When I took over the post of Commercial Director, I was still occupying the cabin next door to that occupied by Nari Dastur.  Even though Mr. Dastur was now Deputy M.D (Commercial), he stayed in the same corner office on the 17th Floor and did not move up to the 22nd Floor.

After a couple of months, I manage to “nudge” him into relinquishing the corner office and I finally moved into the “big” office which had previously been occupied by Mr. Kooka and Mr. Dastur.  Before moving, Mr. Dastur had one piece of advice for me - ALWAYS KEEP YOUR DOOR OPEN.  Let your staff have free access to you.

I am proud to state that I religiously followed this advice and was available to anyone not only during office hours but also at home or on flights.  Here, I would like to relate two instances.

First, when on a flight, some cabin crew members wanted to talk to me, I remember my wife complaining - when can you get some quiet time?  You see the staff during office hours and then get phone calls at home.  Why cannot you be allowed to relax on a flight?  I told her that while ground staff had the opportunity to come to my office, this was perhaps the only time that cabin crew could have my undivided attention and that I would not be true to my assignment if I turned them away.

Second, I was awakened by a call around 11:30pm and a rather inebriated voice introduced itself and asked “when will I get my promotion?”  I must have spoken rather rudely to this voice and asked him to meet me in my office the next day.  He said that he was speaking from Delhi and requested if he come the day following, to which I agreed.  He appeared and very sheepishly apologized for his action.  Although I have tried to refrain from mentioning names in my Blogs, I must make an exception at this time.

As the story goes, two gentlemen - Satish Khanna and Gopal Kapoor were spending an evening at Gopal’s house in Delhi and after a few drinks, decided to unburden themselves of their problems and Satish complained that he had not received his “well deserved” promotion for quite some time.  Gopal asked Satish if he had approached the C.D. and when Satish replied in the negative, was advised that the “door to the C.D.’s office is always open” and “why don’t you speak with him”.  At which stage, Gopal promptly got out his telephone book, checked the number, called my residence and handed over the phone to Satish Khanna.

I told Satish that Yes, my door is always open, but during office hours and not when I am asleep at 11:30pm.  I then reassured him that I would look into his case and that his case would be reviewed to his satisfaction.  I don’t recall what exactly happened to his promotion, but when I had left AI and was living in the USA, I received a call from Satish Khanna saying that he was now posted in the USA as Marketing Manager - USA and that he wanted once again to apologize for his rude behavior.  I told him that I bore no grudge and wished him well in his new assignment.

One reason for my relating this incident is that many years later, Satish Khanna (having retired and settled in Westchester County) passed away.  I received a call from Andy Bhatia who informed me that a memorial service had been scheduled at a place of worship and that I may wish to attend.  I did so and paid my respects to Satish’s wife and family.  I was disappointed to see that there was not a single ex-colleague from Air-India at this service.  I knew Andy had a previous engagement, but the absence of any other AI employee or ex-employee was a disappointment.

Here, I would like to make some comments on the very important subject of promotions and I will start with my own career with Air-India.  I had joined in January 1957 in the grade of Junior Officer - a grade which was abolished a few years later.  I was recommended for promotion to the Asst. Station Superintendent grade for effectiveness April 1, 1959 but the actual date was postponed till November 1, 1959.

I only found out about this change when, a few years later, Harish Malik confessed that he was responsible for the delay as his own promotion to the same grade was not recommended at the time when mine was and he worked hand in glove with his then boss to ensure that both of us were promoted on the same date.  At that time, Harish was in the Administrative Section which processed all recommendations and hence, he and his boss could and did play this role.

On April 1, 1962, both Harish Malik and I were promoted to the Station Superintendent grade.  Harsh also received a transfer as Asst. Manager - East Africa and left for Nairobi.  I was  promoted to the next three higher grades at short intervals - 

Station Manager - Apr 1, 1964

Sr. Station Manager - Apr 1, 1967

Commercial Manager - Planning - Dec 1, 1968

In all these cases, certain factors played a vital role as in the normal course, I could not have received such accelerated promotions.

Firstly, I had been offered a job by IATA in April 1963 which I had turned down, but which came to the notice of Mr. A.F. Dubash, Planning Director.  He was at that time, trying to work out a succession plan for the department as a whole and my promotions up to the Sr. SM grade fit into his plan, when on April 1, 1967, I took over as Tariffs Manager from Mr. J.C. Malani.

The promotion to the Commercial Manager grade came as a complete surprise to me and the following events will show how external issues played a major role.

Mr. Dubash left Air-India sometime in 1967 to join IATA as Compliance Director.  He recommended that AI hire H.L. Sikka as CM - Planning. Mr. Sikka was then Planning Manager with Aden Airways, based in Aden.  However, Lal Sikka had other ideas - he did not want to come back to India but agreed to join AI on the condition that for a few years, he should stay overseas.  

Both Joe Andrade and Luis Cabral (Planning Managers) made a strong bid to head the department. Mr. Kooka offered Luis Cabral the post of CM - Planning but not control of the Tariffs division, which Luis did not accept.  Luis left AI and joined Kuwait Airways and I ended up getting the surprise of my life when Mr. Kooka offered me the entire Planning department - Tariffs, Commercial Planning and International Relations.

At a later stage and in another Blog(s), I will speak about my further rise in the airline, but at this stage, would just indicate the various factors which resulted in my getting 5 promotions in the space of 11 years, which was not the norm in the Air-India that we all knew.

However, it is my understanding that as a general policy, promotions to grades up to and including Sr. Station Managers were seniority/merit based.  Since there were very few openings in the Commercial Manager/Regional Manager grade, promotions to this grade were primarily on merit and suitability.  There were a few exceptions as indicate below:

There was the case of one staff member whose brother-in-law was the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  Two others who benefitted from the then South Indian Raj and a fourth, on whose promotion and selection as RD - India brought out the following comment from Eric D’Silva, who was well known for his caustic comments:

“There are those who are born great; those who achieve greatness and then the final lot who have greatness thrust open them.”

There were three Sr. Station Managers whose names came up for promotion to the C.M. grade in the last four years of my career with Air-India.  Their cases were reviewed by the Senior Panel, comprising the Director of Personnel, The Finance Director and myself.  Each year, the Panel did not recommend them for promotion.  In  1976 and 1977, the cases were then reviewed by the Dy. MD and the M.D., both of whom indicated their agreement.  In 1978, 1979 and 1980 (my last year of service), I spent quite some time going through their service records and could not but agree with the recommendation.

In 1980, we had yet another change at the top and Mr. Raghu Raj received appeals from all three for reconsideration.  Mr. Raghu Raj called for their files and after a review, discussed their cases with me.  He felt that although on merit, he did not see the way to promote them, he wanted to give them consideration based on long service.  I advised against this move as it would send the wrong message - staff would expect longevity to prevail and if we took this to its logical conclusion, the same staff would then expect to be promoted as Dy. Commercial Directors and Commercial Directors.  

The question that should be primary in our mind should be “is this staff member fit to lead or are we merely avoiding our responsibility in developing a succession plan?

