I just came across a newspaper article which stated that Air-India is looking for a loan of Rs. 1,100 crores to modify planes for use by VVIPs.  How come the Government is not paying for these modifications; after all, the benefits are for its top politicians - the President, Vice President and the Prime Minister.  Why does AI have to add to its massive debt to cater for the comfort of such people?

Getting back to my early years with Air Mauritius (MK), I asked MK’s Head Office if they had Area of Sales statistics which would give me a starting point and thereby direct my limited resources to improving their North American revenues.  Unfortunately, they did not have such figures; it appeared that the bulk of their traffic comprised of foreign tourists and ethnic Mauritians residing overseas.

I was told that the Mauritius Tourism Department did, however, have an office in New York and perhaps, I should make contact with their representative.  I did that but found little satisfaction.  The person running this office also represented other Tourist Organizations and Mauritius was only a small part of his portfolio.

I then went to Washington, DC and called upon the Embassy and the Ambassador.  The Ambassador was very happy to meet me and delighted that MK was planning to open an office in the USA.  I learnt that there was a small number of Mauritians working for the World Bank and the IMF in Washington and apart from this possible source of traffic, there were a few Mauritian nationals spread all over the country.  The Embassy promised to advise all such persons of my location and contact.

I called on the travel offices of both the World Bank and the IMF and was able to get some names and addresses.  They also told me that most of the Mauritians traveled in Business class which was paid for by the World Bank and IMF. I spoke with a few Mauritians in these organizations and learnt that they did travel to Mauritius on their holidays but used British Airways as they got upgraded to First Class, because of the airline’s Frequent Flyer program.

An approach to MK’s Commercial Director was successful and I received authority to upgrade these passengers to First Class on MK flights, if I was successful in getting them to switch airlines.  This became an excellent source of revenue because it was high-yield.

Canada proved a valuable mine - there was a significant (by Mauritian standards) Mauritian ethnic population in eastern Canada primarily because of the language issue - Mauritians are fluent in both English and French.  I made contact with a couple of ethnic agents in both Montreal and Toronto and was able to generate some business, even though it was low yield and I had to offer incentives in the form of Consolidator fares, which I was happy to get from Mauritius.

The net result was that before the end of my first year with MK, we managed to increase our Area of Sale revenues to such an extent, that H.O. approved my request for a full time staff who would be able to answer telephone calls and make reservations.

Until I recruited a suitable person, I was calling MK’s office in London for reservations and manually issuing tickets from my residence.  I did not have a stamping machine and had to sign my name in the validation box.  I had picked up a stock of 2 and 4 coupon tickets on my initial visit to Mauritius and hand wrote all tickets.  My membership of IATA’s Traffic Handling & Accountancy Working Group in the 1960s came in very handy; after all, the Group had designed the passenger tickets, Exchange Orders and MCOs.

However, I had absolutely no experience in making reservations and I did not have a terminal.  The addition of a full time staff was a great boon.  I rented a room at a hotel in Manhattan close to the PanAm office and installed this staff and a terminal.  I also took lessons in making reservations.

And here, I come to my association with Pan American World Airways, which had always labeled itself as the World’s Most Experienced Airline.

I had joined MK on a part time basis effective July 1,1986. I had a lot of time on my hands and also a need for more income and was overjoyed when I received a call from my old friend James Montgomery.  

Jim had retired as Executive Vice President - Marketing & Sales of Pan American World Airways and they had rehired him as Executive Assistant to the Chairman and CEO of PanAm.  I had known Jim during my Air-India days and maintained contact with him while I was with Kuwait Airways.  Additionally, he was one of the PanAm officials whom I had met with the Hindujas when they were trying to become the airline’s GSA in the USA.

Jim said that PanAm was looking for a part time Consultant for the Indian market and asked if I would be interested.  PanAm had two other Consultants for the Israeli and Irish markets and wanted one for the Indian market. I happily accepted the offer and met their V.P. Sales and their Senior Director - Atlantic who wanted me to start effective November 1, 1986 and after getting a clearance from MK’s Head Office, I accepted the part time assignment with Pan Am.  

I now had two part time assignments and this helped considerably in reducing my digging into my dwindling finances to make ends meet.

I was assigned a cubicle in the PanAm’s offices above Grand Central Terminal and once I received approval from MK to hire a full time staff, they also gave me funds to rent an office.  Hence, I rented a room at the Roosevelt Hotel across from Grand Central Terminal and was able to work out of both locations.

I was finally working full time and devoting about 66.6% of my time to PanAm and 33.3% to MK.  

I traveled to the west coast, the mid-west and to various cities on the eastern seaboard trying to understand how PanAm was conducting its business and generating traffic to India and found a very interesting lacuna in their Distribution Policy.  The airline’s Sales reps did not visit any agent who gave PanAm less than $1 million in revenue in all market segments.  Hence, the bulk of their traffic came from 4 or 5 large Indian ethnic agents.

I recommended changing this policy in respect of the India market and they agreed to appoint a number of agents who specialized in the Gujarat and Kerala markets throughout the USA.  I also suggested changing their schedules to provide better connections to interior U.S. cities.

While I was involved in these changes, Air-India came up with a harebrained scheme of issuing checks of $150 to each passenger who traveled on their services to India.  Not only were they discounting their published fares by up to 30%, they now reduced their net yield by another $150 per passenger.

We held a very short meeting at PanAm’s Head Office where they accepted my recommendation that we do not match this practice of Air-India, but instead, reduce the published fare to $999, which was equal to the net yield that AI was earning. The advantage of this would be that for the first time, the passenger finally knew what he was being charged instead of what his ticket showed.

A second and major effect of this change would be that the fare was applicable from all interior and west coast points served by PanAm; something that AI could not match without further diluting their net yield.  Additionally, it was available to all ARC and IATA agents throughout the USA, instead of only agents specializing in the Indian market.  We saw immediate results - we saw, for the first time, passengers originating in places like Las Vegas, Birmingham and Wichita who had never before traveled on PanAm.

The results of all the changes that I had recommended were fast in coming and at the end of the first year, PanAm wrote me a very appreciative letter in which they said:

“We continue to put a very high priority to your project and are extremely pleased with the 46% increase in traffic from the USA to India in the past year”.

An increase of 46%!!!  Coming from the so-called “World’s most experienced airline” , it was quite a compliment.

They not only renewed my Contract but also stated in the same letter “You have our continued support and cooperation in your new efforts to help improve the India originating traffic”.

