A few days ago, I learnt of the passing away of Dr. Arun Misra and I was reminded of the day when he appeared for his interview.  It was sometime in 1969 and I recall quite vividly seeing his face at the interview which was conducted by a Panel comprising Mr. Rama Rao, Mr. Balendu Shah and myself.  Soon after his initial training, Arun was placed in the Revenue Pools Section of the Planning Division which was headed by me as C.M. - Planning.

I recall taking Arun as a member of our team for several Pool talks.  However, after I moved as C. M. - Marketing & Sales, I lost close touch with him, but was aware that some time later, he had also moved from Planning to Commercial.  My last contact with Arun Misra was at a meeting of the Air-India Retired Executives Association conducted by him as President, in New Delhi in 2009.

Arun Misra’s passing away made me realize that another generation of Air-India executives has started to leave us.  Even though Arun was only 3 or 4 years younger than me, to me he represented a younger generation as he joined the airline about 12 years after I had joined in 1957.  

As I look around us, only a very few of my generation are still on this earth.  A very sobering thought indeed and a reminder that life is short and so let’s make the most of it.

Sometime in 1978, I was approached by Camelia Panjabi and Sam Gubbay of the Taj Group of hotels with a proposition.  They had approached Bloomingdales, a major Department Store in the USA to host an India exhibition to showcase India’s various products, including but not limited to carpets, draperies, towels and linen, clothing, brassware, handicrafts and furniture.

Bloomingdales expressed an interest in such a venture but needed a vehicle to transport all Indian goods and here is where Air-India’s participation was requested.  I mentioned the idea to Peter Mahta who said that with Bloomingdales’ vast coverage, Air-India stood to gain considerable publicity provided we ensured that the agreement was constructed to achieve this effect.

I suggested to Peter that he should arrange a meeting and discuss the issue with Bloomingdales.  Peter called to say that he had spoken with Marvin Traub, Bloomingdales’s Chairman who requested that I meet with him on my next visit to the USA.  Accordingly, we met when I was in NYC later that year and Bloomingdales asked if Air-India would carry all the items to be displayed on its aircraft free of charge.

I said that the idea appealed to us, but we would not be agreeable to cover the entire cost of freight.  Additionally, we required that, in turn, we be given adequate publicity in their stores.  Bloomingdales had done their homework and gave us an estimated figure of the freight costs.  We agreed on a smaller amount for a Transportation Service Contract with the balance to be paid by Bloomingdales.  It was also agreed that the details would be worked out by representatives of both parties.  

Mr. Traub then asked if I would join him in holding Press Conferences in the major cities of India and USA to promote this venture.  I agreed to his request with respect to India but suggested that the P.R. Conferences in the USA be handled by Peter Mahta. 

After lunch in their Board room, Marvin Traub requested that Peter and I take a short tour of their flagship store with him, where he would demonstrate some of his ideas for displaying Indian merchandise.

I held three Press Conferences in India (Bombay, Madras and Delhi) jointly with Marvin Traub and we did get considerable publicity in the media.

Peter forwarded to me an invitation to a Black tie opening of the India exhibition held simultaneously at all Bloomingdales stars but I regretted my inability to leave India at that time.  Peter later sent me a detailed letter wherein he expressed great satisfaction at the exposure that Air-India received throughout the period when Indian manufactured goods were displayed at these stores.

Interestingly, this cooperation between AI and Bloomingdales did not go unnoticed by the opposition.  I was attending a Cargo Convention in New Delhi at which the keynote speaker was my old friend James Montgomery, Sr. V.P. Marketing and Sales of Pan American Airways. Jim pointed to me in the audience and said something to the effect that Bloomingdales’ India exhibition had been a great success and he wanted to congratulate Air-India and his old friend Inder Sethi in getting India and its products better known in the USA.

I wonder how many of us have been subjected to an investigation by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI).  My first contact with the CBI came in 1978 when they asked me if I had availed of hospitality overseas.  I met with the Joint Director of the CBI and answered all his questions and, as desired by him, gave him a written response.  The matter was “deemed” closed until this investigation was raised at the infamous COPU inquisition, headed by J. Bosu.

I informed Bosu that the CBI had told me that they were satisfied with my answers, to which he remarked that I must have bribed the officers concerned. Air Chief Marshal P.C. Lal asked him if he was insinuating that CBI’s top executives were accepting bribes, at which point he changed the subject.