Raghu Raj asked me to leave the files on his desk and as I anticipated, he promoted all three after my departure from the airline.  This, to my mind, set a precedent and it was not long after that we had massive promotions based upon time served and the net result of over 100 people in the grade of Commercial Manager.  Who needed motivation to rise - just serve the right number of years and you will get to the top!!

After my departure, I have seen not only Regional Heads, but also Commercial Directors whom I would not have recommended for promotion beyond the Sr. S.M. grade.  I know of at least three Commercial Directors who got to the top entirely because of being “YES MEN” and another who came from outside and was the “chamcha” of the then Aviation Minister.  He was the one responsible for the non-stop operations to NYC with a 14 hour layover.  Without an aviation background, it is not difficult to see that he had no clue of aircraft utilization and its benefits in reducing break-even load factors.

Then, there were and still are Regional Heads who could not compare with the caliber and quality of people such as Peter Mahta, Maneck Dalal , Merwan Nanporia and Nikka Qadir, whose background, experience and leadership skills brought out the best in their subordinates.

Sad, very sad, when I see the quality of the top management in the Commercial Department in recent years, going back to the late 1980s.  They are now posting Regional Heads who have spent their entire careers at a desk at Head Office - they have never spent a day in a field office nor have they traveled to see how tickets are sold or met with Travel Agents, Consolidators or Tour Operators.

But then, what can one expect from an airline which has degraded itself from a “top of the pack” cosmopolitan airline of a third world country to a third rate ethnic carrier of the same third world country.  Who needs sophistication when the majority of our traffic is ethnic.  

Even the recent Babus who have held the post of Chief Executive dress as ….. what did you expect, babus.

I wonder how many of my former colleagues and those who joined Air-India after I left, saw and read the booklet “Foolishly Yours” which was the brainchild of Mr. S.K. Kooka, our first Commercial Director.  This booklet was placed in every seat pocket of our aircraft.

The booklet spoke and described in a humorous manner the service on board the airline and poked fun at both the passengers and the airline staff.  As an example, there was a cartoon showing the Maharajah embracing a passenger upon deplaning and collecting the cutlery from the passenger’s pockets that he, the passenger, was attempting to take away.

Mr. Kooka did not even spare the Chairman when he wrote that all passengers should check the seat backs and pockets to ensure that they did not leave behind any valuables.  He went on to hint that the Patek Philippe watch that the Chairman was wearing may have been left behind by a passenger.

This particular and rather expensive watch has always held a particular fascination for me, but the price was way beyond my reach and it was an unbelievable surprise when on a visit to Florida last week, my younger son, Sarat, presented me with one.  Sarat’s company had recently undergone a restructuring and he became Co-Managing Partner.  To commemorate this event, he had purchased the watch for me.  I wear it with great pride and joy.

Speaking of purloining cutlery from airlines, I had, in my bachelor days, decided to collect a piece of cutlery from every airline that I traveled on and it was not too long before, our bachelor pad at “A” Road in Churchgate had a complete set of cutlery for 8 persons.  However, not one piece matched another.  Needless to state, this collection remained in the apartment when I moved out after getting married, as was our tradition.

In one of my earlier Blogs, I have spoken about my very dear and close friend Yash Johar, a well known and established film producer.  In my career with Air-India but mainly after I had reached the top of the Commercial Department, I had the good fortune of meeting and getting to know, a few other film personalities, including Waheeda Rehman, Sanjay Khan and my screen idol, Nargis.

Sanjay Khan came to see me when he was planning to produce Sona Chandi on the island of Mauritius.  He wanted a number of free tickets and also free carriage of baggage and equipment.  In return for publicity, we agreed to some of his requirements with regard to free tickets and also rebated (but not free) carriage of cargo.  He invited me and my wife to dinner at his home but failed to mention that his guest of honor was Sir Seewoosagar Ramgoolam, the Prime Minister of Mauritius.

When introducing me to the P.M. he requested the latter to try and convince me to give him additional free tickets and free carriage of baggage and cargo.  The P.M. first told Sanjay that not only did he know me, but that I had been his guest at a Mauritian Parliamentary session, followed by lunch.  He then told him that he would not take advantage of this relationship to make any such request.

Sanjay took this in his stride and we soon became good friends although he would remind me of my “stinginess” whenever we happened to meet in the future.

I was present at the Centaur Hotel at Bombay airport when Sanjay negotiated the deal to produce the film Tipu Sultan by purchasing the rights from Bhagwan Gidwani who was the author.  I had known Bhagwan for many years - first when he was DG - Tourism and later when he took over as the DGCA.  Bhagwan insisted that I witness the negotiation and signing the rights over to Sanjay and I could not resisting getting my own back at Sanjay when I stated that he had “swindled” Bhagwan as the amount of money that changed hands was a pittance.

We had a good meeting followed by lunch.  Sanjay did produce this movie a few years after I had left India, but I was saddened to learn that he had an accident at the sets. 

My meeting with Nargis had nothing to do with the film industry.  One morning, my Secretary informed me that a Mrs. Dutt would like to call on me and I agreed to meet her the next day.  Imagine my surprise when Aban, our receptionist walked into my office and announced with great flair, that my visitor was none other than the Queen of the Silver Screen.

Nargis was accompanied by another lady who was introduced as the President of the Spastics Society and that she (Nargis) was its Chief Patron.  The President of the Society gave me a short presentation and its need to generate funds for its working and then asked if it was, at all possible, for Air-India to assist the Society.  She mentioned that it had come to her attention that AI sent out UNICEF Christmas and New Year cards and Nargis enquired if we could purchase a small quantity from the Spastic Society.

I replied in the affirmative and promptly spoke on the intercom with Jal Cowasjee, our Publicity Manager.  Jal told me that our annual purchase was 10,000 cards and I told him that we should henceforth take 50% from the Spastics Society and that I was requesting their president to meet with him and finalise the purchase.  Not being privy to what Jal had told me on the intercom, Nargis enquired how many cards would 50% represent and was overjoyed to learn that we would buy 5,000 cards from the Society.

Both she and the President left my office in a very happy mood and I, in turn, spent the rest of the day wondering how I would describe this meeting to my wife.

A couple to days later, I received a call from Nargis inviting us to dinner at her residence in Bandra which I accepted with alacrity.  Nargis greeted us with great warmth and introduced us to her husband, Sunil Dutt. I mentioned that I had met him many, many years ago and when he asked me to elaborate, I told him the following:

The year was 1959 and I was living with my cousin Ravi Sawhney and his family on Altamount Road.  On the salary of an Asst. Station Superintendent, there was no way that I could live independently.  

One weekend, the door bell rang and I went to answer it.  A very personable young man asked if he could meet my cousin and I said sure and asked for his name.  He answered “Balraj”.  I  escorted him to the living room and then went to tell my cousin that he had a visitor named Balraj.  I retired to my bedroom and a while later heard them talk and laugh.  After a while, the visitor left and my cousin came to my bedroom and enquired “how come you did not recognize him”?  

I said that he looked familiar but that I could not place him and the name did not ring any bell.  My cousin said that the gentleman was indeed none other than the film star Sunil Dutt and that Balraj was his given name.  My cousin went on to state that Balraj’s family and our families were well known to each other prior to Partition when we lived in what is now Pakistan.