So, I started the 2nd year of working with PanAm to increasing traffic out of India which I will comment upon in my next Post.

During my walk this morning, I remembered an incident which occurred during my early days with Kuwait Airways and which I would like to share and mention in this Post.

It appeared that rats had been discovered in an aircraft earmarked for a VVIP flight for Indira Gandhi, the then P. M.  The aircraft was being readied for one of her trips and on inspection, some wires appeared to have been chewed through.  Instructions came down from the powers that be in Delhi and Raghu Raj decided to terminate the services of both the Director of Engineering and his Deputy.

I got a call from Mr. Appusamy who was then on deputation with Air Jamaica.  He asked if I could speak with the Chairman of Kuwait Airways and find openings for both these gentlemen.  I managed to get KU to offer the Deputy D.E. a job, but they did not agree to hire the D.E. because of his advanced age.

Getting back to the transition period before leaving Kuwait Airways, I received an unexpected call from a gentleman named Ananda Jaisingh who was calling from India and introduced himself as the new Publisher of Air-India’s Inflight magazine NAMASKAAR.

Ananda said that he got my name from the original publisher of the magazine - KK Uberoi - who had told him the I had been the force behind the origin of the magazine.  The purpose of his call was to request me to get him advertisements from Companies based in the USA.  

Since I was, at that time, still on Kuwait Airways’ payroll, I had to decline his request.  However, he persisted and as a compromise, we agreed that Manju would act as his U.S. representative.  And so, we established Sethi Associates, Inc. with Manju Sethi as its President.

Manju was very enthusiastic and met with a number of Advertising Companies who, while expressing interest, were not quite convinced about the purchasing power of the Indians who represented the majority of Air-India’ traveling public. However, she persisted and spoke directly with the Advertising personnel of many U.S. companies and during this first year of her new assignment, did manage to convince a few companies to advertise.  Her coup was a double page spread from American Express for which, if memory serves me right, AMEX paid $15,000.

Manju’s commission was 10% of all gross revenues, and this ad alone netted her $1,500.  An amusing anecdote to this coup was the request of the AMEX staff member to meet and have lunch with Manju.  She almost panicked but settled with one condition - she would be accompanied by her husband.  Her “excuse” was  that she was unable to drive to Manhattan on her own.  It was an interesting and entertaining lunch and the net result was that AMEX continued to take a double page spread every year.

Manju’s income from this venture was very valuable in reducing our deficit financing and made our sleepless nights a little less sleepless.

Kamal Dandona who was associated with the Overseas Indian National Congress, called me and stated that the Indian Civil Aviation Minister was in town and had expressed an interest in meeting me.  Kamal confessed that he had initiated the matter as he knew that I was at a loose end.

I agreed to meet the Minister who stated that he was aware of my service in Air-India and asked if I would be interested in returning to the airline, as its CEO.  I gave him the reasons why I had resigned and also indicated that our two sons were studying in the USA and that living on an Indian salary would hardly pay the tuition cost, leave alone, board and lodging.

The Minister stated that such expenses could be “taken care of” if I showed an interest in the offer. I asked him point blank if I would have complete authority or would the same interference from Delhi take place.  He could or would not give me such an assurance and hence, I thanked him for the offer and left his hotel room.

I also got a call from Lenny Menezes of the Taj Hotel group who said that the current head of Tata Sons, USA was retiring and I may consider speaking with Mr. JRD Tata who happened to be in town.  I called Mr. Tata and mentioned to him that my tenure with Kuwait Airways was coming to an end and I was looking for suitable employment.  I informed him that Lenny had mentioned to me that an opening at Tata Sons, Inc. may be in the offing and that was the reason for my call.

Mr. Tata said he would call me back which he did upon his return to Bombay.  Mr. Tata asked if I could visit India and meet Rusi Modi, the Head of Tata Steel, who had the task of recruiting a replacement.  I agreed and met Rusi Modi in his apartment in Calcutta.  Mr. Modi explained that Tata Sons had been considering for a long time to downgrade the U.S. office and, at the same time, strengthen to U.K. office.

He asked if I would consider moving to the U.K.  It was a very tempting offer, but the thought of leaving our sons in the USA made me regret my inability to accept.  Interestingly, the job was, in a couple of years filled by C.L. Sharma, whose aspireations for the MDs post in Air-India had been upset firstly by Capt. Druba Bose, whose Bengali connections with Pranab Mukherjee paid dividends, and later by the political appointment of Rajan Jetley.

Here, I must confess that CL’s loss did not give me much dissatisfaction, as he had for quite some time, been surreptitiously under-cutting me during my tenure at the airline.

So, we were back to square one and by then, it was the end of May 1986 and it was fast nearing time for me to leave Kuwait Airways and move to our new home.

We had absolutely no furniture and our first task was to go look at Estate Sales and Wholesale Furniture Stores.  We picked up bed frames which I put together - my initial steps in become adept with my hands.  Some of the attempts of “going cheap” led to acquisition of poorly assembled products which had soon to be replaced, resulting in the final cost being well beyond our budgeted amounts.  A great lesson for the future.

I had returned the Kuwait Airways Buick and we were left with Manju’s Honda Civic.  We had decided that we would not go for a second car until we had steady income from other sources.

In December of 1985, I had a meeting with an Aviation Consulting company whose management showed interest in my joining them, but asked that I bring with me an assignment to conduct research and studies for an airline.  I went to India and met the then Managing Director of Indian Airlines whom I had known from my days with AI.  Indian Airlines was then looking at both Boeing and Airbus for wide body aircraft and I suggested to their M.D. that this Aviation Consulting Company conduct a Systems Analysis for them with a view to suggesting the ideal aircraft for their particular needs.

He was interested in having such a study done, but told me quite frankly that under the then regime in India, the decision of aircraft purchase had been already been taken by the Prime Minister’s office and that he had been directed to purchase aircraft from Airbus. He also advised me confidentially that he had been directed to produce a back dated study recommending such a decision.

An interesting offer came from a very influential and well established Indian company.  It appeared that Hindujas had a relationship with Pan American World Airways going back to the days when the Hindujas were deeply entrenched in Iran.  They wanted to represent Panam in many areas of the world starting with the USA and I was approached if I would be interested in heading their new venture.

