I was pleasantly surprised to read the following item in one of the emails circulated by some of our retired executives.

The airline on Sunday announced :

...... a dedicated program to offer its passengers enhanced cabin experience, with increased emphasis on maintaining high standards of cleanliness and safety on its aircraft. "To be managed by dedicated senior management of ED-level, immediate action will be taken on the feedback shared by the passengers, cabin crew and cabin engineers. Senior executives will undertake surprise checks to monitor and supervise the safety and cleanliness inside and outside the aircraft," said a statement issued by the airline.

I commend the new CMD on his initiative to improve the product that is being offered in the market and hope that he will continue to act in this proactive manner.  I believe I speak on behalf of most of my former colleagues when I say to Mr. Lohani that he has our best wishes and hopes that he will be successful.

And now on a lighter note, has anyone met his “double”?  I have.

On one of my visits to London, Asghar Ali Dharamsey had mentioned to me that he knew a person who looked exactly like me.  I laughed and told him that he was mistaken.  Asghar said that one day, he would introduce us both.

It so happened that I was transiting London on one of my business trips and was planning to stay one night with Asghar.  He received me at LHR and drove me to his home.  While he was parking his car, I entered the living room and saw a young lady sitting there.  She looked up and said “that was pretty quick”.  I must have had a very puzzled expression on my face and so, she kept very quiet.  I introduced myself and now she had a very puzzled look on her face.

Fortunately for both of us, Asghar, accompanied by another person walked in at that moment and I looked at the latter in wonderment.  I thought I was looking at a mirror and so did he.  He happened to be a Pakistani who lived in Europe and the young lady was his fiancee.

What a memorable occasion for both of us and also for his fiancee who said that she had difficulty separating us.  He had gone to fetch his car and she was surprised that he had returned so quickly; hence her earlier remark.

Getting back to the fares between India and the U.K., IATA sent its Traffic Director, H. Don Reynolds to Bombay to convince Air-India to withdraw the Emigrant Fare.  I received Don at the airport.  He spent that day with Jimmy and Shirin Guzder of Indtravels/AirFreight, whom he had known for a long time.

The next day, they dropped him off at my office and we met with Air Marshal Chaturvedi and Mr. Kooka.  Don spoke of the sanctity of the unanimity rule and how Air-India was setting a poor example of disharmony and not using the IATA mechanism of getting agreements by consultations.

We told Don Reynolds that Air-India had followed IATA’s policy to the letter and had fare agreements which were unanimously negotiated.  Air-India had no quarrel with such a rule, but the blatant violations of these agreements by the Arab and Middle East Agreements had rendered the fare agreements a pure paper exercise.  Their market practices, particularly the setting up of GSAs and Consolidators to offer illegal discounts had taken away Air-India’s legitimate 3rd and 4th freedom traffic.

There was no going back, we told Don Reynolds.  

After the meeting in the MD’s office, I took Don back to my office so that he could dictate a “coded” telex to the Director General of IATA and I must digress here to relate an interesting anecdote.  My Secretary, Rao took Don’s dictation and when the latter asked him if his dictation was clear, Rao answered by shaking his head.  Don started to dictate his telex once again and I interrupted him and said that in India, a shake of the head was the same as a nod and signified OK.

Don spent that evening with me before leaving back for Geneva and over dinner, I told him that what we had achieved by the introduction of the westbound Emigrant Fare was only the beginning.  Air-India was going to take this matter right through to its logical conclusion.  Gone were the days when we were willing to spend weeks in long and arduous negotiations only to have the agreements violated by the Arabs and other 6th freedom airlines.

I told Don quite categorically, that the Arabs were not the only culprits.  European carriers, such as KLM and Air France were equally at fault and we could see our legitimate traffic being siphoned off.  In other words, the gloves were now “OFF” and the battle had just begun.

The U.K. originating market was our next target.  We sent a Market Research Team to the U.K. to study the market potential and come up with a plan to get our rightful market share.  The Team was led by Randhir Singh and included Michael Mascarenhas and Kanwal Jasuja.  They spent almost a month and produced a series of recommendations which included not only the establishment of a low round trip fare for the VFR (Visiting Friends & Relatives) market, but also the opening of new offices, such as one in Southhall. 

