I accompanied Mr. J.C. Malani, Tariffs Manager to Paris in early 1962 for a meeting prior to the IATA Spring Conference in Cannes.  Malcolm (Mali) Gomez had declined to attend this Conference for personal reasons and so I was asked to assist Mr. Malani.  I had no free time as Mr. Malani required that I spend every evening poring over the Minutes and Situation Reports to ensure that Air-India’s position was correctly reflected in the proceedings.

Even after assuring Mr. Malani after two weeks into the Conference, that we had been correctly reported , he insisted that this exercise be carried out every evening.  When I returned to Bombay, I learnt from Mali Gomez that this was the main reason why he had declined to go to Cannes.  He had “suffered” enough during his previous trips with Mr. Malani.  Being the Low Man on the Totem Pole in the Tariffs Division, I had no choice but to accompany Mr. Malani.

Little did I know what was in store for me at the IATA Fall Conference later that year.

Many top airline executives were under the impression that we delegates to IATA meetings had a great time at these meetings since they were held at exotic locales such as Cannes, Honolulu, Mexico City etc., etc.  Therefore, the 1962 Fall Conference was held at Chandler, Arizona.

Chandler was a “one horse town”.  In the middle of the Arizona desert, it boasted one Lodge and one main street.  The Lodge had a main building which, in addition to individual rooms for delegates also housed the Conference Hall.  There were a few cottages and several small Junior Suites located about 500 yards from the main Building.  The town had one Chinese restaurant, one Mexican restaurant, one Bar and one Deli.  The only Cinema house showed movies that I had seen two year earlier in Bombay, not that I had any time to go to a movie.

In those years, India was going through a foreign exchange crisis.  The Government had introduced the “P” Form and every extended overseas trip had to be approved by the Ministry of Finance.  AI had submitted a proposal for four delegates to attend the 5 week long Conference.  Mr. Malani would be the Chief delegate, Mr. Balendu Shah and Mr. Coover Patel were designated to handle Cargo matters and yours truly, Passenger matters.   As indicated above, Mali Gomez had clearly indicated that he would not attend any more IATA Conferences.   

On the very last day prior to our scheduled departure, we received approval for ONE delegate and an assurance that another may be approved in a few days.  Mr. Malani informed Mr. B.R. Patel and Mr. Khote that he could not possibly handle the Conference single handedly. Mr. Shah said that he had very little knowledge of passenger fares and Mr. Patel said that he was a new addition to Cargo Tariffs and hence both declined to go on their own. Mr. Khote asked me if I was comfortable in going by myself and I replied in the affirmative.

I left Bombay that night and fortunately Mr. Malani joined me after a couple of days.  Mr. Shah and Mr. Patel arrived a week later but had approval for only 10 days.

Mr. Malani was housed in a Junior Suite while the rest of us were accommodated in the Main building.  On arrival, Mr. Malani informed me that his ulcers were acting up and as such, it would be my responsibility to attend EVERY morning, afternoon and evening meeting.  At the same time, I was to see him in his Suite for briefing and debriefing prior to and after every meeting.

While most cargo matters were taken care of by Mr. Shah and Coover Patel, all their loose ends had to be taken care of by me once they left.

Chandler was for me the absolute worst Conference that I have ever attended.  The only respite I had was on Sunday mornings when no meetings were scheduled as many delegates attended Church.  Another redeeming feature was late evenings spent in the company of good friends in the hotel bar.

The Bar at the Lodge closed at midnight but Len Rashbrook, BOAC’s General Manager - Tariffs managed to get it reopened around 12:30 and invited a few close friends; a term which included me.  So every night, a few of us gathered there in the darkness with candles.  Then one night, we saw the local Sheriff trying to peek in using a flashlight which resulted in our having to move downstairs into the basement for our gatherings.

An interesting episode took place one evening when a “well oiled” Australian group decided to make merry at midnight outside the cottage housing the PanAm delegation.  The next night, the PanAm delegates took their revenge by singing Waltzing Matilda outside the Qantas cottage.

The red faces of the Qantas delegates at breakfast were a sight to see as Tom Roff, their Chief delegate read them the riot act.

The last evening of the Conference was scheduled for delegates to vote on all the Resolutions that been finalized during individual meetings.  Mr. Malani finally decided to make an appearance (the only time in five weeks that he attended a meeting) and the irony of it all was that half way during the proceedings, yours truly passed out.  Yes, I could not keep my eyes open.  Fortunately, members of the Qantas delegation sitting across from us saw me drop from my chair and promptly came over, picked me up and deposited me in my bedroom.  They even changed me into my pajamas.