Having nothing better “on the horizon”, I went to London and met with the two senior brothers.  They called the then Chairman of PanAm and set up a meeting in New York sometime in January 1986.  We met with the Chairman and the Managing Director, after which I presented a proposal to their Marketing & Sales Division.  Unfortunately, it was turned down primarily because their U.S. Sales Division did not want to change their policy of selling India only through their established Consolidators.  We were, however, offered Canada, but I told the Hindujas that the potential revenues would not cover our expenses.

I was intrigued, however, when at a dinner at their Manhattan residence, one of the Hinduja brothers stated that he had met the local AI Regional Head and had mentioned to him that they were speaking to PanAm to represent them and that if they were successful, the project would be headed by me.  He told me that the R.D. said that Inder Sethi was the wrong person for the job as he had no experience in Marketing & Sales since his entire career in Air India had been in the Planning Division.

Fortunately for me, the Hindujas had already checked my background with Air-India and knew that the last 8 years on my career were devoted to Marketing & Sales, in addition to the fact that I held the position of Commercial Director at the time of resigning.  The same brother told me that he had informed the AI Regional Head that not only did he not believe him, but that he would inform me that he (the R.D.) was spreading false information about me.

It was indeed disappointing to hear this falsehood particularly since I had helped this particular person in hanging on to his job.  I have, in an earlier Post, spoken of the time when the Managing Director wanted to sack this staff member because of misuse of AI Publicity funds, , but I had managed to convince him to change his mind.  Just goes to show that I had seriously misjudged this person’s character.

Interestingly, our paths did cross a couple of years later and as fate would have it, his career in Air-India did come to a sad end.  Karma played its role.

By now, we were in February of 1986 and the date of June 30 was drawing closer.  I called Mr. Nari Dastur who was then the Regional Director - Europe for Air Mauritius and asked if he had any suggestions.  Mr. Dastur told me that he was leaving for Mauritius the next day to attend the annual Sales Conference and that he would speak with Sir Harry Tiruvengadam, who was the CMD of Air Mauritius.

A week later, Mr. Dastur called me to say that Harry showed some interest and that it would be best if I spoke with him directly.  I called Harry who said that North America was not a market which Air Mauritius (MK) was keen on developing as the costs were too high but he would be open to a meeting with me.  He invited me to visit Mauritius and to speak with him and Suresh Seegobin, his Commercial Head.  Let me pause here to give a little background.

When AI inaugurated its flights to Mauritius, we had hired Suresh Seegobin as one of our Sales staff and he moved to MK when it started its own operations.  Additionally, when MK was incorporated, Nari Dastur convinced Air-India’s Board to purchase 8% of the shares and get a seat for Air-India on MK’s Board.  Mr. Dastur was AI’s first representative and I took over from him when he took early retirement.

So, I was no stranger to both Harry and Suresh and as such, I was quite optimistic when Manju and I left for Mauritius.  At the same time, I was aware that opening a full time office in New York would entail substantial expenses for MK, which may not be palatable to them.

As such, my proposal would be the appointment as a Resident Sales Representative and that I would operate from my house until such time that we generated sufficient revenue to justify opening a full time office.

Our (Manju and I) visit to Mauritius got off to an interesting start.  I called Ravi Misra who was then the MK Manager in London and he confirmed that he had received instructions from his Chairman for tickets for us.  When I went to the MK ticket counter at Heathrow airport, First Class tickets were waiting for us.  On boarding the flight, we were greeted by a very familiar face; Jeroo Dastur, and I asked her what was she doing in MK.

Her response was “Mr. Sethi, don’t tell me you have forgotten - your sent me to MK on deputation to train their air hostesses”. You can imagine my embarrassment.

On arrival at Mauritius airport, I found that no one among the MK staff was aware of our visit.  We cleared Immigration and Customs and I requested their Duty Manager to call the Chairman’s office.  Soon thereafter, we were placed in a taxi and sent off to MK’s Head office, where we were met by a red faced Chairman’s Secretary, who ushered me into his office.  Talk about miscommunication!!

Harry and Suresh showed interest in my proposal and we agreed that, as an experiment, I would work with MK initially on a part time basis, effective July 1, 1986.  My title would be General Manager - USA & Canada and MK would pay me a stipend of $1,000 monthly, plus expenses for travel, telephone, stationery etc., etc.  A review would be conducted at the end of one year to see where we go from there.

On my return to NYC, I arranged with a Pakistani Travel Agency to use their address to receive mail. 

At that time, Iberia was planning to start operations to India and with the help of Pablo Olmeda, AI’s Sales Manager - Spain, I got an introduction to their USA Regional head to whom I proposed a Consultancy agreement.  Unfortunately, this did not come through.  My other efforts to find other sources of income also did not find success.

The KU termination date of June 30, 1986 was coming close and not only did I see no other source of income on the horizon, but Manju and I also had to find a suitable house and furnish it and here, I took the ultimate gamble of my life.

Our older son, Akhil was going to his final year at Lehigh University in September 1986 and we had to come up with funds for tuition, board and lodging, plus his other expenses, such as running of his car.

At the same time, our younger son, Sarat was studying at Tenafly High School and hence, we needed to find a house in that town itself for him to continue to be a student in that school.

We did locate a suitable house and with the savings that I had accumulated during my tenure with KU, we were able to raise the down payment and furnish the entire house.  Interest rates at that time, were extremely high and our annual mortgage came to $35,000.  Added to that were Akhil’s college expenses of around $28,000 plus our own day to day living expenses, and we estimated that our liabilities for the first year would be around $75,000.

On the assets side, income from MK would be $12,000 and so, we were looking at deficit financing of about $63,000 for the first year.  We looked at our savings and realized that indeed, we are taking quite a gamble, but courage and confidence made us go through with our decision to stay on in the USA and not throw in the towel and go back home to India.

NEXT POST - How did our decision work out?

In one of my Posts earlier this year, I had remarked that some of the Kuwait Airways Sales Managers in offline stations had godfathers back in Kuwait.  These relationships created some problems in discipline and when I raised the issue with the Commercial Director, I was informed that this was peculiar to the culture of the airline and it would be best if I accepted the situation or as was explained to me “turned a blind eye to it”.

I was, however, concerned about some instances that did take place involving Bob Sensi, the Sales Manager in Washington, and on one of my visits to that city, I asked him point blank if he was actually an undercover operative of the CIA.  He denied the association and I kept quiet.  However, my fears were confirmed when Sensi called me one day and asked if he could come to NYC to discuss a matter which he could not speak of on the phone.

Sensi wanted a favor involving the Israeli airline El Al and started off the meeting with a question - do you know David Schneider, the then General Manager - USA of El Al?  The question took me aback and here I feel that I must give some background.

