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?