We left Arizona the next day and returned to Bombay.  Interestingly, reports of what transpired at Chandler reached the powers to be in Head Office with repercussions; the results of which were to be seen in the coming years.

While we had reached unanimous agreements at Chandler, the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board did not approve the transatlantic fares that had been agreed.  Hence, the meetings in Bermuda and Montreal in February 1963 of which I have spoken in my Post of July 17, 2015.

Mr. N.V. Khote our Planning Controller left Air-India in the Spring of 1963 and Mr. A.F. Dubash came back as Planning Director.  He asked me to accompany him to a number of meetings in the years 1963 through 1967, with the exception of the 1964 IATA Fall Conference held in Athens, which also happened to be Mr. Malani’s farewell to IATA.

I enjoyed accompanying Mr. Dubash to all of these meetings.  He treated me with great respect as a colleague and valued my advice.  On my part, I learnt a great deal from him and hold him in great admiration.  His vision and skills in negotiation left an indelible mark on me and I owe a great debt of gratitude to him.  I made it a point to call on him on my visits to Geneva after he left AI and joined IATA as Compliance Director.  He asked me for dinner on occasion and I happily went to his home.

One Conference will always stand out in my memory.  The transatlantic agreement reached in Montreal in early 1963 was conditioned on the airlines having to meet once again in the Fall of that year to negotiate fares for effectiveness from January 1, 2014.  We met in Salzburg, Austria in September 1963.  At the outset, it was agreed that only the Chief delegates would be allowed to attend the sessions and so, I along with all advisers, sat outside the main hall.  

I literally had no work to do - what a major difference compared to Chandler 1962. I managed to see the beautiful sights of the city of Salzburg, attended some concerts and by the kind courtesy of Yahuda Attir of ELAL, learnt something about wines.

The two week meeting failed to reach any agreement and another meeting was scheduled once again in Salzburg in October.  Mr. Dubash told me that since I had had a two week paid holiday at Air-India’s expense, I would be representing the airline at the next meeting.  I was delighted and honored.  At the very young age of 28 as a mere Station Superintendent, I would be negotiating with Senior VPs of major transatlantic airlines.  What more motivation could a young employee ask for?

On our last evening in Salzburg, Mr. Dubash invited me to dinner.  At the dinner, he said that he had heard about what had happened at Chandler, including that fact that I had passed out on the last evening.  In addition to the Qantas Chief delegate, many other senior VPs had commented and in fact praised my performance at Chandler and the subsequent Bermuda and Montreal meetings.

Mr. Dubash then asked me if I had received an offer from IATA to join that Organisation.  I admitted that an offer had been made but that I had declined.  He asked me “Why” and I told him that while the offer was very attractive, I saw a future for myself in Air-India and the honor of representing the airline at high level negotiations played a major contributing factor in my decision.

He made no comment but his actions after this dinner convinced me that I made the right choice of staying in Air-India.

In January 1965, I was nominated by Mr. Dubash to attend a 5 week Executive Management course conducted by the Ahmedabad Indian Institute of Management at Agra.  In April the same year, I was promoted to the grade of Station Manager and my designation was Acting Deputy Tariffs Manager; Balendu Shah having already left for Geneva as Manager - Switzerland. 

A month later, I was given a housing allowance which allowed me to move from a very confining one bedroom apartment among the inner streets of Colaba, to a fairly comfortable two bedroom apartment on Napean Sea Road.

I could not have asked for greater motivation.

It is an interesting coincidence that while I was taking a break from writing the above, I received a call from my former colleague and good friend, Firoze Dordi.  Firoze said that he had just finished reading parts of my Blog for the past 45 minutes and found them very interesting.  He enquired when I would be writing about the time when (and remarkably, he remembered the year) I had volunteered to attend a major IATA Conference single-handedly after everyone in the Tariffs Division had backed out since only one delegate had been approved by the Finance Ministry.

I mentioned to Firoze that he must have a sixth sense as I had just finished writing about it.  He replied that the incident had left a big impression on his mind and he wanted me to write about it.

However, I must clarify here that Firoze being Firoze and a good friend, gives me more credit than I deserve.  The fact of the matter is that I did not “volunteer”.  It is like when 4 soldiers  are asked “who would volunteer” for an assignment and to take a step forward.  Three of them take a step backward and one gets left standing in front.  That one soldier was yours truly.  At that stage, I was asked if I would go and I did say Yes.