I first met David Schneider when I came to NYC in February 1960 to file a Tariff with the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board, preparatory to Air India’s operations to the USA.  David was, at that time, working in the U.S. Tariffs Division of British Overseas Airways Corporation, now BA.  We needed the expertise of this Division and I worked quite closely with their staff.  In the process, I became friendly with David and on occasion, had dinner at his house in the Bronx.

We kept in touch and met whenever I visited NYC.  I lost touch with him in the late 1970s when I moved to Marketing & Sales.  However, when I took over as head of the US operations of Kuwait Airways, I did meet him at a cocktail party and we promised to meet often; a promise that we did keep on a couple of occasions.

Hence, I was perturbed by the question posed by Bob Sensi and I asked him how on earth, was my association with David Schneider of interest to anyone in the USA?  After detailed questioning, he stated that any “relationship” between a staff member of an Arab airline and a staff member of the Israeli airline was of “interest to the FBI and CIA” and that our meetings had been “noted”.  Sensi also confessed that he was associated with the CIA in some form and that this was with the approval of top management of Kuwait Airways. 

Because of the Official Secrecy Act, I am constrained from divulging details of what transpired at the meeting and the events that followed.  However, some time after the conclusion of this matter, Sensi called and asked if I could meet with one of the main personalities involved who wanted to personally thank me for my assistance.  We agreed on a date which unfortunately, we could not keep and the meeting actually took place after I had left KU and was working with Air Mauritius.

Imagine my surprise and utter delight when Sensi walked into my office accompanied by Muhammed Ali, the famous boxing legend.  Muhammed Ali profusely thanked me for my assistance.  Later, he sent me a photograph of both of us at that meeting.  He had written the words “To Inder Sethi from your friend - Muhammed Ali - 9-3-88”.

I still have this prized possession in my desk.

As an aside to this story, Bob Sensi continued to be associated with the CIA and this landed him in hot water in the late 1980s. At that time, he again came to me for help when he was prosecuted for his part in what I believe was the Iran arms scandal.  Here again, I cannot divulge the facts, except to state that I was subpoenaed by a court in Washington, DC and had to appear before a Judge in his chambers.  The net result was while Sensi’s was sentenced, my evidence helped in his having to serve a lesser amount of time behind bars.

I was, at that time, consulting with PanAm World Airways and I thought that this was the end of my association with Bob Sensi.   I was, therefore,  surprised by a visit from an attorney who said that he was working for Kuwait Airways and was trying to unravel a mystery.  He raised the subject of the Bank account opened by KU in Washington, DC and showed me copies of two telexes exchanged between KU’s Head Office and their Accounts Manager in NYC.  In an earlier Post, I had mentioned that as per the airline’s rules and procedures, KU had opened one Bank at each offline Sales location into which all monies and checks were deposited.

The lawyer asked if I had seen these telexes and I confirmed that indeed, I had because they had raised considerable interest at that time.  KU’s H.O. had asked the Bank in WAS to advise the balance in the account and the Bank had replied giving the amounts held in TWO accounts.  This raised a Flag at H.O. and they asked the Accounts Manager in NYC (with copy to me as the Regional Head) to explain how there were two accounts when only one was authorized.

I recalled that the Accounts Manager had told me that he had spoken with the bank and the mystery had been resolved.  He also confirmed that he had sent a reply to H.O.  When I mentioned this to the lawyer, he stated that I had been misinformed by the Accounts Manager and there were in fact, two accounts.

His investigations had revealed the following:

1. At some point of time in the late 1970s, the WAS Sales office surreptitiously opened a second account under the authority of a very highly placed Kuwaiti who was visiting the city at that time.  When he gave me the name of this gentleman, I realized that not only was he a senior member of the Kuwaiti Government, but also served on the Board of the airline.  According to the terms of this account, it could only be operated by him and Bob Sensi, who was the local Sales Manager.
2. The NYC Accounts office was routinely invoicing the Embassy in WAS for tickets issued to the large number of students studying in the USA and the Embassy was making periodic payments by check to the local KU office.  These were collected personally by the Sales Manager who deposited some of them in the 2nd account.
3. At this juncture of my discussions with the lawyer, it dawned upon me that this was the reason why the local Accounts staff could never reconcile Invoices with receipts vis-a-vis the Embassy - my earlier Post mentions this issue.  It further clarified why Head Office would not agree to computerize the accounts - top management deliberately wanted to keep the entire issue a secret.
4. The amounts placed in the 2nd account were extremely large and were used to defray expenses authorized by the “very highly placed Kuwaiti” and sent to a country in the Middle East.  And, as we all know, “sticky fingers” came into play.  It appeared the local SM was using some funds for his own benefits.  Interestingly, a check for $50,000 was also issued in the name of the SM - Chicago.  
5. The lawyer asked me if I had personally seen the telex which contained the reply from the Accounts Manager to H.O. regarding the 2nd account and while I remember stating in the negative, I informed him that a copy must be in the office.  KU had a policy to keep a duplicate roll of all telexes - inbound and outbound - and that such rolls were kept in the basement of the ticket office on Park Avenue.  I asked the lawyer to go and check for himself.
6. The lawyer came back next morning with the news that there were no rolls and that this policy had been discontinued by my successor, soon after I had left KU.  All rolls were destroyed after 3 months.
7. At this point, I told the lawyer that I could not be of any further help.

I later learnt that the “very highly placed Kuwaiti” had passed away and that Sensi had been apprehended in London and was behind bars in that city.  It was at that juncture that I received the subpoena to appear before the Judge in WAS.

After my appearance before the Judge, my office received a few calls from KU’s Head Office, asking for me and they were always told that I was out of station.  I had consulted an attorney who advised me to avoid any association with the airline. I had occasion to see some of the airline’s top management at IATA AGM’s which I attended on behalf of Air Mauritius, but very carefully avoided them. Eventually, they gave up trying to contact me.

Meanwhile, Nani Mital took over as the R.D. for North America from Hari Kaul and I enjoyed a good relationship with him.  We met regularly for lunch and he invited me to join a golfing group of Indians who lived in the tri-state area.  In addition, he and P.P. Singh invited me to join them in their annual Golf Outing for Cargo Agents and I was extremely pleased to get to know young PP who, at that time, was AI’s Cargo Manager at JFK.