This Report was discussed at a Top Management meeting and negotiations commenced with the British so that we could jointly sponsor the introduction of such a fare.  Unfortunately, the British declined to agree and we responded by going unilaterally at this market.

Air-India Charters Ltd. (AICL) chartered aircraft from Air-India and commenced operating flights between Delhi and Ostend in Belgium, since we were denied traffic rights by the British.  An agreement was negotiated with British Air Ferries (BAF) to operate flights between Southend in the U.K. and Ostend to connect with the AICL flights.  A consortium of Indian Agents was mobilized to get passengers to travel on the connecting BAF/AICL flights.

The success of this venture was soon proven when the British asked us for talks to introduce  a low round trip fare - low enough so that the 6th freedom operators would have difficulty in undercutting it.  We established such a fare and then to ensure the success of this venture, I suggested to Mr. Kooka, the establishment of an “Ethnic Sales” cell in the U.K. headed by Randhir Singh.  He agreed and I must admit here that I do not believe that even today, Randhir has fully forgiven me for sending him to London.  He had been looking at a posting where he would be head of an online station.

During this entire period, I must have myself traveled a number of times to the U.K.  I met many of the agents that Randhir and his team had cultivated.  We met them at their offices, we had drinks and meals with them in their homes and sang and danced to Indian music in their Living rooms.  In other words, we established very close bonds with this larger team which got Air-India its legitimate share of the Indian ethnic market.  Eventually, at the suggestion of the R. D. - U.K. and Randhir Singh, we appointed a General Sales Agent.

As an interesting aside, I must relate here that when we appointed the GSA, we limited his scope to the Indian ethnic market.  PanAm objected to this stating that the IATA Resolution on GSAs did not allow us to limit the GSAs scope of operations and took us before the IATA Compliance Committee.  Nani Palkiwala, India’s famous lawyer and future Ambassador to the USA, represented us at this hearing.  Joe Andrade and I assisted him, but the ruling was in PanAm’s favor.  However, no penalties were imposed upon us and AI was instructed to open the entire market to the GSA.  While, we accepted this ruling on paper, in practice, however, we continued our restrictions on the GSA.

At Mr. Kooka’s request, T.K. Rao, Manager - Charters and I made a detailed study of the European market to ascertain the potential of operation charters under the AICL Banner.  We toured Western and Northern Europe and submitted our Report which I believe, ended up on a shelf in Mr. Kooka’s office.

To the best of my knowledge, AICL never did get off the ground until quite recently.  After Mr. Kooka, the next Chairman was Nari Dastur and I did take over the reins for a 2 year period from 1978 till I left Air-India in 1980.

Our next major task was the USA - India market.  There were two very important issues here.

First, our Bilaterals with the British.  They insisted that we were carrying far too many 5th freedom passengers and opposed the introduction of the Boeing 747 on the India - U.K. - USA route by Air-India.  We held a number of meetings; all but one of which, I attended.  Throughout these meetings, I had maintained that the existing Bilateral authorized us to substitute any aircraft and that the Indian side should stand firm.  The Indian team was led by the Aviation Secretary, Mr. Narottam Sehgal who, while appreciating my viewpoint, was keen to get an agreement.

However, I was eventually over-ruled and in fact, excluded from the Indian Team at the final meeting with the British.  This meeting came to a successful conclusion and it was agreed that AI could upgrade its equipment provided AI paid to BA a sum of money for each 5th freedom (LON/NYC/LON) passenger carried over a limit, which was pegged at the number being carried at that point of time. This figure could go up as and when the end-to-end India - USA traffic increased.  As a matter of record, this compromise proposal was initiated by Y.Y. Ajila, our Planning Manager.

Mr. Kooka came back from the meeting and called me to his office.  He said that while he appreciated my unhappiness with the agreement, he supported it because time was critical and we could not delay the introduction of the 747s.  At the same time, he said that he had faith in my ability to find a way out of paying this “royalty” to the British.

