conferences had given way to Group Conferences, hosted by different companies, by turn. At these Conferences, heads of various Group Companies or heads of Major Divisions made presentations on the state of their business and strategies. These were interesting venues for senior Managers of different companies to interact with each other and to get the larger picture of the Group’s businesses.

By virtue of my long standing in the Human Resource n Industrial Relations field in Bombay. I was elected Chairman of the Human Resource Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce n Industry. This was a gathering of HR/IR practitioners of the Member companies. Some of them were IR luminaries in their own right. This continued right thru my early years in GNP. However with my ultimate elevation as Managing Director of GNP, I was nominated member of the General Committee of BCCI and relinquished my role in the HR Sub Committee. Somewhere along the way, I had also relinquished my association with the Indo Swedish Business Sub Committee.

As years went by the company was out of its difficult days and was on a steady growth trend. I sensed that, and there was no need of some one like me to do hand holding.

I was, therefore, in a receptive frame of mind when the proposal for my joining the Board of Goodlass Nerolac Paints resurfaced in 1988.

At this juncture, I might as well wrap up the Forbes story before I pick up the threads of my time in GNP.

Around 1992, Forbes Forbes Campbell and Gokak Patel Volkart were merged to form: Gokak Patel Volkart Limited.

In the years 1990-92, all was not well between the Top Team of EFL. As a result, the Vice President was seconded to the Lense Division. In course of time, it appeared that the President’s management of the Company left a lot to be desired. The company was in a big mess on all counts. I don’t quite know why it happened. The net result was that the President had to leave Eureka Forbes in 1993.  

Suresh Goklaney, was summoned back to Eureka Forbes to steer the company. I was drafted into an Emergency care-taking Committee along with couple of Forbes Directors to resolve the difficulties and enable Suresh Goklaney to operate the Company.

He was appointed President and the company got back to even keel. The Company has done well under his management. He was appointed Managing Director couple of years later.

As for Akhil Marfatia,  early 1995, I ran into him on a flight. He was managing a company marketing Pagers. Those were the days of infancy of Mobile Phones; but pagers were the precursors. I was the Convener of the Indian Paint Conference 1995 and was keen to have a device to keep communications with all the volunteers. Hiring Mobile phones seemed very cost prohibitive. So we worked out a deal with Akhil to provide Pagers to all the volunteers. That worked well.

The next that I heard of Akhil was via a newspaper notice that he had passed away. The notice said that he was on the Board of another Company, albeit as an outside director. Thru that company, I got his family’s contacts and condoled with his son, by his second marriage. RIP.

Years went by.  Mr. Madan retired as Managing Director in 1997, the same year that I retired from GNP.  His position was taken by Mr. Mehra  from Tata Steel.

Forbes did not figure in the strategic plan of Ratan Tata for the Tata Group. In line with that,  Tatas and Forbes had divested their holding in GNP in favour of Kansai of Japan. So did the UK shareholders.

Tata’s ultimately divested the Forbes Group to the Shapoorjee Pallonjee Mistry Group in 2000. They undid the merger of Forbes and Gokak in 2008.

The new Management seemed to appreciate Suresh’s stewardship and elevated him to Vice Chairman and Managing Director.

That just about sums up the Eureka Forbes and Forbes Group story.  They had been kind to me.  In the post Khandwala era, my career trajectory changed, in hindsight, for the better

So, my dear Family, whatever happens, do keep faith and remember that:

whatever happens, happens for the good.

Back to my work life:

Some time in 1988 Devoo again mooted the idea of my joining the Board of GNP. He was looking to me to provide 4-5 years of stewardship as Managing Director after his n Bal Gokhale’s retirement.

I believe that Dilip Madan had joined forces with Devoo to ‘sell’ my candidature to the UK directors. The latter were familiar with me through  my visits to them in the UK. Also we had had repeated interaction  on the role conflict between the MD and Dy MD in years gone by.