It was during Nani’s tenure in North America that his office sent over a request to Kuwait Airways asking for free tickets for the wife of the AI Chairman - Mrs. Raghu Raj and two “dependent children”, for travel Delhi/New York/Delhi.  The Manager - USA authorized the tickets and the family traveled to New York and visited Disney World on the west coast.  Nani Mital accompanied them to the west coast and mentioned this visit during one of our lunches.  

My interest was raised because I knew that Mr. Raghu Raj had grown up children and one of his daughters was, in fact, married to the son of one of my first cousins.  At that point of time, it was this couple who had “dependent children”.  So, AI had erred in asking for free tickets for the grand children of their Chairman. When I mentioned this to Nani over an airline luncheon, he requested that I turn a blind eye.

I then asked him if AI had also “looked after” their expenses in the USA; at which point, Nani excused himself from our lunch and later called me to request that our meeting and talk “never took place”. 

Nani Mital’s stint as R.D. came to an end just about the time when Kuwait Airways and I parted company.  I was informed by the then Commercial Director of KU that they had adopted a policy under which all Regional Heads would henceforth be Kuwaiti nationals.  In a couple of my visits to Kuwait, I felt an undercurrent in the Head Office which told me that the young Kuwaitis were getting anxious to take over important assignments from expatriates like myself and it was just a matter of time, when the change would take place.

I was offered a transfer back to Kuwait as Commercial Adviser which I turned down for a number of reasons, of which primarily:

1. Both of our sons were now in American educational institutions and we did not wish to be away from them in their formative years.
2. Our previous experience of living in Kuwait was not a happy one, particularly because of their attitude towards Indians and also towards women.

I was, therefore, surprised when I received a call offering me the post of Regional Manager - Asia.  It was surprising because of their new policy of posting only Kuwaitis as Regional Heads.  Nonetheless, after considerable thought and discussion with Manju, I turned it down as we had now decided to make the USA our home.

KU gave me 8 months time before the termination of my employment and I started looking for alternative job offers.  My target date was June 31, 1986.

I will speak of this next phase of my working career in my next Post.

I have digressed considerably in my last two Posts and now am reverting to my stint with Kuwait Airways.  Within a short period of time, I became aware that on reflection, there was little or no challenge in my job.  I found that our stations in the USA and Canada were concentrating primarily on generating traffic to India and Pakistan. In the process, they kept asking for lower fares to compete with other 6th freedom airlines for this market segment.

It was obvious to me that we had a target which was not difficult to achieve if my team concentrated solely on the Indian market. At the same time, we were confronted with a bottleneck at Kuwait.  A large number of Regions competed with each other in trying to get seats on the Kuwait - India flights.  There was the U.K. (a predominant market), Europe to a lesser extent and then Kuwait itself, in addition to Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.

There was another danger in concentrating on the Indian market, in that it was very price sensitive and with a limited number of seats beyond Kuwait at our disposal, I did not want to lower our yields, which would require greater efforts in achieving our overall target.  In fact, my objective was to increase our yields.

With the limitation of available capacity beyond Kuwait, all we needed was an average of “x” number of Indian passengers weekly and a series of meetings with Indian agents revealed that we could hope to get these without unduly dropping our price below that of Air-India.  At the same time, selling India from California or Texas meant sharing revenues with domestic carriers with the resultant lower net yield.

I informed our Sales Managers in Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston to direct their efforts to generating traffic to Yemen, Iraq and the Gulf States.  There was and is a large concentration of Yemenis and Iraqis settled in the western states and the midwest.  With a good marketing strategy we should be able to get a share of this market. The other stations were told to develop close relations with a few selected Indian agents and let them provide us with the requisite number of passengers to meet the “x” number and use their time more profitably to sell the Gulf countries.

This strategy paid off quite well. We met and exceeded our targets each year and I spent quite some time in renewing my relations with Indian agents and developing new relations with agents handling the Pakistani market.  In addition, I traveled all over North America studying the other ethnic markets, such as the Iraqi, Yemeni and Iranian.

Since Kuwait Airways flights operated all of its flights via London, we had considerable  spare capacity across the Atlantic.  It was not an easy job to fill this capacity firstly because we did not have a daily flight and we did not serve liquor.  However, we did develop good contacts with a few Consolidators who handled this market segment and managed to fill some seats.  In the process, I renewed contact with a woman whom I had met way back in 1962 when I was a bachelor.

She was then an air hostess with American Airlines who had met my roommate Nichi (B.L. Nichani) then a Purser with Air-India on one of his flights.  Nichi had invited her and another AA hostess to come and stay with us.  These two women showed up one day and stayed a few days with us.  I caught up with one of them 22 years later at which time, she had established herself as a Consolidator handling traffic to Europe.

In addition to traditional markets, we had a wholly captive market among Kuwaiti students who attended American Universities and “obtained” their MBA’s.  Our Sales office in Washington, DC  would receive requests from the Embassy  to issue their tickets once they graduated and they were than re-settled back home in various jobs in Government or in organizations like Kuwait Airways.

I was very intrigued to learn that we had two Accounting Staff whose entire working day was spent in trying to reconcile the Invoices sent to the Embassy with the latter’s payments.  We never seemed to get a closure.  On the one hand, we received individual requests for tickets and on the other, payment was made in arbitrary amounts without reference either to the Invoice/ticket numbers or the names of the passengers.  This payment was made by the Embassy directly to our Sales Office in Washington, DC which then deposited the checks into their local Bank.

On one of my visits to Kuwait, I raised the question of computerizing our accounts, but was rejected at every step.  Kuwait Airways’ accounting system left me astounded.  They had their own “method of madness” when it came to accounting which made absolutely no sense.

The New York office had two Bank accounts.  There was the “Chairman’s account” which we, as an outstation, were not allowed to touch or even look at, except to deposit all receivables into this account.  Head Office and our bank - Irving Trust - dealt directly with each other and the Accounts Manager was kept out of the picture.

Then, there was the Manager’s account from which we withdrew monies to pay wages and all Invoices.  This account was replenished from time to time by Head Office with instructions issued directly to Irving Trust.

Each of the Outstations had one account where they deposited all receivables.  They were not allowed to withdraw any funds from this account.  All monies received in this account were wire transferred by the local Bank, e.g. Riggs in Washington, DC, directly into the Chairman’s account at Irving Trust. 

On the first business day of each month, Head Office sent telexes (copied to the  Accounts Manager) to each Bank in New York and every Outstation in USA and Canada and asked for the balance in each account.  Each Bank then replied directly with a copy to the Accounts Manager. 