I promptly gathered my marketing team and we came to the view that we had no choice but to raise the number of FUD (flight uplift/discharge) passengers India - USA and to this end go directly into the U.S. market with a low excursion fare to generate additional traffic.  Accordingly, we proposed the introduction of a $600 fare at the next IATA fares conference.  However, because of the unanimity rule, we could not get the level that we would have ideally liked and had to compromise on a figure, which if memory serves me right, was $650..

We did generate considerable interest in this fare, but our market studies showed that we were being undercut by not only the 6th freedom operators, such as Air France, KLM and Lufthansa but also carriers like Kuwait who in combination with TWA were offering much lower fares in the market.  In fact, on our of our marketing trips to the USA, B.K. Mangaokar and I came across Flyers being distributed among the Indian Student community which offered a fare of $575 from NYC to DEL/BOM on TWA/Kuwait flights over London.

I, therefore, proposed to Mr. Kooka that we drop the round trip fare from NYC to BOM/DEL to $450. It was my view that while this fare was uneconomical if maintained for too long a period, it would be a “two-edged sword”.  It would be very difficult for our competitors to undercut it and make a profit.  Additionally, this would have give us the necessary tool to substantially increase our FUD India - USA traffic thus reducing, if not eliminating, the “royalty” payment to the British.

It was this second objective that appealed most to Mr. Kooka who said and I believe that I am quoting him accurately - “Inder, let’s sock it to the British”.

Having got his complete support, I prepared a paper for submission to Air Marshal Chaturvedi, our M.D.  The meeting in his office was quite stormy with Mr. K. K. Unni, our Asst. M.D., saying “Inder, you will bankrupt us”.  I expressed the view that this was an introductory fare and that once we had achieved our objective, we would increase the level keeping in the forefront of our minds, the two objectives. 

I maintained that any inactivity on our part “would also have the effect of bankrupting us”.

With Mr. Kooka’s support, I got Management approval.  Mr. Kooka and I flew to Delhi and had an informal meeting with Mr. Narottam Sehgal who not only supported the propsal, but gave it his blessing.  We then held meetings with the DGCA and the Ministry issued a Government Order requiring Air-India to introduce a non-stop economy class round trip fare NYC - DEL/BOM at the $450 level.

We filed this fare with the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board and informed the IATA Secretariat that we would be introducing this fare on 30 days notice.

The $450 fare exceeded our wildest expectations and not only did we develop an entirely new market to India, we NEVER paid a cent to the British for carriage of 5th freedom traffic.

It was one of my proudest moments when I had a visitor to my office who announced “Inder, my heartiest congratulations.  You were absolutely right and I was wrong in opposing you”.  The visitor was none other than Mr. K.K. Unni and I have never felt so motivated in my entire career.

It also goes to show, that one should always follow one’s convictions and the rewards will be forthcoming.  However, to do so, one must be encouraged and motivated by the support of his/her superiors.  I had that support from Mr. Kooka.

Cannes, in the south of France, was once again the venue of the 1968 IATA Fall Conference on passenger fares.  It had always been AI’s practice that the delegation would stay at the hotel where the Conference was held.  Room charges would be paid by AI and each delegate would be given an allowance to cover all three meals.  From experience, it was felt that the allowance was never adequate and one could never indulge in a really good meal.  It was always a sparse and frugal meal.

We had also noticed that some delegations stayed in apartments and thus cut costs.  The PIA delegation had in fact, been staying in apartments since 1960.  I suggested to Mr. Kooka that perhaps, we may experiment on this occasion and he agreed.  With the help of our Paris office, we rented two small apartments in the same building quite close to the Conference Centre and.  The apartments were quite well furnished and each one of us took over some tasks.

My wife, Manju, was with me during most of our stay in Cannes and she agreed to supervise the cooking of some meals.  Breakfast was mostly had at the apartments before going to the meetings.  Lunches were always at or near the Conference site.  Dinners were sometimes cooked in the apartments depending upon the scheduling of meetings.  

We were able to get some agreements on fares, although, if memory serves me right, the transatlantic airlines could not reach an agreement.  One incident of note took place during this trip.

We decided to invite senior members of some airlines to a cocktail party at our apartment.  Unfortunately, none of us realized that the date we had selected coincided with Karva Chauth, a one-day festival celebrated by Hindu women in North India in which married women fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and longevity of their husbands.