One thing led to another, and the idea of my joining the GNP Board took shape. Based on my credentials in HR n Industrial Relations, it was proposed that I join as head of Manufacturing n HR. It was just as well that things panned out this way since I could make signal contribution in an area critical to GN’s future success. .  

More of ‘why’… later.

Photo Gallery follows:

Please excuse any caption errors.

Do please point out the errors.

                                      .....oooooOOOOOooooo.....

Respect

Respect another Visionary

Khandwala - Memories of what could have been

Dilip Madan - Friend n supporter all along

Devoo n Indu Kothari
Friend and Patron

with FA Mehta
a checkered period in history of Forbes

A Group Conference

Akhil Marfatia n Suresh Goklaney
in their days together

 

Suresh Goklaney
ExecutiveVice Chairman N Managing Director,
Eureka Forbes.

GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his future generations. Chapter 26

COPYRIGHT RESERVED
BOTH FOR TEXT N PIX.

Chapter 26

Dear Family and Friends:

Breaking: I have had a fortnight long break; I am back!

The break was originally occasioned by my falling sick again to my endemic ailment of  lung infection.  I had not recovered yet and had to embark on a trip to Chennai and Pondicherry aka Puducherry.

Therefore, it was with some trepidation that we undertook the long -planned trip. Yet the Gods be thanked, I got stronger by the day and have returned with the episode almost over. Fingers crossed; for I have been in mended state of health often in the last 4-5 months, only for another episode to ensue.

In Chennai we were put up with our old friends Manu and Krithi. Our stint in Vietnam gave us, apart from worldly gains, a clutch of great friends. Their having spent several years in Mumbai, further strengthened our friendship with the Krithivasans.  They moved to Chennai few years ago.

We attended the marriage of Srinath, son of Bhama and VS Vasan, our old colleague n family friends of 40 years. I was rather fragile the night of the Reception; so much so that one of their nephews, Srikant, had to serve us dinner while we sat in a corner. The next morning was a lot better. Mr. M Singh of Facit showed up and led me to a bunch of old Facit colleagues:  Bala, Chandrashekhar and Walker whom we had met the previous night. I was able to move around and make a few pictures of the proceedings.

The next day, escorted by Krithvasans, we moved on to Puducherry. Krthi revels in driving his Fortuner. We had a halt at Mahabalipuram Temples. I did not have the energy to walk in the sun; but the trio set out. Thence we drove to Puducherry.  We had a decent lunch at an old French Style Hotel DuPruc. We checked into Club Mahindra’s Puducherry resort late afternoon.  We were a little taken aback at how far the resort was from the town. I was given to understand that the resort was a Hotel in the city…. I forget who gave me the understanding.. Grrr..

By a benign coincidence, Manu Krithivasan has her parents in the area and they were at-home in Puducherry. No wonder, Krthi is so familiar with the town. Reminded me of the summer of 2012, when Avtar n Sylvia put us up near a lake in South Austria and his mother in law’s house was available to them nearby.

This one is a pretty Beach resort laid out in low rise fashion amidst a lot of foliage. The room was in sparse style; with the walls and floor left untiled. The bare look. But comfy it was.  The dining experience is Gourmet + Gourmand. Having signed in for a ‘breakfast n dinner’ package, we must be pardoned if we went all out; rather tucked it all in.  Good food, good service. A surprise, the Chef rolled out a trolley with a huge veg hamburger and gave away slices to who ever wanted : on the house even for a la cart customers.

That was some Tuesday!

Come Wednesday, after breakfast, Krithivasans picked us up and we went for darshan of the tallest Navagrah in the World. There is Lord Ganesha staring at Lord Shani and keeping Him in Check. The other ‘Planet-Gods’ sit on their thrones, in all their glory, not looking at each other.  Fortunately photography was allowed.