During my entire tenure with KU in the USA, this system appeared to work and I had no cause to raise any questions, except in one incident which had completely slipped my mind, but reared its ugly head about one year after I had left KU.  I was, at that time, consulting with PanAm and will speak about it when I post this period of my life.

Meanwhile, the North American region was meeting and, at times, exceeding its target and initially, I was well received in Kuwait on my visits to the Head Office.  However, by 1984 (about 4 years after joining KU), I got the impression that “all was not well”.  When I joined KU, most young Kuwaitis appeared quite happy to let the expatriate do all the work and they relaxed in their air-conditioned offices during working hours at H.O.

However, this was bound to change when more and more of these youths received advanced education.  Many of them were “studying” in the USA and obtaining MBAs. While most of them enjoyed their relaxed time at KU, the few more ambitious ones were getting impatient to be gainfully employed.

I will comment on this change in the atmosphere in my next Post.

Before I left Air-India, Peter Mahta had retired as RD - North America on March 31, 1980.  As expected, I had received a number of requests from senior AI executives to be posted as Peter’s replacement.  One of them was the then Deputy Commercial Director and he pushed very hard for this posting.  I told him that he was in line to become C.D. once I decided to relinquish this part of my job (I was, at that time holding two portfolios - Dy. M.D. and C.D.) 

He told me that his priority was to give his children the opportunity of an education in the USA.  He indicated quite categorically that he was not interested in staying in India any longer and was willing to give up the chance of further advancement.

I was, therefore, extremely surprised when he went back to Bombay to take over as C.D., when Malcolm Barretto retired.  There were certain “murmurs” which left me rather perturbed.  I felt that this gentleman’s decision to return to India had some underlying reason and this was confirmed to me after I spoke with a particular person in the U.K.

Unfortunately for him, his stint as C.D. did not last very long and he was transferred as Planning Director.  This move again left me quite perplexed and unhappy with the “murmurs” that I heard; the manner in which it took place and the involvement of his replacement in the lateral transfer.  Some insiders in AI very confidentially told me that this gentleman had been “stabbed in the back” by his replacement. 

The entire episode left a very bad taste in the mouth.

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Inder Sharma who was the owner and Chairman of Sita World Travels in India.  I first met Inder when I took over as CM - Marketing & Sales and we developed a close relationship.  He always called me whenever the TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India) needed the cooperation of the national carrier.  His phone calls always started with the words “Inder, this is Inder”.

At the same time, I consulted him whenever we wanted to initiate a dialogue with TAAI on any issue.  I can recall two occasions when he and I spent quite some time on major issues.

Soon after Nari Dastur took over as Commercial Director, some Travel Agents felt marginalized.  Inder Sharma and Vinoo Ubhayakar came to see me and expressed their unhappiness with what they perceived as preferential treatment to TCI.  It was their belief that TCI was being singled out because their two top personalities were Parsees. I tried to assuage their feelings and assure them that we treated all Travel Agents equally but that I would keep my eyes and ears open.

It soon became apparent to me that the feelings expressed by these two gentlemen did indeed have merit and that my boss was a “little too close” to TCI.  I waited for an opportune moment and took up the issue very carefully with Mr. Dastur.  I was very happy when, on reflection, he admitted that perhaps, some of his decisions could be construed as favoring TCI and agreed that henceforth, we would use me as a sounding board before he made any decisions vis-a-vis AI’s relations with Travel Agents.

Nari Dastur’s admission of partiality towards TCI came up in a conversation many years later when we had both left Air-India and met in Frankfurt in 1989.  At that time, he was the Regional Director - Europe and I was the General Manager - North America for Air Mauritius.  It so happened that a successor to both of us to the post of Commercial Director had, on retirement, associated himself with TCI to operate cargo Charters to/from India.

I clearly remember Mr. Dastur’s remark to me on that occasion “someone has finally taken TCI for a ride”.  It was then that I felt that my “intervention” on behalf of TAAI did have a salutary impact on Mr. Dastur and in fact, raised my esteem for him.

The second occasion came when Air-India was thinking of appointing a General Sales Agent (GSA) in North India to handle the low fare traffic to the U.K.  Inder Sharma called me and said that some members of TAAI were up in arms and were planning to officially raise this issue with the national carrier.

I confirmed to Inder that indeed, we were seriously thinking of such a move as we were losing out to BA, Air France and all the Arab carriers who had in fact, appointed GSAs to handle this segment of the market.  Inder Sharma then visited me in my office and as a compromise, I gave TAAI two years to show concrete efforts to get Air-India its rightful share of this market segment.  He readily agreed and went back to his colleagues with this compromise.

Unfortunately, TAAI was unable to compete with the GSAs of these carriers who had by then, been joined by Lufthansa.  So, after the two year period, AI appointed a GSA in North India.

Inder Sharma did not bring up this issue directly with me but got a colleague to raise this issue at the TAAI Convention held in New Delhi in 1980.  I was a member of a Panel when a TAAI member got up and asked if AI would agree to cancel its GSA agreement.  I gave the audience that background of the appointment and recall adding something to the effect that “I would gladly cancel my GSA when TAAI has the guts to raise this issue with the airlines who started appointing GSAs”.

After the Panel discussion, I cornered Inder Sharma who sheepishly admitted his role in prodding one of his colleagues to raise the question.  He also admitted that Air-India had been very open and fair in its dealings with TAAI on this issue.

Inder Sharma was one of the very elite group of Travel Agents who were instrumental in generating tourism to India.  Unfortunately, this group which included other stalwarts and very dear friends of mine - Gautam Khanna, Nari and Adi Katgara, Vinoo Ubhaykar and Jimmy Guzder - is no more.  

I am well aware that many new faces are on the scene and have taken over the mantle of promoting tourism to India, but I personally feel rather strongly that the passion and genuine efforts made by this “cream of personalities” was what put India on the tourism map.

In my career with Air-India, I made many friends and I hold people like Inder Sharma, Gautam Khanna and Jimmy Guzder among my closest ones.  They were genuine friends who came to my assistance when I needed them.  Gautam gave me valuable advice and assistance when we had our problems with the witch hunt organized by the Committee on Parliament Undertakings.  Jimmy came to my help when I needed a job for one of my brothers.

 My family and I spent many a weekend at Jimmy Guzders’ beautiful cottage in Marve Beach.  Gautam Khanna hosted us at Oberoi Hotels in India and always had time for lunch at his lovely home in Chattarpur on our visits to India. Inder Sharma, in addition to hosting us at his hotel in Manesar, always held a lunch for us retired or retarded (as Randhir Singh called us) Air-Indians every year that we visited India.  He presented us with a beautiful Pichwai and a carpet when he visited us soon after we had moved to the USA.

