It has been quite some time since I added any Posts to my Blog.  I am shortly coming to the end of my narrative on my career and seem to have come across writer’s block.

Since my last Post, two more of my former colleagues passed away.

Feroze Mehta who joined AI around the same time as Harish Malik and myself and spent a considerable amount of his career in Administration and Personnel matters was a good friend and an very able member of our staff.  Feroze hadn’t been keeping good health for quite sometime and it may be a blessing that he and his family did not suffer anymore. 

Andy Ramani was working in our U.S. Management office when I first met him.  Andy was looking after the Indian Ethnic traffic in the USA and assisted my team and I whenever we visited the USA for market surveys.  Andy underwent by-pass surgery soon after my first one and I remember assisting his sister Sheila Ramani to be by his side when he had the procedure.

Feroze and Andy were good friends and I have lost two more of my associates who served AI very well in its hey days.

We celebrated Diwali at Devonshire this year.  The largest restaurant (Verandah) had candle lights at every table with a “tent card” explaining the significance of Diwali.  There was a large colorful Poster at the entrance showing a set of Diyas.  The Chef prepared chicken biryani as one of the entrees and for desert, he made coconut barfi.  Manju and I received compliments from many of the residents who appreciated our efforts to share our culture with them.

Getting back to my days with Air Mauritius (MK), we had settled into a routine in USA and developed good relations with the limited number of Mauritians resident in the country and also started to get a fair response to our efforts to produce tourist traffic from this country.  Our biggest handicap was the very limited knowledge of the average American of where MRU was located.

Nonetheless, we continued to meet our targets and I was heartened when, at an Annual Sales Conference, the CMD mentioned to the attendees that he wished he had more offline Sales outlets or “Antennas”, as he called the U.S. and Canadian offices.  He stated that we contributed more than $2.5 million to the bottom line of the airline as this was our net contribution after expenses, which that year, represented more than 10% of the airline’s profit.

Our CMD’s attitude towards our efforts took an even more interesting turn at the IATA Annual General Meeting held in Dallas in 1993.  The Chairman’s wife was seated next to Bob Crandall, the CEO of American Airlines and in making small talk, Elahi spoke glowingly about MRU and MK.  She was shocked when Bob Crandall told her that he had never heard of Mauritius and asked her where this country was located. She related this incident to Harry and me at lunch the next day.

This was an excellent opportunity for me to bring home to the CMD and his wife the major handicap I had compared to other MK outstations.  I could sense the change in not only our CMD’s attitude but that of senior members of the Head Office staff after this incident.

Storm clouds were, however, appearing on the horizon and politics came into play.  Elections were held in MRU and the party led by Sir Anurood Jugnauth lost to the party led by Navin Ramgoolam, who was the son of the first Prime Minister of MRU - Sir Seewoosagar Ramgoolam.

Dhiraj Jesseeramsingh, the Mauritian Ambassador to the USA told me in confidence that he foresaw changes in the management of Air Mauritius.  Sure enough; I heard from the Commercial Director that changes were indeed on the horizon and that a special meeting had been arranged in MRU and that I should attend.   I did so.

During this visit to MRU, Harry Tiruvengadam advised us that he was leaving to become the CMD of Air Afrique and  would soon be handing over charge to his politically appointed successor, who happened to be a college mate of the new Prime Minister. 

The new CMD was a University colleague of the P.M. - Hasham Mallam - and he wasted no time in taking charge.  One of his first moves was to arrange a “retreat” where he invited a few chosen Mauritians who listed a number of items which they felt Harry T. had incorporated and which, in their opinion, had impacted adversely in the performance of the airline.

This was a repeat of the pattern I had seen in Air-India whenever there were changes in Government in 1977 and 1978.  It was an excellent opportunity for disgruntled staff to vent their frustrations and they brought out real and imagined incidents.

Nari Dastur called me and stated that one of the accusations against Harry was that he had brought in expatriates, particularly former employees of Air-India.  This step, they felt had hurt the growth of the company and careers of Mauritians.  Nari confidentially indicated that his own future in MK was in jeopardy.

A few weeks later, I heard from Nari Dastur that T.K.P. Pillai had been asked to step down from his post as Manager - Italy.  TK had completed 6 years with MK and I am glad to say that he was given a handshake equal to one month’s salary for each year of service, as per his Contract.