When I related this incident to Sunil Dutt, he enveloped me in a big hug stating that I was a long lost cousin, second or third removed. It did not take very long for Manju and me to develop a close friendship with Nargis and Sunil and we did meet quite often.

It is interesting to note here that their son, Sanjay Dutt’s middle name is “Balraj”.

Quite soon thereafter, Nargis and Khushwant Singh, the editor of the Illustrated Weekly were nominated Members of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and Murli Deora who was then the Mayor Of Bombay threw a Reception to celebrate this event.  We received an invitation to attend and since I had met and got to know the Mayor quite well, accepted the invite but asked if I could bring a house guest; a request that was granted.  Brij Mehra, our Sales Manager, US West Coast was visiting and staying with us.  Brij and I go back many decades to our college days and in fact, I was instrumental in his joining Air-India.

At the reception, when Nargis and Sunil arrived, Nargis was almost mobbed by her admirers and well wishers.  Sunil, upon seeing me, came over and greeted me with a big hug, lifting me off my feet in the process.  Brij saw this and asked me how come I was on such friendly terms with Sunil.  I gave him a brief background but he did not appear convinced.  “Ask him for dinner at your apartment on the coming Saturday” said Brij and so, I spoke to Sunil.  He said that he would consult “Bhabhi” which was how I addressed Nargis and came back confirming the dinner.

I invited a couple of other common friends and we had a very enlightening evening.  Sunil got so involved in the discussions that one guest wondered who was the real MP - Nargis or Sunil.  Little did we realize that Sunil would soon embark on his own political journey, becoming first the Sheriff of Bombay; then a Member of parliament and eventually a Cabinet Minister.

It was with a very heavy heart that we learnt that Nargis had developed cancer and this coincided with my leaving Air-India and joining Kuwait Airways.  I was in the USA at that time and we visited Nargis at Sloan Kettering hospital in NYC.  She greeted us and jokingly asked if she and Sunil should now travel on KU instead of AI.  Sadly, she never recovered and soon hereafter, passed away.

Our friendship with Sunil continued and we were guests at Sanjay Dutt’s wedding.  After Nargis passed away, Sunil set up the Nargis Dutt Foundation in the USA which still exists and contributes to cancer cure in India.  We held a small and intimate dinner at our house in Tenably, New Jersey on the occasion of the first Fund Raiser of the Foundation in New York.

Subsequently, and after Sunil Dutt’s death, some events took place here in the USA regarding some personalities involved and my wife and I discontinued our participation in the Foundation.

Before ending this Blog, I must relate an amusing incident which took place when my wife and I returned to our apartment on Pedder Road after an evening out with friends.  In line with  our practice, we hadn’t taken our house keys and rang the bell and the door was opened by our cook/housekeeper.  Unlike all previous occasions, this time she stood in the doorway barring our entry; looked directly at me and accusingly asked “why has Asha Parekh sent you flowers?”

I was non plussed as I did not recall ever meeting this famous actress and confessed that I had no clue.  I promised to check the next morning and after receiving this assurance, we were allowed to enter our apartment.  Next day, I asked Anil Kadam, my Executive Assistant and he told me that Asha Parekh had recently traveled to Europe and one of her staff had asked for special handling which he had arranged.  The gift of flowers must have been a token of her gratitude.

I mentioned this to our cook/housekeeper who accepted this explanation, but did not appear quite happy.  I have to add that she always took a very paternal attitude towards us and our children and even when my wife went out on occasions when I was out of station, she said to her on departure “call me when you get to your destination”. 

Read an interesting article where a Mexican Prison was running a restaurant for the public.  The restaurant was staffed by inmates of the prison and attracted a very large upscale clientele.

For some reason, the article took me back many years to the late 1970s when a Manager at one of our African stations was held in a local prison for a number of days and we were unaware of his whereabouts.  We notified the Indian Embassy who were unable to help. It so happened that the Manager was quite outspoken against the policies of the then Government in that country and one of the local staff took umbrage at this attitude.

This local staff reported the Manager to the Government authorities who put him in the prison.  While in the prison, this Manager refused to eat the food served to him and stated that he was a vegetarian and would eat only Indian vegetarian food.  The prison authorities looked at some Indian restaurants in the city and fortunately for him, picked on the one restaurant that he frequented.

The owner of this restaurant promptly notified the Indian Embassy that he was supplying Indian vegetarian food to an inmate and suspected that this inmate was none other than the person that the Embassy was looking for.

The Embassy promptly took notice and with their efforts, managed to get the Manager released upon the condition that we withdraw him immediately from that country, which we did.

Getting back to my last Blog, I have two more anecdotes to relate about the then Aviation Secretary (Mr. Naik).  I was informed by Head Office (22nd Floor) one day that Mr. Naik would be leading the Indian delegation to Nairobi for talks with the Kenyans and had asked that I, in my capacity as Dy. MD, be a member of the team.

I took this opportunity to convene an African Sales Conference in Nairobi and assembled a team for both the Bilateral talks and the Sales meeting to join me on this trip.

Our flight to Nairobi was scheduled to depart at an early hour of the morning and Mr. Naik asked me to join him for dinner the night before in his suite at the Centaur hotel at Bombay airport.  Dinner, unfortunately, became a very late one as Mr. Naik was in the mood for drinks and good “Shayrie”.  I don’t remember the exact time I staggered into my bed, but it was very close to departure time and when I boarded the aircraft, I mentioned to the Inflight Supervisor that I wanted to sleep and did not want to be disturbed for breakfast.

I had two seats in the last row in First Class.  The IFS made me a bed and I lay down to what I hoped was a long sleep until we were close to arriving in Nairobi.  Unfortunately, my colleague and dear friend Avinash Mahajan (then C.M - Marketing & Sales) decided to tell the air hostess that she should wake up the sleeping gentleman in the last row for breakfast.

When she stated that she was told not to disturb Mr. Sethi, Avinash informed her that he was Mr. Sethi and that the sleeping gentleman was Mr. Mahajan, who needed to eat meals at regular times for medical reasons.  So, I was rather rudely awakened, by a pat on my backside and told to get up, straighten my seat back and get ready for breakfast.

I do not believe that air hostess ever made a faster 10 yard dash back to galley when I threw away my blanket and promised to sack her if she dared to touch me again.  I also believe that she went to the IFS  and in tears, related the incident.  The IFS gave her another ear bender when she described the passenger who had spoken so rudely to her.

By then, my sleep had been disturbed and I managed to calm her down after both of us received an apology from Avinash Mahajan.

The meeting in Nairobi went off quite well except for a minor issue.  The Secretary informed our R.M. that he wanted “paans” to be served during the meeting with the Kenyans and a plate was produced accordingly.  The Secretary took one pan and passed the plate to me.  I took one and soon felt unwell.  I excused myself and went to the toilet where I brought up my  breakfast and when I had not returned to the meeting for some time, the R.M. came looking for me and found me in a rather disturbing state.

A doctor was summoned who quickly diagnosed the problem.  I had eaten a paan which contained tobacco, something which I had never taken before.  I did not attend the meeting the rest of the day and spent the entire time in my hotel bed.