My next contact came when my wife called me that the CBI was conducting a raid of some of the apartments in our building “Sterling Apartments” and that she had been informed to be ready for a visit by its staff.  When I got home that evening, she related me the following events:

1. Three officers came and one went to the master bedroom, while the other two took an inventory of the remaining rooms.
2. The officer who went to the master bedroom came out and told the others - “we are wasting our time.  They don’t even have a bathtub. Let’s go”.
3. However, one officer took great interest in the TV set in our living room and asked for the License which my wife produced.  This officer then stated that the address shown on the License did not match at which time my wife explained that when we got the TV, we were living in Jupiter Apartments.
4. The CBI officers left soon after.

A couple of days later I received a call from a member of the Bombay Branch of the CBI stating that they were levying a penalty of Rs. 25 on the TV License as it did not contain the correct address. I promptly paid the fine.

After a period of about 6 months, I received another call from the same Branch member.  This time, he was very apologetic and stated that his staff would be conducting another raid on our apartment.  He went on to state that his office had received an anonymous complaint that we had 25 radios in our apartment.

I asked him if he was serious and was he sure that when his staff had conducted the previous raid, that they had overlooked this large quantity of radios.  He once again apologized and stated that he was convinced that we could not have such a large number but he had no alternative but to conduct the raid and that as a courtesy, he was giving me advance notice.

I told him to go ahead and informed my wife to expect another raid in the next 15 minutes.  The raid was conducted and nothing amiss was found.  I did get another call, once again apologizing and requesting that they be forgiven for causing us inconvenience.

I spoke to the Joint Director of the CBI who said that by now, it should be obvious to me that some of my colleagues were jealous of my status and that all three incidents starting from the case of overseas hospitality resulted from anonymous information, which they suspected came from within Air-India.  He hinted that someone in the executive offices wanted his way clear to the top job and that I should “watch my back”.

I was looking through some of the boxes that I had brought from our house in New jersey that we sold earlier this year and when we moved permanently to Florida.  One little document brought back a lot of memories.

Even before I left Delhi to join Air-India in Bombay, Morarji Desai had introduced prohibition in the state and one needed a “permit” to drink.  I was too young to be entitled to a permit and at the same time, I did not have any medical reason which could have allowed me to request for a permit.  So, in our bachelors apartment on “A” Road in Churchgate, with a few exceptions, we drank liquor supplied to us by a bootlegger.

Two of these exceptions come readily to my mind.  The first was a very generous uncle (my mother’s brother) who on occasion gave me a few bottles of beer.  The second was a visit by a team of Sales staff who came from the USA for familiarization. Unfortunately, for us, most of the liquor they brought was actually liqueur and not scotch or brandy.

It was also a lesson that we learnt when we realized that the worst hangover is when one has imbibed too much liqueur.

Our bootlegger did not have much variety in his offerings.  Our need was tempered by our limited funds (a subject that I will dwell upon later in this Post).  His specialty was rum which he brought from Calcutta.  The rum was purchased from his contact in the Indian Army and he brought two trunk loads on each trip. 

After two years of drinking rum and coca cola, our taste buds had disappeared and there are times even now, when I can taste XXX Rum.  Considering that I have not had a drink for over 25 years, that is quite a “feat”.

It was only sometime in the late 1960s that I found a way to get a permit.  Ramesh Sattawalla who was in our P.R. Department and an old friend from my pre-AI days arranged an appointment with the Surgeon General.  I walked in to his office and without any preamble, he told me that since I was suffering from insomnia, he was recommending the grant of a permit which would allow me to have ONE drink each night before going to bed.

I was ecstatic and readily agreed to his request to get him a new stethoscope which he wanted from the U.K.

The little document that I referred to earlier is this Permit which allowed me to purchase, possess and consume liquor in the State of Maharashtra.  Of course, the one still in my possession has no limit, but my very first permit limited possession to one unit (1 liter of hard liquor or 9 bottles of beer).

Looking at this permit, I find that it expired on August 29, 1980 - exactly 8 days after I put in my papers.  Did Fate have a hand in my decision to leave Air-India and India?

Coming back to my reference to our limited funds, it so happened that as a coincidence, all of us roommates were broke around the 20th of each month, with the exception of B.L. (Nichi) Nichani who being a Purser, had more funds than any of us.  It became a routine for me to collect whatever little money that the rest of us had and go out looking for a card game.  

It may seem unbelievable, but in almost every month, I managed to come back, not loaded with cash, but enough for the kitchen to last till the end of the month.  It may also appear unbelievable that since my bachelor days, I have never won in cards or in any other form of gambling.  Whenever we go out to a Casino with our friends, I am the only one who never plays and I come back as rich or poor as when I entered the Casino.

Just goes to show that I truly lucked out - I am lucky in love with a most affectionate and wonderful spouse.