I could see the writing on the wall and called Suresh Seegobin, our Commercial Director.  Suresh told me to sit tight.  My name had not come up in the secret deliberations at the CMD’s retreat and it was his opinion that no Mauritian staff member coveted my job.  They wanted cushy posts in the Far East and Europe. Nonetheless, Suresh felt that I should expect that at some time in the near future, the new CMD would be “looking” at the USA office.

Meanwhile, K.L. Ramchander and Ravi Misra had already left.  Ram had served as the Regional Head for the Far East, based in Singapore, and he went back to India.  Ravi stayed on in the U.K. after his stint as Manager - UK and Ireland.  This left only two ex-Air-India expatriates - Nari Dastur and myself.

More in my next Post.

JULY 28, 2018

In my last Post, I had spoken about the transfer of Air-India’s art collection to the Ministry of Culture in New Delhi.

Since then, recent events and happenings in the airline have occupied my mind considerably and the question that is uppermost in my mind, is “What is happening to my Alma Mater?”.

The effort to sell the airline met with a deafening silence.  Not one bid was received and while there are many reasons for this, I do not wish to relate or expand upon, except to say that the entire process was flawed from the start.

If the Government is truly serious in privatizing the airline, it must start by looking  at the product that they wish to sell.

We have an airline with:

1. A massive debt.
2. Enormous annual net losses
3. Staff morale which could not get lower, but can and will only do so as time goes by if a proper solution to the airline’s problems is not found.
4. While the aircraft are airworthy, the condition of the interior of many has deteriorated to such an extent that canabalization is the norm and not the exception.

On top of that, during the past few days, there have been news items of Bed bugs on more than one Newark/Mumbai flight and that during June 2018, Air-India made the headlines for having the highest number of complaints among all Indian airlines.

And then, there was a weird article of a passenger relating how an air hostess  “leaned over and asked  almost conspiratorially “May I serve you your Muslim meal now?”

What, pray, is a “Muslim Meal”?

Thoughts of my Alma Mater brought back memories of the first day that I spent at the Air-India office on the 4th floor of the Bank of India building on M.G. Road in Bombay.

It was sometime in early January 1957 and I spent the entire day waiting to be interviewed.  Firstly, by the Senior panel which Mr. N. V.  Khote had convened and then by Mr. S. K. Kooka.  Mr. Kooka was busy the entire day and at around 4:00pm, I was asked by Mrs. Barbara Shivdasani, the receptionist, to come back the next morning.  I had spent most of the day smoking, reading magazines and looking at the dark wooden panelling.  If I concentrate, I can still breath the aroma that pervaded in that reception area. 

When I ran out of cigarettes,  Mrs. Shivdasani was kind enough to send out for another packet.  I have tried, but cannot remember which brand I used to smoke in those days; though later on, I had switched to Pall Mall.

Memories - yes, memories.  When I run out of writing about my working career, I think I should talk about my memories, both good and bad.  Hmmm.  Worth thinking about.

Some time ago, I believe AI had decided to showcase the airline’s art collection on a floor designated for this purpose in its iconic building at Nariman Point in Mumbai. It appears that Air-India’s management has now agreed to send this entire collection to the Ministry of Culture in New Delhi.

Even before I joined the airline in 1957, we had started to encourage budding artists and buying their works.  These were initially displayed in our offices but later it was decided to use them to decorate the homes of our overseas representatives and senior executives in Mumbai.  I remember the fair number of antique mantelpiece clocks that we had acquired - one of which was in my office on the 17th floor at Nariman Point.

Most of these articles were acquired during Jai Cowasji’s tenure and subsequently by Dhabaolkar and his successors.  

I hope the Ministry of Culture will honor this tremendous collection and display it for the public to view.  If not, it would be a tremendous waste of the great efforts that AI made to develop Indian art and artists.

Getting back to my tenure at Air Mauritius, in previous Posts, I have spoken about the difficulty in promoting Mauritius as a tourist destination to Americans.  I would like expand on this issue.

First, our studies showed that more than 95% of Americans had no idea where this country was.  Second, the Caribbean islands offered almost every attraction that Mauritius had to offer, with the exception of a culture which truly welcomed tourists. 

Third, it took 3 to 4 hours to fly from the east Coast to the Caribbean while travel to MRU required a two night flying time.  Fourth, we had practically no assistance from the MRU Tourist Department.

After trying various avenues and considering our limited financial resources, we decided that the most effective way to promote the country was to sell MRU as part of a two destination holiday and also special interest tours, such as honeymoons and deep sea fishing.  