During our visit to Nairobi, Mr. Naik brought up the name of our Sales Manager in Manila and asked if this person could be transferred to a U.S. or European station.  I told Mr. Naik that I would take his request under advisement.  It is pertinent to mention that on my return to Bombay, I did not take the desired action but placed a notation in the Personnel File of the staff that he should NOT be transferred to either the USA or Europe upon the end of his current posting as we would not and could not tolerate or encourage any staff using political influence to get the posting of his/her choice.

It is interesting to note that the staff concerned did eventually get to the USA, but that over a decade had passed before such a posting came through.

My next encounter with an Aviation Secretary came when Air-India hosted a meeting of the IATA Traffic Committee, of which I was a member.  The meeting was held in New Delhi and as the host airline, I requested my colleagues in the Travel Industry to host a cocktail or dinner.  This would also give members of the industry an opportunity to meet members of the Committee who were very senior officials (Senior VPs and Commercial Directors) of various airlines.

I was delighted when the Travel Agents Association of India and the Hotel Federation hosted a function.

At that time, Air-India was handicapped in that we could not serve alcohol at our functions and so, we found a large residence in New Delhi where TAAI hosted their cocktails in the front lawn and Air-India hosted a dinner in the lawn at the rear of this residence.

Invitations were sent out to all concerned including senior Government officials involved in Aviation and Tourism.

The then Aviation Secretary, a Mr. Bhatnagar declined the invitations from TAAI and AI and went so far as to make an official complaint of Air Chief Marshall P.C. Lal, our Chairman that AI was flouting Government orders on the question of serving alcohol.

The Air Chief spoke to me about the complaint and with a smile on his face, said that I had committed a grevious error - I should not have invited the Aviation Secretary.

The last Aviation Secretary that I had the dubious pleasure of working with was a Mr. Venkataraman and while I did meet him on various occasions, including Board meetings, one incident will always remain in my mind.

During my career with Air-India, I must have “stepped on some tender toes” and there was some animosity and jealousy among my colleagues.  There were occasions when anonymous complaints were made to various authorities, such as the Central Board of Investigations (CBI) and members of Parliament, including the Committee of Public Undertakings of which the “illustrious” Jyotirmoy Basu was the Chairman. 

The majority of these allegations were false and one in particular was the issue of accepting other airline documents from our GSA in the U.K. for payment of dues.There is a background to this and while it is lengthy, I will record it for greater understanding of the issue.

Way back in the mid 1960s, IATA convened a special meeting of the IATA Traffic Committee of which Mr. AF Dubash, then Planning Director was a member.  He asked me to accompany him and accordingly, we went to London to attend this meeting.  Certain countries such as Nigeria and Iran had very strict foreign exchange regulations and the transfer of funds was prohibited except for specified categories.  

Some enterprising Travel Agents hit upon the idea off issuing Miscellaneous Charges Orders (MCOs) in the name of passengers originating travel in those countries.  The MCOs were issued for various journeys  and had been honored by many airlines throughout the world.  In the early stages, the airlines whose documents had been issued had no difficulties in transferring funds overseas and made settlements through the IATA Clearing House.

Some even more enterprising agents, who were GSAs for various airlines throughout the world, decided to to request their principals to accept unused MCOs and tickets issued in these countries, in lieu of cash, as payments for travel documents issued by them.

Later on, problems arose when the Governments concerned “woke up” and realized the drain on their foreign exchange reserves.

The meeting in London was to find a solution for those airlines who, having honored the MCOs, now found themselves out of pocket for services rendered.  The meeting did resolve the problem and then decreed that only tickets issued for continuous journeys originating in such countries would be honored in the future.  Carriers would instruct their GSAs and Agents not to issue MCOs any more.

That was sometime in the mid 1960s.  Fast forward to 1979 and while I was in Boston recuperating from a heart by-pass operation, I received a call from Hari Kaul, Dy. C.D. that the R.D. - UK had proposed that we accept MCOs in lieu of cash payment from our GSA.  These MCOs were issued in Iran. 

I informed Hari that I was surprised that this issue had reared its ugly head once again and gave him the background of what had transpired many years ago.  I told him that under no circumstances should AI agree to accept these MCOs as there was a very good chance that the airline(s) whose MCOs were issued would reject our billings.  I also told him to place on record our conversation, which he did.

Now, coming back to the issue at hand.  In April 1980, the newly installed Government, in its infinite “wisdom”, appointed Mr. Raghu Raj and our new CMD.  It soon became apparent to me that we were going to be in deep “doo-doo”. 

At a meeting in the house of the then Aviation Minister (J.B. Patnaik), Mr. Raghu Raj was handed two Notes, detailing a few items that he was instructed to “take care of”.  One of them (I will speak of the other items in a later Blog when I talk of the Raghu RAJ, as distinct from the Parsi RAJ and the South Indian RAJ) was a request from our UK GSA:

“To grant full cooperation, including acceptance of other carriers’ accountable documents…”.

Raghu Raj asked me to “take care of it” and after giving him the background, told him that we should not give in to this request.  Unfortunately, he was following the brief given to him on his appointment and he instructed me, in no uncertain terms, to act upon this request.

On my return to Bombay, I had a meeting with the Director of Finance and a committee comprising a member of his Department and Ranga Rao worked out the procedure for acceptance of such documents.  I sent Raghu Raj a Note accordingly. The date was May 20, 1980 and I still have a copy of the Note which carries Raghu Raj’s remark “Noted” and signed on May 21, 1980.

I made photocopies of this and other Notes, thanks to advice which I received from Jimmy Martin, our then P.R. Manager.

In early August 1980, a Communist Party of India member of Parliament raised a question in which he accused me (I.D. Sethi) of violating IATA norms and authorizing the acceptance of these documents.  This accusation was mentioned on the front page of the Times of India and I was summoned to Delhi for a meeting with Mr. Venkataraman, the Aviation Secretary. 

I briefed him but he appeared to be in no mood to listen to me.  He would not even look at the various Notes in the file. He even went to the extent to state that if the accusation was true, he would have me sacked.  By then, I had had enough and told him that once he read the file, he would not have the guts to take action against the person who issued the instructions.

I left his office and went to see Rafiq Zacharia, the Congress member of Parliament, who I had met on various occasions and whom I considered a friend.

I showed Rafiq the file with the various Notes and he told me that he would speak with the CPI Member and get the question withdrawn, which was done. But the “pin pricks” had taken their toll and it would not be long before I took the ultimate step to leave the airline.  More on that later.

Soon after Mr. Unni took over as Managing Director, he became a member of the Executive Committee of IATA and since I was a member of IATA’s Traffic Committee, we worked quite closely.  He asked me to accompany him on various occasions for IATA meetings and at one point in time, I reached a stage where I was traveling too much since I had also to attend to my main function as Head of Marketing & Sales.

On one occasion, when we were in London, having just finished the U.K. Regional Sales Meeting, Mr. Unni hinted to me that he would like me to accompany him for an IATA sub-committee meeting that he planned to attend.  I reminded Mr. Dastur (then Dy. M.D.) that I had planned to take a few days off and take my wife to Spain for a short vacation just to get away.  He was very solicitous and told me to “disappear” without informing Mr. Unni and that he would handle the matter if the M.D. suddenly discovered that I was no longer in their midst.