That evening many invitees came with flowers and bouquets for Manju in honor of her fast which she could not break until she had seen the rise of the moon.  That day happened to be a cloudy one and we did not get to see the moon until after all the visitors had left and my poor wife was almost fainting because she could not even drink a sip of water.  Luckily, VP Ganapule who had been keeping a vigil on one of balconies suddenly spied the moon and shouted - The Moon, The Moon and she then broke her fast.

The hiring of an apartment was not a success and we reverted to the practice of staying at the Conference hotel.

1968 saw a number of changes in the Commercial Department.

A new post of Deputy Commercial Director was created ostensibly to groom someone to take over from Mr. S. K. Kooka who would retire in 1972.  Also, we had a fairly large number of senior executives who had been overseas for many years and there had been unhappy voices clamoring for some changes as the posts occupied by them appeared to have been “reserved” and denied to those who had worked in India for far too long.

It was rumored that an informal agreement was worked out among these senior overseas staff.  I had mentioned in one of my earlier Posts that Nari Dastur wanted to come back as Commercial Director only after Mr. Kooka retired but due to a personality clash, he was unwilling to come back as Dy. C.D., awaiting his turn at the job.

According to the same rumor, Peter Mahta was prevailed upon to come and spend 4 years in Bombay as Dy. C.D. on the understanding that he would return to NYC in November 1972 as R. D. - USA & Canada.  Nikka Qadir took over from him during this 4 year period and Venkat from Delhi was promoted to take over the Middle East Region from Nikka.  Nari Dastur stayed on in Europe until Mr. Kooka’s retirement.  However, due to the same personality clash, Nari never did get the Dy. C.D./R.D.  grade and stayed as a Regional Manager until he took over as C.D. in 1972.

Changes were also made in the Planning Department at the same time.  This Department, which had become a fully independent Department in 1963 lost its full grown status when Adi Dubash left to join IATA.  It came back under Mr. Kooka’s control.  Luis Cabral left to join Kuwait as his move to take over failed.  I was promoted as Commercial Manager - Planning and reported directly to Mr. Kooka.

Ever since I joined Air-India in January 1957 (except for my initial training period), I had a desk in the large room on the 4th Floor of the Bank of India Building.  With my promotions from Junior Officer to Asst.Station.Superintendent, then to Station Superintendent and Station Manager, I had stayed in this same room.  About a year after taking over as Tariffs Manager (in the Sr. S.M. grade), I shared a cabin with Joe Andrade.

This all changed with my new promotion as C. M. - Planning.  I received my letter of promotion to C. M. Planning one afternoon and I went to Mr. Kooka’s office at the end of the corridor to thank him.  At no time during this meeting did he give me any inkling of what was also in store for me, nor did I dare ask.

It was only the next morning when I came to the office and was met by Narvekar, our Administrative “major domo” who directed me to my new office.  I had been given my own cabin right next to Mr. Kooka's.  Even today, I have difficulty in describing my emotions when I saw the nameplate “I. D. SETHI”.  It was then that I realized that I had finally “made it”.  It took almost 12 years.  I was now 33 years old and the youngest person in the grade of Commercial Manager/Regional Manager.  

My promotion brought back the memory of my interview with Mr. Kooka in January 1957. He had asked for my ambition and I had replied “Your Chair”.  Even though my office was now next door to his, I knew that there was a very large gap between the two offices and I resolved to make certain that I would not only fulfill my duties and responsibilities but also justify the faith that had been placed upon me by my superiors. 

Let me digress and speak of that nameplate.  It was removed and placed outside the door of every cabin that I occupied in the coming years until its final resting place in the corner office of the 17th Floor of the Air-India building at Norman Point.

One day, we were “honored” by a visit of the Parliamentary Committee on Hindi and during our meeting with them, I was asked why our nameplates were in English?  They should be in Hindi, I was told and when I said that not all of our visitors not read Hindi, I was “instructed” to have new ones in Hindi placed alongside.  For some inexplicable reason, I must have “seen red” and was determined not to accept such an “instruction”.  And so,when the meeting ended, I told Narvekar (yes, the same “major domo’) to remove all nameplates on the 17th Floor.  By now, everyone knew our names and there was no need to incur any additional expenditure just because this Parliamentary Committee wanted to replace English spelt names.