We then trooped over to Auroville. This is a green heaven on earth created by  Auroville, over the last 5 decades. Zillions of trees planted by them provide a cool n lush cover to what was a barren plateau before 1968. We had a simple vegetarian lunch at the Cafetera. We were then driven in a bus to the viewing point for a look at Matrimandir: the round, gold enveloped, sphere, which serves as a Meditation Center. Vast grounds around the Sphere  are  being landscaped. The whole vista reminded me of the Bahai Lotus Temple in Delhi: A pristine structure standing in the midst of acres n acres of landscape.

We went back to Temple Darshan: This time Maruti Temple, Lord Hanuman’s. Alas, no photos were allowed and we had to be content with a tiny picture that we bought at the counter. Manu located a better picture on Internet.

Tea was called at a ‘French’ style bakery n tea shop. We had an excellent cup of tea, albeit dip dip, but beautifully served and savoured.

We wound up the Wednesday, with a drive around the ‘French quarter” and along the Beach. I made a few pictures. The sun hid behind the clouds. Though the streets looked dark, the hidden Sun was comforting and picturesque in itself.

It had been a long day, and I particularly was glad to call it quits.

I had asked for the next day to be the day for R&R, but the ladies had conspired to visit a Ganesh Temple later that afternoon.

Thursday morning dawned cool n cloudy. Sukhjit and I ventured out to the beach. It is considered unsafe for water sports. So much so that Security keeps a register of who goes to the beach and when do they return. We had a nice long walk along the water line and made a few selfies and pictures of  the surf breaking on the beach. Bright clouds n Sea but a hidden Sun were a pretty sight.

We had a simple lunch served in our room. I figured that if Sukhjit was going out, so might I. In any case some rest during the day had done me good.

We set out late afternoon for darshan of the Temple of Lord Ganesha in the middle of the town. Unfortunately no photography was allowed here too. The temple style reminded us of the temple in Ho Chi Minh City that we would visit each Sunday during our sojourn there. A few rupees led us to a special darshan; though there wasn’t any crowd at all.

Thence we went on to Aurobindo Ashtram and the grave-site of Aurobindo and the Mother. It was neat, serene and a quiet atmosphere prevailed.  A longish grave under a large tree in the courtyard of the Ashram housed both of them. The calm meditative atmosphere invited me to sit down for a few minutes, in quiet solitude.

And the same craving for Tea; the same Tea house.  Manu was keen on locating the Baker’s Street, which we did a day earlier. Today we found out their opening time (7 am !) and marked for the next day’s breakfast.

We had invited the Krithivasans to join us for dinner at the resort and they had very kindly joined in. It was a great meal and we parted late at night.

Krthi picked us up on Friday morning after check out.  Sukhjit and I had had a light breakfast in the rooms. That did not stop us from a light repast at the Bakers’ Street. My search for Macroons came to fruition at that place. I picked up a few for Vicky and myself. We shared a couple of them at the breakfast table too.

Then the brisk journey to Chennai. Lunch halt at a Dhaba and home!

We had encountered some rain in Puducherry. It caught up with us in Chennai too. Despite that we went over to Vasan’s home to spend a little quality time with the family. We picked up some sweets at Shree Mithai. Shuba was a bit under the weather. Her daughter Shonita regaled us with some Tamil (wedding?) songs. Pleasant surprise that. despite being born n brought up in the USA, her Tamil singing was rather pure, devoid of any accent.

We said our good byes, after a drink and drove back home.

Next morning, Jet was on time and we got home in good shape. Better than what I had left in. 

That was a nice trip! One destination from madam’s bucket list scratched off. Sri Lanka and Spain remain….

God willing…

We are grateful to Manu n Krithi for having gone to such length to enable this trip. Their energy and hospitality is amazing. We were fortunate to be at the receiving end. I must mention: they have set up a lovely home in Chennai packed with many beautiful artifacts. God Bless You both.

We are also grateful to the extended Vasan Family for the love n affection they bestow upon us. Also to the Facit alumni for the respect they show us at this remote.

Aha.. so the break did not really end last week…

I promise: back to business next week…

                                                         .....oooooOOOOOooooo.....

Photo Gallery follows.