MRU held an annual fishing tournament - the Marlin World Cup.  Our first attempt to send a few teams from the USA did meet with some success, but nature did not help.  MRU experienced a cyclone at that particular time and we had a few cancellations.

Nonetheless, we persevered and found that there was definitely genuine interest for this sport in the USA.  Manju and I were invited to attend a similar tournament in St. Thomas and we found considerable enthusiasm.  Unfortunately, this enthusiasm was not matched at the other end.  The powers that be in MRU flatly told me that they had enough teams from Europe and other countries and did not need more that 1 or 2 from the USA.

We then ran into an major problem - difficulty in getting seats on MK flights.  The European stations had allocations on all flights which they held on to for dear life and last minute releases were no help for us.  During a Sales Conference in MRU, I spent some time trying to cultivate better relations with the Reservations Manager and his staff.

Little did I realize the competition that we faced.  Each afternoon, one or another European station held a “get together” for the Res. staff.  They had brought in Champagne, wine and other “goodies” such as Belgian chocolates and gifts.  The Sales Manager from Zurich told me in confidence that I could not hope to match the generosity of Mr. Dastur.

Nonetheless, I was able to establish a personal relationship with the Reservations Manager and we did manage to get some seats by contacting him directly on each occasion.

The CMD mentioned to me that perhaps, I should emulate the efforts of Tord  Magnusson, the Sales Manager in Sweden who was sending a large number of Hi-yield clients.  He told me to meet with Tord and “get some tips”.  Tord introduced me to his Tour Operator who had a branch office in Florida.  This gentleman stated that Florida had a substantial affluent population which, he felt, would certainly be interested in traveling to an exclusive destination such as MRU.

Despite my personal misgivings, I gave this project a good try.  First, we hosted a team of journalists who published a four page article in Town & Country, an upscale travel magazine.  We then sent reprints of this article to a mailing list that this Tour Operator maintained.

Second, we held a Reception for about 75-80 well heeled residents of Palm Beach County.  

Guess what - we did not get a single client from this effort!!!

So, I went back to well tried efforts and renewed our efforts by participating in selective Trade Shows and pursuing personal ties with Tour Operators promoting South Africa.  I attended two INDABA Trade shows in Durban and developed contacts with both U.S. Tour Operators and local Ground operators.  

MK became a member of the USTOA and we did attained a few annual meetings, but soon realized that with our limited financial resources, we would be better off in one-to-one meetings with the few Tour Operators who promoted African Safaris. We did meet with some success and were fortunate in meeting our annual targets.

In my last Post, I spoke about issues in Canada.  I soon found that I had another problem in my own office in New Jersey (NJ).  My Sales Manager (Azhar Zaidi) started imbibing liquor during office hours and when I confronted him, he confessed that he was under a heavy strain as his daughter and son-in-law were having marital problems.  I spent many hours trying to talk sense to him, but I did not appear to be making much headway.

Eventually, I had to read the “riot act” to him and gave him 6 months to resolve his personal problems.  The 6 month period stretched to an year and doing this period, I ran into a major problem. 

An Indian Travel agent told me that he had heard a rumor that there was a batch of MK tickets being hawked in the market.  My investigations confirmed that a batch of 100 tickets had indeed been issued by an unscrupulous agent in NYC.  I immediately informed our H.O. in MRU to keep a lookout for any of these tickets if they surfaced in interline billing.

The tickets did surface but our Accounts Department bungled the follow up and it was only after 6 months that I learnt the facts.  Both of my staff had conspired to steal these documents and I terminated their services and initiated a Police Case against them.  The Res/Tktg staff confessed after the police had him in custody for a few hours and agreed to pay back half the loss that MK had incurred. 

While he implicated Azhar Zaidi as an accomplice, the Police did not have a strong enough case against him.

Azhar Zaidi, in the meantime, sent a letter to MK’s Commercial Director in which he stated that Mr. Sethi hardly attended office as he was playing golf most of the week and that he (Zaidi) was putting in considerable overtime and generating traffic for MK.  As such, Mr. Sethi’s services should be terminated and he (Zaidi) should be given the post of G.M. - USA and Latin America.

I happened to visit MRU soon thereafter and was shown this letter and instructed to terminate Mr. Zaidi’s services upon my return, which we did.

In turn, Azhar Zaidi filed a law suit against me with the Equal Opportunities Employment Commission on grounds of racial discrimination.  Needless to state, we had no problem convincing the Commission that he had no valid case.

MK - USA was now a one man office and my wife pitched in whenever I needed help to run errands and man the phones while I had to go to meetings.