We had a visit by hurricane Irma which devastated the state of Florida.  We, on the east coast, were spared the main fury of this storm, but did get strong winds, heavy rain and rising flood waters.  The majority of residents lost power.  We were personally fortunate in that Devonshire at PGA National was self contained and our decision to move here was vindicated when we found how well we have been looked after.  At no time, did we feel unsafe or insecure.

And here, I would like to speak about the warm hearted generosity of the Management of Devonshire.  Firstly, they informed all residents to invite any relatives of friends who lived in the evacuation zones and whose homes were likely to be in danger of losing power.  Secondly, the same invitation was extended to the families of all the staff.

I am informed that we had a total of 200 such guests for the duration of the storm and its aftermath.  This speaks volumes of the large heart of Devonshire. 

Unfortunately, we lost our Internet, TV and landline phone connections because Comcast, our vendor, failed us. Those residents who used At & T did not suffer such a fate.  However, our power never went away, but I feel sad for the many members of the staff whose homes still have no power and they are living with temperatures in the 90s.

At the time of writing this Post, we do not have a clear indication of the total effects of Irma, but coming at the heels of another hurricane, Harvey, I hope that the man who sits in the White House is now having second thoughts on his views on Climate Control.

At the same time, I have read of the massive destruction and enormous loss of lives that has taken place in the sub-continent of India, Bangladesh and Nepal with the impact of the monsoons.  It would appear that Mother Nature is unsparing in which nation or region is impacted by its fury.  It is truly sad that the sub-continent has sufferings every monsoon.

We moved to our new home not knowing what to expect in terms of relationships with other residents and the service from the staff.

It has now been over 5 weeks and we cannot believe what we are experiencing.

From the very first day, we have been welcomed with “open arms”.  Our furniture had hardly been delivered when a neighbor dropped in and welcomed us to Devonshire, which is the name of this facility (the full name is Devonshire at PGA National).

That night we dined in one of the five restaurants and were immediately greeted by the Manager who guided us to our table and assisted the waitress to make sure that we were properly served. 

Next morning when I opened our front door to go for my morning walk, I found a beautifully gift wrapped bottle of wine from our next door neighbor with a card reading “Welcome home, neighbor”.  It was a very nice gesture.  They are an elderly couple and while he goes in for dialysis every three days, she is wheel chair bound.  Both of them are excellent company and we have already dined with them a couple of times.

Devonshire has about 329 apartments and an occupancy of 84.3% which they are hoping to raise to 95%.  There are about 85 couples and the rest are singles.  Apartments range from a one bedroom to one bedroom with a den, two bedrooms, two and a den and three bedrooms.  Ours is a two bedroom apartment of 1502 sq.ft and we have managed to fit in most of our stuff, although we had to give away quite a bit.  But then, we seem to be doing this every time we move.

Our apartment was refurbished from top to bottom with new flooring, new cabinets, new granite counters and new appliances.  All maintenance is provided free and that will change the filter in the refrigerator once the change light comes on.

There is a large Clubhouse of over 52,000 square feet with three wings of apartments and access to every facility or activity is by covered walkways.  So, one does not have to venture into the elements.  We are on the top floor of our wing and have the best view of the entire complex - a nature preserve and I will try and send photographs of this beautiful view.

Devonshire has Valet parking and Valet service.  We have the option of parking our cars or drive up to the entrance of our wing and our valet will park the car and/or bring up to the apartment, any shopping or bags that we may have.

There is a small Cinema which has 4 shows a day.  We saw a delightful comedy yesterday.  There is also a large auditorium where we have many activities every week.  There are showings of Classical Movies and lectures by the faculty of the local University.  On Monday evenings, we have live entertainment varying from Vocalists to group singing and we even had a Magician.  Our grand daughters happened to be here at that time and the younger one participated by assisting the magician.

We have a wellness center with a nurse in attendance during the day and most of the Security personnel are trained in nursing and hold diplomas in urgent care.  

There is Bingo every Thursday and I won two small prizes on our first visit to this event.  Last Thursday, we had a Casino Night where the Seminole Hard Rock Casino brought in gaming tables and croupiers and dealers.  There was a cover charge of $25 per person and a great time was had by all.  No cash changed hands and the top three winners received very attractive prizes

Card games include bridge, poker and canasta.  There is usually one outing every week, to a local horticulturist, a nature wildlife center or any other activity that the Activities Director selects.  She has two full time assistants and hence, there is no dearth of items for all of us to do.  You are free to join in or go your own way.

Devonshire has five (5) restaurants, each of which has its own chef and menus always include at least 5 entrees, plus two specials of the day.  The menu changes every month.  One restaurant specializes in seafood, another in meats of various kinds and a third is a delicatessen if you wish to have just a sandwich.

The monthly service charge includes daily continental breakfast and one main meal of the day.  Manju has cooked about 7 meals so far and these include the meals she prepared for our grand daughters when they visited us last month for 3 days.  She is delighted that she does not have to ask me what I would like for dinner.

In addition, there is live entertainment every weekend - FRI/SAT and SUN.  Our local Bank has a branch in the Clubhouse.  We have a small Gym but also have full and free access to the nearby PGA National resort which includes a swimming pool, a Spa, Massage parlor, Tennis courts and five golf courses, including the Championship course where they host the Honda Classic every February.  

Devonshire has its own fleet of cars and minivans and if one need a ride to a doctor, dentist, grocery store or the Gardens Mall within a radius of 10 miles, all we have to do is make a reservation.  There is no cost and this include drop-off and pick-up at the airport of Palm Beach International.  The only condition is that this facility is available between 08:00 and 16:00 hours daily.

The staff are very courteous, polite and always smiling.  They always address us as Mr. Sethi and Mrs. Sethi.  No member of the staff addresses any resident by their first name.  

I think I have given enough information about what Devonshire offers.  There is more but I believe I have covered the more essential items.

Manju and I have been welcomed by many residents and we have hardly had a meal by ourselves.  In fact, our calendar for dinner is full for the next 8 nights.

On the third day of our arrival, I was stopped in the corridor and asked if I played golf.  In answering “yes”, I was invited to join a small group who play every MON, WED and FRI.  They range from 77 years of age to 91 and I fit right in at 82.  We play at about the same level and so, I have my share of outdoor activity.