To the best of my knowledge, there were no nameplates on the 17th Floor when I left the airline in 1980.

A very interesting change took place at the time of these major changes in 1968.  We, in the Tariffs Division, were always guided by the wishes of the Sales Division and overseas Regional Heads in determining fares and rates policies.  With my taking over as CM - Planning, Mr. Kooka agreed with my suggestion that such policies would henceforth be decided by me under his direct guidance. 

I had mentioned to Mr. Kooka that we, in the Planning Division, were quite capable of conducting Market studies and would be better suited in developing Air-India’s pricing policies.  He agreed and the coming years saw a number of major changes in Air-India’s attitude to IATA’s rule which required that all fares and rates be agreed unanimously among airlines operating on any particular set of routes.

We started with the India - U.K. route.  Our marketing strategy, if there was indeed one, had been designed to carry business traffic in both directions and incoming tourist traffic to India.  There was another segment of the market which had been “ignored” and which had become the preying ground for Arab and other Middle East carriers.  This was the low yield emigrant traffic traveling from North India to the U.K. and the VFR traffic moving in the opposite direction.

It soon became evident to us that unless we obtained our rightful share of this market, we would have great difficulty in filling the 747s and other large capacity aircraft which were on the horizon.

We spoke with our British colleagues but found little enthusiasm.  They seemed quite content to let the 6th freedom operators cater to this market.  We could not get satisfaction at IATA fare meetings as the unanimity rule always came across as a barrier.

It was at this stage that the idea of a Charter Subsidiary was mooted and it was by hindsight that I came to realize that Mr. Kooka’s brain had been working towards this line of thought as he had been looking at full time Chairmanship of this airline after his retirement.

Our first move to attack this market came in 1969 with the introduction of a westbound emigrant fare which we introduced by an Order of the Indian Government with the tacit and reluctant approval of the British.  Our initial success had some repercussions.  Our cabin crew showed great unhappiness in the “quality” of our new passengers and the state of our cabins once the flights left New Delhi for London.

At Mr. Kooka’s direction, I took one such flight and asked Michael Mascarenhas to accompany me.  I was traveling in the First Class cabin in which there was no apparent effect.  However, Michael who traveled in the Economy Class cabin had rushed to breathe fresh air as soon as the doors open on landing at Beirut.  

I passed through the aisles in the Economy Class and noticed how many of the passengers had discarded their shirts and trousers and wore nothing more than vests and shorts.  There was a distinctive “aroma” in the cabin.  I examined the toilets and found them in disarray.  I spoke with the cabin crew who were disembarking at Beirut and they said that were thankful that their shift had come to an end.

On our return to Bombay, I suggested to Mr. Kooka that one possible solution would be to limit the carriage of these passengers to one weekend flight only and this way, all other India - UK flights would be “spared”.  He agreed and the lone weekend flight was thence known as the “Emigrant Special”.

Has anyone missed a flight on which his/her boss was also booked to travel to a meeting both of you were to attend?  I have and it is a very low sinking feeling in the stomach.

The year was 1964 and I was accompanying Mr. A.F. Dubash to an IATA meeting in Bermuda.  We were booked to travel on a British Airways flight from NYC to Bermuda and I had arrived in NYC the previous day and stayed overnight with Manchi Engineer.  Manchi, who was working in the NYC Sales Office, and I had known each other while he was a Flight Purser and we had spent quite a few memorable times in Bombay before he was transferred to the USA.

Manchi was going to drop me at the airport for the afternoon flight and suggested that we spend the morning at the World’s Fair in Queens.  We saw quite a few exhibits and left in good time for Idlewild (now JFK) airport.  Unfortunately, Manchi took a wrong exit and we ended up at the British Airways terminal just in time to see the aircraft taxiing to the runway.