During his tenure in Bombay, Mr. Dastur had to undergo surgery and took a couple of months medical leave.  He came to my office and left the keys of the Mercedes car that he had been allotted and told me to keep it running during his absence.  This was the only period in my career with the airline that I drove a Mercedes car. 

When I became C.D., top management decided not to allot any Mercedes cars to Department Heads any more and we continued using Ambassador cars.

While Mr. Dastur was away, Peter Mahta invited me to attend the ASTA Convention in New Orleans and I obtained Mr. Unni’s permission to do so.  Unfortunately, while Manju and I were packing to go on this trip, I received a call from Mr. Unni.  It so happened that Indira Gandhi had taken a trip to Mauritius and on the flight threw a tantrum when she “discovered” that Air-India did not have the National Herald among the newspapers that it offered to passengers.  

KL Ramchander, the Dy. Director - Inflight Services, who accompanied the flight made a frantic call to Mr. Unni when the flight landed in Mauritius.  Mr. Unni called me immediately and said that he wanted me to personally ensure that every AI flight that took off from the next day onward must carry the National Herald.  I was aware that this newspaper was the “family heirloom” of the Nehru family, but also knew that hardly anyone read it in those days and its circulation had dropped considerably.

I mentioned all of this to Mr. Unni, but he was in no mood to listen and take up the case with the Aviation Ministry.

I then informed Mr. Unni that the Inflight Services Department did not report to me and that in Ramchander’s absence, his deputies should be instructed to take action.  Additionally, I was leaving that night for New Orleans on a trip that he had approved.  Guess what, he canceled his earlier approval and yours truly went all over the city getting copies of the National Herald to be placed on board all AI flights.  

There went a trip that Manju and I were looking forward to.

During my career with Air-India, I had the opportunity of working with five Aviation Secretaries.  There were others, but I was too junior to associate with them. 

The first one was Narottam Sahgal; an member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS), true gentleman and a very knowledgeable person.  I was a member of the Indian delegation led by him for various Bilateral talks and got to know him quite well.  He also invited me for lunch at his farmhouse outside Delhi.  In his capacity as Aviation Secretary, Mr. Sahgal also served on the Board of Air-India.  In those days, the Indian Government representative was always of the rank of full Secretary.  It was after I left the airline, that Government, in its infinite wisdom, decided to downgrade the representation.

When I took over as Commercial Director, Mr. Sahgal would call me the day before a Board meeting.  He would enquire if I was free that evening and, if so, could I join him for a drink at the residence of his sister?  Since these occasions and invitations became almost routine, I made it a point to keep myself free.

We would have a couple of drinks and go through items of the Board Agenda which pertained to Commercial and revenue earning issues.  He would then formulate his views which he would then present at the Board meeting on the next day.  At the time of my resignation, Mr. Sahgal had retired from the ICS.  He learnt that I had put in my papers and was glad to learn that I had an offer from Kuwait Airways.  He recommended that I do not “broadcast” this offer until I had physically joined the airline, as “you never know what lurks behind the scenes”.  

I was delighted when Mr. Sahgal called on me at the Kuwait Airways office in New York on one of his visits and it gave me the opportunity to take him out for lunch.

Mr. Nirmal Mukherjee, also ICS, took over as Aviation Secretary from Mr. Sahgal and here again, I met and got to know a true gentleman.  One day he said to me “I understand that you are a good friend of the Managing Director of British Airways”.  I replied that my association with Ross Stainton went back many years when we both attended IATA fare and rate meetings and that I had maintained a good relationship with him.

Mr. Mukherjee brought up the problems that we were encountering in the Bilateral Talks with the British and asked if I would agree and go to London and meet with Mr. Stainton and see if we could get an agreement at airline level.  I readily agreed but requested the Aviation Secretary to please clear the visit and meeting with my Chief Executive who, at that time, happened to be Mr. K.G. Appusamy.  Mr. Mukherjee told me that he had already sounded Mr. Appusamy about the meeting and the latter had agreed.

I called Mr. Appusamy later that evening and he confirmed his talk with Mr. Mukherjee and so, I sent a telex to our R.D. - UK to arrange a meeting with Ross Stainton.  I received confirmation about the meeting and left for London that night.  I met Ross and was able to get an understanding with him which I conveyed to Mr. Mukherjee on a telephone call from London.  He was effusive in his thanks and I returned to Bombay and was debriefed by Mr. Appusamy.

In 1978, the Bureau of Public Sector Undertakings interviewed a number of persons for the two vacancies of Deputy Managing Director in AI.  C.L. Sharma and I were shortlisted and the Bureau’s recommendations went to the Cabinet Committee for approval.  

Because of the inquisition by the Committee of Public Undertakings, my appointment was held in abeyance and CL’s was cleared.  However, Mr. Appusamy held back CL’s appointment until mine was cleared and asked me to call on Mr. Mukherjee who had then taken over as Cabinet Secretary.  I met Mr. Mukherjee in Delhi whose greeted my very cordially and when I raised the matter with him said “Inder, your papers came into my In-tray and then went to my Out-tray.   Your appointment has been cleared”.  Both CL and I were appointed on November 1, 1978.

The third Aviation Secretary (Mr. Naik) was one whom I “inherited” from Mr. Dastur.  He led the Indian delegation to a Bilateral Meeting in London with the British authorities and was accompanied by Mr. Dastur and the Planning & International Department team, headed by Venkat.  Mr. Dastur came back from this meeting in a rather agitated state and told me that the Secretary truly enjoyed his evening drinks and every dinner in London never took place before 10:00pm.  In addition, he was accompanied by a friend who could better be described as a “chamcha” or hanger on.

This “chamcha” had many small businesses in India and was anxious to involve Air-India’s participation in their activities and the Secretary had thrown a few hints at Mr. Dastur.  Being aware of Mr. Dastur’s weakness in saying “NO”, I asked him if he had made any commitments and was relieved to learn that on this occasion, he had indicated that he would give “due consideration” once he returned to India and told me to expect a call very soon from this gentleman. 

Sure enough, this gentleman called and Mr. Dastur’s secretary being forewarned, informed him that Mr. Dastur was away and transferred the call to me.  The gentleman then proceeded to tell me about the very “luxurious” hotel that he owned close to the airport in Bombay and he wanted Air-India to use it for their transit passengers.  Having never heard of this hotel, I suggested to him  that I would request our Airport Manager to visit the hotel and give me his recommendation.

I was told that the matter needed urgent action and he asked if I would accompany him that evening and see the hotel personally.  I called the Airport Manager and requested him to join us.

We reached the hotel around 8:30pm.  It was located in a small street which did not appear to be in a good neighborhood.  Upon entering the Lobby, we were greeted by loud voices and were then treated to a grand spectacle of a few drunken individuals involved in a brawl.  Liquor bottles were thrown around and the floor of the Lobby was littered with broken glass.

Fearing for our safety, we made a discreet withdrawal and I returned home.  The next day, I received another call from this gentleman asking for another opportunity to review his “luxury” hotel.