Please forgive any caption errors.

Do please point out any errors.

Friendzone: Birthday boy Rajah with Krithi

The Patriarch. Rajah's father.
an Inspiration!

Bhama n Vasan

With old n dear friend Ambuja Jayaraman

Selfie at the Wedding

The wedding
l-r Vasan, Ishwarya, Srinath, Bhama

Shuba n Ravi with daughters Shonita n Sanjukta
Music runs in the family

RAVI on Violin - right

Shonita sings at Mama's wedding

Facit Alumni
 M.Singh (standing) n l-r Walker, Krishnamurthy n  Chandrashekhar
Bala behind the Camera

Mahabalipuram

Selfie!

Only Lord Ganesha can look Lord Shani in the eye

Lord Shani

Matrimandir at Auroville

The tourists

Chameleon at Auroville Grounds
Tiny Tribute to the Flora n Fauna

Huge Big Banyan - a partial view
There is more to it on all sides
Large Tribute to Fauna n Flora

Partial Top view of the same Banyan Tree

Lord Maruti, Jai Hanuman

Morning walk

They tried to get the Eternally Bachelor Ganesha to get married

Bapu at the Beach Road at Puducherry

Outside Aurobindo Ashram

Pre Departure from Mahindra Resort

Souvenirs from the Ashram

GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations. Chapter 25

COPYRIGHT RESERVED
BOTH FOR TEXT N PIX.

Chapter 25

Dear Family n Friends:

Thanks to old colleagues, I have now come into some pictures which are relevant to the Chapters gone by. I present a retrospective of them in the Picture Gallery.

We have our younger grandson, Harkirat here for a few days. We put in a round of golf this morning. He is a cool player and keen to learn. Of the round he writes: - “We played with this one (Pro) Caddy who taught me a lot though, which was really nice. Really changed my chipping towards the end.”

Let us get back to work.

It is a curious thing: what appears new n innovative, in some years becomes common place. Aquaguard was one such product. It has become a generic name. In the early 1980s we had run into another ‘new n innovative’ product, which was to become equally common place.

We were just beginning to hear of a new product: Microwave Ovens and wanted to get into that business.  E’lux would not give us the know-how, saying that the Indian market was not ready for it. The Chairman deputed Devrajan and I to seek the collaboration of the Korean giant: Samsung. We went to Seoul and got an ‘exclusive’ collaboration agreement signed by them. However our application for License to manufacture MWOs was rejected since it transpired that Samsung had signed such ‘exclusivity’ agreement with over 20 Indian parties.

By then E’lux had warmed up to the idea; I travelled to their newly acquired American constituent to take a look at MWOs and Washing Machines. But we could not gain a license with new collaborators, since the window had closed. We were the first to lay our hands on a model of Sharp MWO. It took 20 years, but MWO has become a fixture in Indian homes .

The Chairman was keen to diversify the Forbes Group and had hired Devrajan as  Corporate Planning Manager.  The Group selected plastic eye lenses as a product for the Indian market in collaboration with an Italian Company.  It was to be, by a multiple of 10,  the largest single investment for the Group till then. A factory was set up in Aurangabad and was inaugurated in the presence of the collaborators. It soon transpired that the Italian collaborators were half hearted in their support to the Venture. It was not a great success and the business had to be wound up after some years.

Around this time, in view of the workload of the new project, and some health issues, Dr FAM inducted Dara Poonegar into the group. Dara had worked with International Finance institutions and took part of the load from Dr FAM in supervising the Divisions of FFC. He was particularly involved in the Lense project.

As the sales of Vacuum Cleaners and Aquaguard were growing fast, it posed a challenge to Facit Asia, the Manufacturing arm. They were called upon to make the investment in expanding the factories. The Chairman than nominated me to chair the coordination between Eureka Forbes and Facit Asia.  Gosta Rundberg was more than forthcoming in undertaking the expansion. At times he had to push some of his executives who were less than enthusiastic.  