Fortunately, there was a later PanAm flight on which I was able to find a seat and I got to the Castle Harbor Hotel late that evening.  However, unfortunately for me, dinner had already been served and I ended up without anything to eat.  When I met Mr. Dubash the next morning at breakfast, he was quite amused and said that the lack of dinner served me right.

At the meeting, Mr. Dubash introduced me to J. Ross Stainton the Commercial Director of British Airways who had also taken the same BA flight the previous day.  Ross was very solicitous and invited me to drinks that evening at the residence of their local Manager.  It was a very impressive house and we had a pleasant evening which ended with a quiet dinner for the three of us, at a restaurant in town.  For me, the whole series of events on that trip were quite fortuitous as Ross Stainton and I became quite good friends over the next 10 to 15 years.  Not only did we spend many days and evenings together at IATA meetings, but we also played some golf, of which I will speak at a later time.

Missing the flight was a wake up call for me.  Since then, I have made it a point to leave for a flight well ahead of time and so far, I have not missed any more flights.  I now believe that getting to the airport well ahead of time removes any tension if one is stuck in traffic or gets into very long Security lines.

I accompanied Mr. Dubash many times in the years 1964 through 1967.  We attended meetings in London, Nassau in the Bahamas, Rome, Honolulu among other cities and for me, it was a great learning experience.  It ended when Mr. Dubash left in 1967 to join IATA.  Our last meeting together was the IATA Cargo Conference in Puerto Rico in 1967.

1964 was also a year when I discovered that I could not stand heights.  It happened in Rome where I was attending a meeting of the IATA Traffic Handling & Accountancy Working Group (THWG).  This Group designed the IATA Passenger tickets, Exchange Orders, Miscellaneous Charges Orders and Air Waybills.  We had a free Sunday and three of us (Ray from Qantas, Lena from IATA and myself) decided to explore Rome by walking which, incidentally, is the best way to see the great sites of this wonderful city.

After many sights, we arrived at Saint Peter’s where the consensus was to walk to the top of the church by using the catwalk outside the dome.  A bad decision as I soon discovered.  Half way up, my legs started to wobble and I ended by holding on to the side of the dome with both hands and looking up at the sky.  Ever since that day, I have stayed as far away as possible from high places.  I found this to be quite odd as I had had no problem walking up and looking down from the Qutab Minar in Delhi, in my childhood days, or for that matter, looking down from the Empire State Building in 1960 and the Eiffel Tower in 1962.

The 1964 Fall IATA Conference was held in Athens and this would be Mr. Malani’s last attendance at such meetings.  BK Mangaokar and I assisted him at Athens and I recall two remarkable events that took place.  One was when I received a call from my Uncle (my mother’s younger brother) from London to say that he and his wife were on their way back to Bombay and “how about a couple of days with you in Greece?”  I said sure and would they like to stay in my Hotel room while I moved in with BK?  He agreed and they arrived the next day.

The next evening my uncle wanted to “follow his nose” and eat at any restaurant where the aroma attracted it.  We went to the center of the town of Athens and found a small hole in the wall restaurant not quite different from an Irani shop in Bombay and ordered lamb chops, whose aroma had attracted my uncle’s nose.  

He asked for scotch and the owner produced a bottle from under the counter and ice which he sent his staff to get from his refrigerator in his house above the restaurant.  The lamb chops were excellent and for many years after, my uncle could not stop talking about the best meal he had eaten in a very long time.

Before leaving Athens for Bombay, my uncle gave me a large sum of money in UK Pounds as a gift for my honeymoon.  Manju and I were scheduled to marry two months later in New Delhi and had planned to spend our honeymoon in Switzerland and the U.K.  I could not have been more thankful as the gift was very timely and plentiful for our needs.  I arranged with a Swissair colleague to send the money to Mr. Balendu Shah, our Manager - Switzerland to hold for me until our arrival.

I got married to the most wonderful person in the world, on December 05, 1964 and among the guests were my roommates - Ashok Vaish, BL Nichani and Saroj Datta.  Also present were Jim Callery, the Commercial Manager of the Irish airline - Aer Lingus, accompanied by his wife Nora and one of my colleagues from the Tariffs Division Coover Patel.  I am saddened to say that all five, Ashok, Nichi, Saroj,Jim and Coover are no longer with us today.  Ashok and his wife Lalita did attend our Silver Wedding Anniversary in New York in 1989.

