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