By this time the Foreign ownership of Facit Asia had gone into the hands of LM Ericsson, but Eureka Forbes continued to be an E’lux joint venture. So the glue of common parentage was no longer there. However Gosta’s leadership and Rao’s effectiveness as the Manufacturing head saw us thru.

This loss of common parentage led to another tricky development. Several exercises were undertaken to get Facit to divest the Vacuum Cleaner n Aquaguard Manufacture in favour of FFC or EFL. I recall, Akhil and I making a trip to Stockholm to negotiate the same with LM Ericson. We did initial an agreement to that effect.  However, soon it came to nought becoz LME had decided to divest the whole of Facit in favour of another Swedish Group.

In view of my close dealing with the two Swedish joint ventures in the Group, Dr Mehta was instrumental in getting me nominated as the Chairman of the Indo Swedish Business Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce. Surely the move had the blessing of the venerable Akbar Hydari, who was the Deputy Chairman of EFL and doyen of Swedish ventures in India. Under the aegis of Assocham and Bombay Chamber, I was part of two business delegations to the Nordic Countries. The second time I was the leader of the delegation. These were great learning experiences: different countries, different work cultures.

Domotechnica was the annual international gathering of Domestic Appliance manufacturers world wide. It was held in Cologne the first week of February. As E’lux’s Joint venture partners, Akhil and I would get the opportunity of attending this huge show. Cologne in snow was a pretty sight.  I had spent my early boyhood in Quetta Balochistan. There would be snow on the ground two or three months. It was after several decades that I got to walk the streets which had snow piled on both sides of the road. Once I had a loft room in an Inn, a little distance form the city centre. I woke up to find snow piled on the loft’s roof-window. Oh such a pretty sight that was.

I have lost track of dates n years. But I guess, my story is somewhere near the mid 1980s. So let us take a break from work, and cover another marriage in the family:  Ravinder, n Harsharan aka Kaka n Sweety.

We were looking for a match for my kid brother,. Ravinder, aka Kaka. The story has a curious twist. Sweety’s Family got in touch with us. I don’t recall how the introduction was made. Bindra Family came visiting us with Sweety and her cousin, who was the real candidate. I wasn’t home. But the boys were. As the story is told, the boys whispered to Kaka…” no no, look at the other girl, Sweety… that is it”. Sure enough Kaka indicated his choice. Bindra family did not demur and the match was made: Sweety and Kaka. The other cousin is happily married and settled in Indore.

The marriage party went by train to Burhanpur, the Bindra family’s seat. We were put up in a hotel and were well looked after. The young baratis had a ball. They danced their way to the bride’s home and all went well. We managed to board a return train to Mumbai and had Khana peena in the train. That was 1986 and come November 2016, will be the 30^th anniversary of their marriage. They have a daughter Pooja, she works n lives in London. The have a son, Preet; he is studying Sound Engineering in Ireland. Kaka is doing Shipping duty but now on board Supply vessels servicing the Off shore Oil rigs. (Remember? He is a Marine Engineer).

                     …..oooooOOOOOooooo…..

Photo Gallery Follows

Pls forgive any caption errors.

Do point out the errors please.

An old file Picture of G Khandwala to the left of the gentleman in front
Devoo Kothari is to the right.

Ravi Marphatia on eve of transfer as President IVP.
Front Row: l to r: Mulloth, Sujan,  Painter Pawar,  Mathur, Talashilkar

Dara Poonegar, extreme left, in a leisure moment at Forbes Group Conference Cochin

Goodlass Sales Budget Conference
Chairman in suit. Bal Gokhale to his left.
2nd row l-r  4th n 5th from left SS Mathur VR Shah
Photo1,2,4  Courtesy CR Patke 

Hark, Driving

Together

Selfie with Grandson

 

Harsharan m Ravinder

 

Daughter Pooja 

Preet n Pooja
Rock Garden Chandigarh

With Kaka n Sweety at a Family get together.

Pooja with Sukhjit and I on one of her trips back home.