I am also very happy to say that Manju and I celebrated our Golden Anniversary last December with our children and grandchildren.

1965 was a great year.  Air-India sanctioned a housing allowance for me and we moved to a two bedroom apartment on Napean Sea Road which had previously been occupied by Sandy Sundaram who resigned as Asst. Sales Manager to join ICAO in Montreal.  I also received my promotion as Tariffs Manager, but not the grade of Senior Station Manager due to a rather interesting episode; the genesis of which eludes my memory.  

Apparently, the Officers (including myself) working on the 4th Floor of the Bank of India went on an agitation and decided not to wear a tie to work.  For the life of me, I cannot remember the reason.  As a matter of fact, Mr. Jitender Bhargava asked me this question while he was writing his book “The Descent of Air India” and I could not enlighten him.

What happened was that one of the group informed management that I was the instigator when actually, all I did was to agree to join the group.  Nonetheless, I suffered because of this incorrect and malicious statement and my promotion to the SSM grade was deferred by one year.

Manju and I were blessed with our first born.  Akhil came into this world on October 19, 1965 and he and his lovely wife Sunanda live in New Jersey with our two wonderful grandsons, Viraj and Tarun.  Viraj is a great baseball player and his room is festooned with many trophies while Tarun is a great artist and we have some wonderful paintings done by him.  I depend upon both the boys to help me out with the problems that I constantly have with my iPhone, iPad and my iMac.

I also got a telephone in 1966.  For those who have lived in India through the decades of 1950 through 1980 in India, having a residential phone was not only a luxury but a great status symbol.  The waitlist was as long as one can imagine and even those on a “priority” list had to wait for years.  Well, Sandy Sundaram was entitled to a phone in his job as Asst. Sales Manager and was on such a priority list.  However, he left AI before the phone could be installed (he had resigned more than a year earlier) and when the technician rang the bell and announced that he had a phone for me, I was overjoyed.

I spoke with Mr. Kooka the next day and he agreed to my request to leave the phone in the house.  I still recall is words when he said - OK, you have earned this perk.  MOTIVATION - where did this word disappear in Air-India after 1980?

I don’t recall anything of great importance happening in my life until 1968 when some changes occurred.  Air-India allowed me a two bedroom apartment in Jupiter on Anstey Road.  It was a new building almost next door to JRD Tata’s residence.  Sometime during this year, I noticed a new and young face walking in the large room in which  a number of us had desks. On raising an enquiry, I was informed that this new employee was Michael Mascarenhas who had just joined us after graduating from Cambridge University.

I promptly walked into Mr. Kooka’s office (yes, some of us could “walk in” after a knock on his door).  He looked up and said “Yes, you can have Mascarenhas”.  I was astonished that he knew why I had come to see him and he told me that he had been expecting my visit and that his only request was that I groom him like I myself had been groomed by my bosses.

I could see the potential in this young lad right from the day he came to work in Tariffs and I made it one of my missions to ensure that not only did he have the grounding that I had received but also, the opportunities of foreign postings; something that I lacked. This would greatly assist in rounding off his experience.  I was a very proud person the day I learnt that Michael had taken over as Managing Director.  Young Michael (I still call him by that name) justified my faith and interest in him.

An interesting turn of events took place with the addition of Michael to the Tariffs Division.  It had been our practice to meet the RD and the Sales Manager in New York just before an IATA Conference on passenger fares and our brief would take shape only after getting their views.

It was Michael who questioned the practice.  He recommended that we do our own independent studies and conduct market surveys not only in North America but also in other parts of the world which would and should be the basis of our brief on fares and rates.  It just shows that you need a fresh and independent mind to “tweak” and “update” age old philosophies and practices.

A major change is taking place in Air-India.  A change of guard at the top with another new CMD taking charge; another one who has absolutely no experience of the highly competitive commercial world.