So, off we went (the Airport Manager and myself) on an inspection visit.  The gentleman met us in the Lobby and introduced us to the Manager of the Hotel.  Almost immediately, we heard a small group enter the hotel and in loud voices, asked for three rooms for 2 hours.  The group was three inebriated men with arms around women who could best be described as “ladies of the night” .

I looked at our Airport Manager who signaled that we make another discreet withdrawal and we silently made our way to our cars.

I called the gentleman the next morning and told him that Air-India would not be utilizing his hotel for its transit passengers.  He did not ask for any reasons and accepted our decision.  I asked him if I needed to advise the Aviation Secretary and he said that was not necessary.

For quite some time, Air-India had been toying with the idea of publishing an Inflight magazine. When I took over as Dy. M.D. I told the IFS department to give me a proposal to publish our own magazine.  While this study was being conducted, I received a call from the the same Aviation Secretary that he had heard about this idea and he wanted his son’s Publishing Company to be appointed to take over the job.

I informed the Secretary that once our study had been completed, it was envisioned that bids would be invited from interested participants to present their proposals.  At that stage, we would request his son to also send us a proposal.  I was, therefore, surprised to see a proposal on my desk the next week from his son and a follow up call from the Secretary that I should immediately accept this proposal and sign an agreement with his son.

Looking at the proposal, I learnt that not only would we be charged 50% of the cost of publishing the magazine, but that we had to give the Publisher a large number of free tickets, half of them being for First Class travel.

In the meantime, the IFS Department sent me a comprehensive document showing two or three other bids.  None of them asked for sharing of costs and/or grant of free tickets.

This left me in a quandary and so off I went to see Mr. K.G. Appusamy, who had taken over as M.D.  We agreed to delay the decision hoping that at some time in the near future, the Secretary’s term would come to an end and that would get us out of our predicament.  Fortunately, this event did occur within a few months and we eventually appointed a Publisher in Thailand to publish our Inflight magazine.  

By the time the first issue came out of print, I had left Air-India and was delighted to receive a copy from the Publisher with a covering Note which inter-alia, read “Here is a copy of your baby”.

Many years later, I learnt that the Contract for publishing the magazine was given to an Indian publisher and was surprised to hear from him asking if I could help him in getting advertisements from U.S. Companies.  I told him that due to a conflict of interests, my commitments did not permit me to undertake this function and he then proposed that my wife act as his representative.  Manju readily agreed and for quite a few years after that performed this function.  Eventually, the Contract went back to the original Publisher in Thailand.  This gentleman wanted to continue the relationship, but his terms were not as attractive and Manju declined to do so.

I notice that I have digressed and will now close and revisit this subject in a later posting

I turned 81 today and my thoughts went to the days of my childhood, school and college, which then brought me to the day when, armed with the letter of offer of employment, I entered the office of the Commercial Department of Air-India, located on the fourth floor of the Bank of India Building at Flora Fountain.  The date was January 21, 1957.

This day will remain vividly embedded in my mind.  I was greeted by the gracious Barbara Shivdasani who, upon reading the letter, spoke to someone and then told me to go across the road to the Bombay District office on the ground floor of the New India Assurance Building and report to Dolly Guzder, who would be in charge of my initial training.

I met Dolly Guzder who introduced me to two other new recruits who had started their training the same day.  They were Jerry Hundal, the new Sales Manager, Los Angeles and R. P. Bhat who would end up in the Administrative Division.  We spent one week studying the ABC World Guide and the Air-India Tariff, and practiced issuing dummy tickets and Exchange Orders.

After the initial week with Dolly Guzder, I moved to the ticket counter and worked there for a month under the supervision of Mrs. Chobi Mazumdar (later Mrs. Chellaram) and Mobedjina.  My colleagues were T.K.P. Pillai, B.K.Mangoakar, T.K. Rao, Sham Rao, Sharad Patel, Deidre Dunne, Capt. Netto and Ashok Gupte. It was a very pleasant group of persons who guided me in answering enquiries and issuing travel documents.

During this period, I also received my first “Blue Note”, which represented a written reprimand.  It so happened that Mr. A.F. Dubash, Planning Manager had returned from an overseas trip and as per protocol, a telex message was sent by the originating station to Bombay office requesting that we advise his residence of his arrival details.  Unfortunately, no one who was on duty that afternoon saw this message and accordingly, everyone of us attending shift duty that afternoon, received a Blue Note. 

It subsequently transpired that for some inexplicable reason, this telex had never been received but the damage had already been done and the Blue Note was not withdrawn.  However, it was never placed in my Personnel File and as such, no real damage took place.

After my stint at the Bombay office, I received orders of my permanent assignment to the Tariffs Division and accordingly, I reported to Mr. J. C. Malani, Tariffs Manager in the Bank of India Building, 4th Floor under whom I worked until 1965, when I took over this Division.  I had two Section Heads - A.B. Fernandez, Superintendent Passenger Tariffs and B. O. Gardiner, Superintendent Publications.  

Most of my first month was spent with B.O. Gardiner who was preparing the Source Document for Air-India’s Prorate Manual.  This Manual was designed to assist the Accounts Department to allocate the actual revenue to each Flight Coupon of a ticket involving one or more stops.  One day I answered “yes, Sir” to a question and was promptly instructed by Mr. Gardiner not to ever use that expression.  He told me that I should address senior executives as “Mr.  …..”  and not “Sir”.   I have religiously followed these instructions ever since.  

Before going any further in my narrative, let me state that I received the best grounding that anyone could expect during my term in the Tariffs Division.  I was a member of various IATA Groups and sub-committees, including:

1. Traffic Handling Group which was responsible for designing travel documents, such as the Passenger Ticket, Exchange Orders, Miscellaneous Charges Orders and the Cargo Air Waybill
2. IATA Prorate Group which indicated each participating airline’s share of revenue in a multi-stop journey.
3. The IATA/UPU Group which coordinated the airlines work with the Universal Postal Union.

Moving on to the 1970s, shortly before Nani Mital moved to Nairobi as Regional Head, he invited me to a lunch where he introduced me to members of an informal “Club” called The HUB.  The other members of this gathering (in addition to Nani himself) were Jimmy Guzder of IndTravels/Air Freight, Sam Gubbay of The Taj, Vinoo Ubhaykar of Trade Wings, Aldo Frei of Swissair and Rusty Palankote who was the Airports Authority Director at Bombay airport.

I learnt that the Club was the brainchild of Sam Gubbay who wanted a small but informal group of persons in the Travel Industry to exchange ideas and keep abreast with trends in hospitality and travel.  I was invited to join this group and must state that I have benefitted from my participation in this group.

Interestingly, the group met at The Oberoi for lunch on the very day that I had submitted my resignation and Jimmy Guzder who sat next to me asked - Inder, what is new?  When I told him that I had given in my papers, he almost fell off his chair.  The group was saddened by my decision and the entire meeting was devoted to this subject with some members requesting me to reconsider my decision.

I enjoyed the camaraderie and as I stated above, benefitted from my participation in this group of which I was a member for almost 8 years.