Let me conclude by saying that our experience so far has exceeded our expectations and the warmth with which we have been welcomed has been very uplifting. It is like living in a five star resort with people who are happy to be with you.

Selling our house in Boynton Beach and moving to our new digs at Devonshire has been a rather hectic time for us.  Hence, my inability to devote time to add to my Blog.  Now that we have almost settled down, I hope to revert to my periodic Posts.

  

Getting back to 1981, I had just about settled in my cramped quarters in the KU office when I received a memo from the Commercial Director asking me to oversee the U.S. operations in addition to my duties as Commercial Adviser.  The CD’s memo was copied to the local Manager who took umbrage as this now meant that I would be looking over his shoulder.  

He promptly made calls to his contacts in Kuwait and soon thereafter, both of us received instructions to proceed to London to meet the Chairman who was visiting that station.  The Chairman told the Manager that while administratively, he would continue to report to the Head Office, on matters concerning marketing and sales, he would need to take my advice.  

Unfortunately, the relations between the two of us did not take a turn for the better.  Nonetheless, I decided to get more involved in the revenue earning activities of the region and made visits to all the offline sales offices.  This was achieved on the occasions when I was not traveling overseas under my original brief - assignments given to me by the Chairman or the Commercial Director.  

During my talks with the Sales Managers in the offline stations (Washington, DC, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto) I learnt that they had very small budgets for entertainment.  When I checked with the Station Accountant, he confirmed that while the total Publicity and Entertainment budget of the region was in the “high six (6) figures”, only a flat amount of $500 was given to each Sales Manager annually, including the SM - New York.

The balance of the budget was utilized by the Manager, USA & Canada.  When I asked the Accountant for details, he demurred and stated that he could not give me the figure until he received clearance from the Manager.  Following a confrontation which I would have liked to avoid, but could not, I did get the figures and how this budget had been spent during the current and past years.

The information I received was staggering as the vast bulk of the amount was not being spent on actual promotion; it was spent on many questionable items.  On my next visit to Kuwait, I raised the issue with the Commercial Director.  He told me very confidentially that Kuwait Airways (KU) has purposes other than operating an airline and if “occasionally”, I did come across something or an incident that does not appear “normal” to me, I should turn a blind eye to it.

And that led me to discover a number of “odd” incidents/happenings.

One, it appeared that the Manager - USA & Canada had direct access to the Dy. Prime Minister/Foreign Minister who came to New York annually to attend the U.N.General Assembly.  Once the meetings had concluded, the Minister, along with his entourage, moved to a villa in the suburbs of New Jersey.  The Local Manager joined them and was away from the office for a whole week.  I later learnt through the grapevine that, in addition to providing certain “services”, he was also cooking meals for the team.

Two, very expensive gifts were purchased from Cartier, Tiffany and Dunhill and distributed to the Dy. Prime Minister and members of his entourage.  Similar gifts were personally hand delivered by the Manager to senior executives at Head Office whenever he visited Kuwait or they, in turn visited the USA.  No records of such gifts were kept.

Three, the Sales Manager in Houston usually took a whole month off every summer and this absence was not offset against his leave entitlement.  I happened to be visiting London one summer and was invited by the Dy. Chairman/DGCA, Sheik Jaber Al-Sabah for lunch in his apartment.  Guess who was there - the Sales Manager from Houston.  During my visit, I saw him make and serve drinks & snacks for everyone.  He even lit  a cigarette and placed it in Sheik Jaber’s lips and did all odd jobs, usually accomplished by a servant or man Friday.

When I met this Sales Manager on one of my visits to Houston, I asked him why he performed such menial jobs for the Sheik and he said that the Sheik had paid the mortgage of his house and in addition, helped him financially and so, he had no alternative.  Also, his job in KU was secure so long as he continued to serve the Sheik.

Four, the Sales Manager in Chicago performed certain roles that had no relation to his job.  For example, he duplicated TV shows on cassettes and sent them to the Chairman on a regular basis in the official mail bag.  He constantly hosted the family of the Chairman - I met the Chairman’s sister-in-law at his house.  She was his guest for a week.

Five, the case of the Sales Manager in Washington, DC was truly unique and I will speak about it in detail in my future Posts.

There were, however,  three Sales Managers who performed their job functions as required.  They were in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles.  Interestingly, the first two lost their jobs soon after I left KU.  They did not have a godfather in Kuwait.

The Manager - USA & Canada was transferred to Paris about a year after my arrival in New York and in his place, Head Office appointed a relatively young and junior Kuwaiti.  At the same time, my role changed and I became the Regional Head for the Americas.  Soon after taking over this appointment, I listed out the job junctions of the Manager with emphasis on Administration and smooth operations at JFK airport.  I told him that all Sales Managers would henceforth report to me.

I was, therefore, surprised when I received a call from the airport manager late one Saturday evening of an incident at JFK.  It appeared that on a pre-flight check, an inebriated person was found sitting in the aircraft.  None of the passengers had yet been boarded but their baggage had been loaded.  I enquired if the Manager - USA had been informed and was told that they could not locate him.

Before leaving for the airport, I instructed the Airport Manager to remove the aircraft to a remote location and offload all baggage.  We physically checked each piece of baggage before reloading it and again screened all passengers.  By the time I left the airport, we still had been unable to locate the Kuwaiti manager.

The following Monday we sent a report of the incident to Kuwait and I asked that a team be sent to JFK to review our security procedures and received an assurance that this would be done.

Meanwhile, the young Kuwaiti manager appeared on Monday afternoon and when I questioned him, was informed that he had gone out of the state of New York with some Kuwaiti students.  He said that since it was a weekend , he did not feel the need to inform me of his decision to leave station.  I gave him a royal dressing down and told him that while he did not need my permission to leave town, he had to keep me informed as during the weekend we had two flights and one of his main responsibilities was JFK airport. He was very apologetic when he learned of the incident during the weekend.

Head Office did send a Security team to New York, but they did not stop there and proceeded directly to Washington, DC.  My Sales Manager informed me that they were closeted with Kuwaiti embassy officials for four days and he had been unable to speak with any of them.  I then learnt from the airport manager JFK that the team had reappeared late on an afternoon and left for Kuwait.  He was completely in the dark of what transpired in Washington

Interestingly, I never received any report of their findings nor was any change made in the security procedures at JFK.  After consulting Stephen Rajaratnam in Kuwait, I decided that this was another incident which required me to “turn a blind eye” to it.