The old CMD, who will stay for another month handing over to his successor, spoke with Anjuli Bhargava on August 22, 2015 and “tooted his own horn” of his achievements during the four years that he had been at the helm of the airline.  Did he speak of his failure to complete the merger which is now in its 8th year?  A BIG RESOUNDING “NO”. We still have many loose ends.  The integration of Pilots’ salaries is a major case in point.

Did he speak of the losses incurred during the past 3 years. Again, a BIG RESOUNDING “NO”. The NET loss during these years has been:

2012-13 5,490 crores

2013-14 5,380 crores

2014-15 5,547 crores

Did he achieve a reduction in expenditure?  Since losses have not decreased, one can only surmise that there has been no decrease in expenses.  At the same time, it is interesting to note that the loss in in 2014-15 increased by 3.1% over the previous year, while revenues were almost static (0.6%).

In other words, AI’s expenditure has risen which must raise eyebrows since Fuel costs, which represent a major portion of expenses have come down substantially due to the drop in oil prices.

To cap it all, a recent Air-India Press release states in its last paragraph that “There has been, however, a nominal increase in the aircraft maintenance cost, which during 2014-15 stood at Rs.1145 crore as compared to Rs.830.81 crore on 2011-12.

The actual increase is 37.95% and I question who in his sane mind would consider this as “a nominal increase”.  Who are you kidding, Mr. Nandan?

Mr. Nandan also listed as one of his achievements the discontinuance of the flights to Canada which were operating at a loss.  Then, how does he justify the Australian operations which have been losing millions of dollars from the get go?  These flights were started during his tenure.

So, my parting words to Mr. Nandan are - You did a great job in following orders of your superiors in the Ministry.   Your annual appraisals must have reflected how good you are in following orders and instructions and hence, have been rewarded by a promotion.  Congratulations and I hope you will continue the same “Ji Hazoori” wherever you are posted.

Promod Gupta sent me a Blog written on August 28, 2015 by the incoming CMD and I was delighted to read how highly he speaks of the teamwork and the great efforts put in by his staff in ITDC and the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Department during his stewardship of these Organizations.

I have always maintained that Air-India’s biggest asset was its staff.  To be quite factual, that was the case while I was still with the airline.  Morale took a steep decline during the 1980s and thereafter.  

If I can take the liberty of making any suggestions to the new CMD, it would be that his first task would be to raise morale and motivate the staff.  

Here, I would like to quote an extract from the Blog of the incoming incumbent:

QUOTE

I often remember with great pride, the rise from abyss of men during the days ITDC was being hived off. The tremendous zeal that my men then displayed to pull the organization out of the red and compete with the best in the private sector often make my eyes swell with tear and pride.

UNQUOTE 

I hope the new CMD can say the same when it comes time to relinquish the reins at Air-India.  

Hopefully, the new CMD will exercise independent judgement and not succumb to the orders and instructions from politicians and bureaucrats, or am I wishing for too much?

The new CMD faces many major issues and some of these will be (not necessarily in order of priority):

1. Interference and orders from politicians and bureaucrats.

2. Morale - this is so low that one wonders if ever it will reach bottom.

3. The Merger - it has been almost 8 years and till now there are many loose ends.  For example, the parity of salaries of pilots.  Medical benefits for spouses of retired staff has been equalized only last month.

4. Quality of service. It is at an all time low.  Flights have taken off without TOILET PAPER. 

5. On time performance - Air-India is at the bottom or very close to it of all the Indian airlines.

6. Decision making - no one wants to take any decisions because:

A. He or she does not get any credit for doing so

B. Initiative is not rewarded 

C. Lack of motivation

  7. Utilization of aircraft - the turnaround time must be cut down to get better     utilization and hence, lower breakeven load factors.

  8. Operating aircraft on routes for which they have been designed.  For   example, the new 787 aircraft is being operated on short haul domestic routes.  This aircraft was designed to operate long haul flights for better economics, not short haul.

  9. Discipline - the cabin crew are “showing the finger” to Management.  They either do not show up for flights or report sick.  Now we hear that they will be paid an “INCENTIVE” to operate Hajj flights on time.  Shades of the old PLI given to all staff to do what their job functions require.

The new CMD has a very unenviable task and I hope he has the stomach and the guts to stand up to the demands of the politicians and bureaucrats.