In an earlier Blog, I mentioned a young man whom I had assisted in setting himself up as a GSA for Kuwait Airways.  I also introduced him to Gulf Air where Adli Dajani was the G.M. - Commercial.  Adli was Air-India’s Sales Manager in Damascus before he left to join Kuwait Airways and then onto Gulf Air.  This young man lost no time in getting on the “right side” of Adli and soon added the Gulf Air GSA to his stable.  

Incidentally, while he was an employee as a clerk in his uncle’s Air France GSA, he had somehow managed to get himself appointed as Manager - India for ALIA, Jordanian Airlines.  This enabled him to apply for interline travel and in those days, most airlines were quite happy in giving him tickets.  This is how one day, I suddenly found him sitting next to me on a SABENA flight to Manila where I was headed to attend a meeting of the PATA Executive Committee.

On enquiring what took him to Manila, he stated that he had recently become the GSA for Philippine Airlines and his travel was in that connection.  He came back to Bombay on the same flight that I traveled on.  What surprised me was that I soon found out that quite often, he was as my companion on foreign trips.  It became obvious that he wanted to get close to me and very often asked for my advice on various matters concerning his business.

I was not averse to offering him such advice so long as it did not conflict with Air-India’s interests and I must confess that this must have encouraged him as he started to drop in at our apartment on the pretext of asking for advice.  There was one occasion where he was in serious trouble with Enforcement Department of the RBI and I got a frantic call from him asking to be “bailed” out of a predicament that he had landed himself in.  My memory is a little fuzzy right now, but I am almost certain that he had spent the previous night in a holding cell.

I called a attorney and introduced him to the young man and I believe he helped considerably and,in the process, became his attorney of record for future dealings.

He was very secretive about his dealings and would not disclose what events caused the Enforcement Directorate to go after him.  He did introduce me to his financial backers who happened to be Diamond Jewelers from Gujarat who had offices in Antwerp, Belgium and the USA.  More on this issue when I discuss my tenure in Kuwait Airways.

When this young man learnt that I had joined Kuwait Airways, he was ecstatic as he thought that he would now take advantage of this new relationship being the airline’s GSA for India.  He even came to Kuwait and called to request if he could stay with us during his visit which I agreed to.  His joy in this new relationship was, however, short lived when he realized that my stay in Kuwait would be short as my ultimate destination was the USA.  He tried very hard, and offered many “reasons” to convince me to stay on in Kuwait but I refused to agree.

Eventually, he visited me in the USA whenever he had an opportunity and needed my advice.

By the time, I left India, this young man had collected a fair number of GSAs including TWA and he became very close to a senior executive of that airline who was in charge of Cargo Marketing & Sales and therein lies another story.  He also became close to a senior executive of Flying Tigers and here again, lies another story which shall be the subject of another Blog.

In addition to the compassion that Mr. Dastur was well known, there was also his “soft” side.  I learnt this both while I was his deputy and also when I took over as Dy. M.D.

He seldom gave a junior a poor Annual Appraisal.  Most of his appraisals were Excellent and this gave me a major problem with a junior Department Head whom he had rated at the top in every category.  During my time with AI, we were instructed not to go by previous appraisal reports and hence, when I took over as Dy. M.D., one of my first tasks was to fill in Appraisal reports of three Department Heads who reported to me - Inflight Services, Planning and Ground Handling.

I duly filled in the reports based on my knowledge of these three individuals and very soon thereafter, had a visit from the Dy. Director - Inflight Services who complained that I had given him an “average” in one category - Job Knowledge.  He complained that he had always been given the top rating in this category by Mr. Dastur.

I asked him point blank if he had undertaken any flight to Nairobi or the Gulf during his tenure.  He replied that he had not.  I then asked him how could his job knowledge be complete?  He had no answer. 

I told him that I expected him to visit every Gulf station and Nairobi to learn about the catering facilities, the accommodation for the cabin crew and the service on board these flights.  Unfortunately, he was unable to completely fulfill this requirement for reasons I will explain in my next Blog.

When Mr. Dastur returned from one of his visits to Delhi, he mentioned that there was a lot of unhappiness in the top hierarchy in the office of the Manager - Northern India and asked me to look into it.  I visited Delhi and held meetings with all the Section Heads. 

Without exception, the major Heads - Dy. Manager, Airport Manager and the Reservations Manager declared their unwillingness to continue working under the then Manager.  

They complained that he issued instructions and then denied that he had done so, in cases when something went wrong.  They could never be certain that he would back them up.

What I learned was nothing new as in my own dealings with this individual, I had come to the conclusion that he was not trustworthy and would “lie to save his skin”. 

I will give an example.  I called his office at 9:45 one morning and checked with his Secretary who confirmed that her boss was in his office and had been there since 09:00.  I then spoke with him and asked him “Where were you at 9:30?  I called and you had not arrived at your office”.

His immediate answer was that he had decided that morning to call on a Travel Agent before coming to work.  I mentioned that he was lying as he had come straight to work and this had been confirmed by his Secretary.  I told him that he was a compulsive liar and that his immediate reaction to any allegation was to find an excuse.  He had no answer.

I reported my findings to Mr. Dastur and told him that we had two choices.  We could transfer either the Manager or all three Section Heads.  He decided to take the latter step and in doing so, sent them all on promotions to various stations.  The Manager was admonished but managed to hold his job because of his personal contacts with the powers that be in Delhi. 

In my own case, I ran into a problem with one of my colleagues whose wife could not hold her liquor and at various social occasions created some embarrassing situations, including one at Mr. Dastur’s own residence.  Rather than confront this colleague, Mr. Dastur sent him overseas on a posting as a Regional Head.

Having observed these and other similar decisions of Mr. Dastur, I came to the conclusion that he preferred to take the easy way out rather than tackle the problem head-on.

Soon after taking over as CM - Marketing & Sales, I accompanied Mr. KK Unni to Mauritius.  This was the first of many trips with him after he took over as M.D.  We were royally looked after not only by our GSA, Rogers and Company, but also were invited to attend a session of the Mauritius Parliament followed by lunch with the then Prime Minister, Sir Seewoosager Ramgoolam.

This also marked the first of three meetings with Heads of countries during my tenure until I left the airline.  

France-Albert Rene was a member of Parliament in Seychelles when he first visited India and Mr. Dastur requested me to invite him and his wife to dinner at the Chambers, a private Dining Room at the Taj Mahal Hotel.  Soon thereafter, he took over as Prime Minister and this time, he was Air-India’s official guest at dinner, hosted by Mr. Appusamy.  I was present at the dinner and he greeted me effusively.

The Prime Minister’s post was abolished in 1977 and Mr Rene became President and in this capacity, he came to Bombay on an official visit.  The Governor’s office called and stated that Mr.and Mrs. Rene would like to host my wife and myself to tea.  We met them at the Governor’s residence where they were staying.  The presented us with a stuffed turtle, which now adorns the entrance to our home in Boynton Beach in Florida.

Mr. Morarji Desai was our Prime Minister in the late 1990s and in this capacity, he traveled to Kenya.  He arrived at Bombay airport on an Air Force aircraft and I met him at the door of the aircraft.  I then walked with him down the steps and across the tarmac to the Air-India 707 which would take him to Nairobi.

He sat in Row 1 and we had assigned seats 1A and 1B for his flight.  He asked me to sit and talk with him until the aircraft was ready for departure.  When he was climbing the step ladder, I saw a glow on the back of his neck and marveled how fit and well he appeared despite his advanced age.  I guess this was due to the diet that he had personally designed for himself.

Those were still the days when the Indian President and P.M. flew on Air-India’s scheduled flights.  It was not too long after that they demanded an aircraft for themselves and that too, a 747.  We had to remove two 747s from the operating fleet as one had to standby and I remember and must relate a couple of incidents that took place.

The first one relates to a Foreign Minister from the BJP who later became PM.  He was traveling on one of our scheduled flights and the RM-India called me from Delhi and stated that the gentleman liked his drink but did not want the “world” to know.  So, I instructed the Inflight Services Dept to serve him scotch laced with Coca Cola whenever he requested for  a drink.  This became standard practice whenever he traveled.

I left Air-India in 1980 and soon thereafter, Indira Gandhi wanted to travel overseas and two 707s were being readied for her trip.  Just after it was decided which aircraft would be used (the other being standby), someone discovered that rats had eaten through some wiring and this aircraft was quickly substituted. 

Unfortunately, the information was “leaked” and the then CMD received instructions from Delhi to terminate the services of both the Engineering Director and his deputy.  The CMD did not attempt to mollify the powers that be and acted upon the instructions of termination.

I had joined Kuwait Airways by then and was working in Kuwait.  I received a telephone call from Mr. Appusamy who happened to be in India at that time.  He told me what had occurred and requested me to check if these two gentlemen could be offered jobs by Kuwait Airways.  I spoke with the Chairman of the airline who readily agreed to take the Deputy D.E., but regretted to take the D.E. who, he said, was of too advanced an age to have a useful career with Kuwait Airways.

I conveyed the decision to Mr. Appusamy.

Some years later, when Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister, he traveled on a 707 aircraft.  This particular aircraft was a convertible where a cargo door was installed in the middle of the fuselage.  An area right next to the door was earmarked for the PM to have a sitting room.  Unfortunately, there was a little draft which to my mind was inevitable considering that by then, Air-India’s 707s had aged considerably.

Rajiv Gandhi took umbrage at this discomfort and asked for the termination of the senior executive responsible for the decision to earmark this particular aircraft.  I am not absolutely certain, but I am given to understand that this was done.

I am also given to understand that on a subsequent flight using a 707, there was a malfunction in one engine and at this stage, Rajiv Gandhi decided not to use the 707s any more.

The then MD of Indian Airlines, who had trained Rajiv Gandhi decided to take advantage of this and offered a 737 for the PM’s future trips.  The 737 then in use were short and medium haul aircraft and the one and only time that Rajiv Gandhi used it proved rather disastrous as it had to make two or three stops before reaching his destination.

I may be wrong in my assumption, but I believe that this was the moment that Air-India’s 747 were “commandeered” for future VVIP flights.

I have just seen two similar emails by Mr. Rathore and Mr. Gupta indicating that Air-India is going to start serving meals in Thalis to Business Class passengers very soon.

My initial reaction was to commend the CMD on this innovation which truly shows that someone has finally starting thinking “outside the box” with a view to improving the inflight experience.

However, I was taken aback when I read that the airline would use plastic Thalis, even if it is to be “high quality” plastic.  Offering food in any kind of a plastic receptacle is “CHEAP” and I repeat, “CHEAP”.  

For many years, the meal trays served to Business Class passengers on long haul flights such as the India/USA/India non-stops have contained salads and desserts in containers covered with plastic film.  I had enquired why could the cabin crew not take this film off before placing the containers on the tray. On a 14 hour flight, are they so busy that this minor effort was beyond them.  

I don’t blame the cabin crew.  I blame Management who could not enforce discipline.

Air-India has always prided itself (at least while I was still there and in charge of the Inflight Department) of using the best quality crockery, cutlery and linen.  I still remember JRD Tata’s requirement that the when meals are served that the cabin crew switch on all overhead lights so that our cutlery would show its shine.

I also remember when Mr. Tata wrote to me that on his last flight, he noticed that we had substituted “Turkish” towels with plain cloth towels in the First Class toilets.  On checking with the Dy. Director - IFS, I was advised that this had been done to reduce costs.  I immediately over-ruled this decision and Turkish towels returned to the toilets in First Class.

Of course, things have deteriorated since then and we now have paper towels in all Toilets.  On a recent flight, my niece and her family did not find ANY - repeat ANY - toilet paper in any of the Economy Class toilets.  I requested the then CMD for an investigation into this and other complaints and never got a satisfactory answer.  The replies completely ignored the lack of toilet paper.

This is how low the service on AI has deteriorated.

Mr. Tata’s mantra was that AI would be second to none and in my humble opinion, the use of Plastic Thalis is a retrograde step.  A Thali is made of stainless steel and contains about 5 or 6 “Katoris” of the same metal.  I wonder what the latter will be substituted by?  Can you still justify the use of the name “Thali”?

Nari Dastur had a saying - there are those who will not understand and there are those who cannot understand.  This saying truly applies in this instance.  You cannot expect better from today’s Babus and similar categories of people who, unfortunately have reached positions beyond their abilities.

So, while I am happy to see innovations such as these, I am distraught at the low level of mentality that goes with it.  Call me a snob, but I will never eat out of a plastic plate when I am paying for my meal.  I will walk out of any top rated restaurant that dares to use such utensils.

But then, is Air-India “top rated” any more?  I have written before on this subject and even told a former CMD that while in my time, we prided ourselves that a Third World country was operating a First Rate airline, we had now a situation where the same Third World country was operating a Third Rate airline. He didn’t have the guts to respond to my allegation.

Is it any wonder that a large number of Business Class passengers on Air-India are Babus who have been upgraded.  Equally, I am not surprised in the decision to remove the First class cabin on the San Francisco flights.  With the quality of amenities and service being offered, did the current Management really expect to attract  high paying clientele?  They live in a Fool’s paradise.

I am sorry if I have come off rather strongly on this issue, but I must state that the matter of Inflight Service to me was always a high priority and, in my time, we did NOT spare any expense to ensure that we were the BEST.

With the arrival of the new CMD, I was hoping to expect an improvement in the quality of service.  One of his first Commandments was that one of his objectives was to improve On Time Performance to over 80%.  I now read that the OTP on December of all AI flights was 62.8%.

And now, PLASTIC Thalis!!!!!

Perhaps, I was taken in by various pronouncements that “we will restore AI’s glory”.  I was not only naive but hoped that finally we had someone at the helm who was different from all the IAS Babus who were dumped on the airline.  I hate to say this, but you cannot compare ITDC with the Oberoi or the Taj Group when it comes to quality of service.

In my career with Air-India, I had worked with Aviation Secretaries who came from both the ICS and IAS fold.  I saw a similar difference in attitudes and outlook.  It was indeed and honor for me to have worked with ICS Secretaries such as Narottam Sehgal and Nirmal Mukherjee.  What a comedown when that cadre retired from the scene!!!