With the peak winter season on our heads, I took the decision to offer Francisco Rebelledo a full time assignment as Sales Manager, USA and to come from LAX to NJ.  He accepted and shortly after, we recruited Lucy Barahona as our new Res/Tktg. agent and were back to being a fully staffed office.  However, we did lose our representation on the west coast which had a detrimental effect on our revenues.

I thought that I had had enough excitement by this time and was hoping that matters would henceforth proceed smoothly.  Unfortunately, Francisco Rebelledo and his family were having difficulties in settling down in New Jersey.  His wife, Josephine, who was Spanish had married Francisco in Spain and moved to Los Angeles.  She found the winter in NJ very harsh and difficult.  On top of that, their house was burgled and they lost a great deal of their valuables and momentos. 

Very reluctantly, Francisco decided to move back to Chile, his country of birth and so, put in his resignation.  I was very saddened to see him go, as he was not only a very enthusiastic individual, but also very personable and a very dependable member of the team. 

As an aside, I should mention that eventually, Francisco came back to the USA and I next met him when he came for the staff gathering on the occasion of my retirement from MK in 1999.  He was by that time, working for Continental Airlines in Puerto Rico and also arranged a short holiday for Manju and me after my retirement.

Francisco is still in touch with me and occasionally I get emails from him, plus the annual Christmas greetings. 

I was now looking for a replacement for the post of Sales Manager and our PR & Advt. Consultant, Bob Desley, recommended William (Bill) Pankow who had worked as the NYC Sales Manager at Kuwait Airways when I was their Regional Head.  Bill was, at that time, with Pakistan International Airlines in a mid-level backroom capacity and happily jumped at the opportunity to “get back” into active selling of air travel.

We finally had a team and were back in business.

Early morning one day when I was having breakfast, Harry Tiruvengadum, our CMD called and asked if I was aware that the Mauritius Prime Minister was traveling to Colombia to attend the Non-Aligned Summit in Cartagena.  I replied in the affirmative adding that we had only the day before, we had managed to get confirmation of his wait-list reservation on one pending leg of his journey.

Harry then asked if could I meet the P.M. and his wife during their transit in Bogota enroute to Cartagena?  I was surprised since the transit was only for 5 hours and told Harry that I had already checked and was informed that the P.M. would not be leaving the airport and that he was being met by the Chief Protocol Officer of the Colombian Government and escorted to a VIP area in the terminal.

He came back and asked me to please do this as a personal favor to him.  The P.M. had heard rather disturbing reports of insecurity in Colombia and specially requested that “Mr. Sethi meet him during his transit”.  So, off Manju and I went to Bogota.

On arrival, I met the airport Manager of Avianca, the national airline and he offered all courtesies and asked me to meet him an hour before arrival of the P.M.s flight. He introduced me to the Chief Protocol Officer and when the flight landed, I was at the gate with them.  We met the P.M. and Mrs. Jugnauth and I took from him, their baggage tags.

The Avianca Airport Manager and I then went and retagged their baggage and then loaded it in the hold of the smaller aircraft from Bogota to Cartagena.  I then proceeded to the VIP area where I spent the next few hours with the P.M. and his wife, both of whom I had met and spent almost a week with when they visited Washington, DC and the Boeing factory in Seattle.

It was a very pleasant meeting during which I was introduced to the Heads of the Governments of Madagascar and Comores, who were also proceeding to Cartagena on the same flight.

I thought that was the end of the matter, until the P.M. sprang a surprise just before they boarded their flight by asking me if “Could you please meet us in Miami while we are in transit from Cartagena to New York?”

And so, soon after returning to NJ from Colombia, I found myself in Miami where I met the American Airlines airport Manager and managed to secure a secluded corner in their Ambassador Lounge.  I was having a well deserved cup of coffee when I heard an announcement asking “would Mr. Sethi of Air Mauritius please contact the American Airlines agent at check-in?”

I proceeded there accordingly and found two employees of the U.S. Secret Service who informed me in a most officious manner that I should point out the Mauritius P.M. and his wife as they disembarked.  The Secret service would take over at that time and the two would be escorted to a VIP area.  After they had been settled, I would then be taken to that room.

I said OK and stated that I would take their baggage tags and ensure that their baggage was properly retagged to their destination (JFK).  They were astounded by this suggestion and stated that the Secret Service had decades of experience handling Heads of States and knew all protocols and handling procedures.  In other words - keep your hands off!!!

So, I was escorted to the VIP area  where I renewed my acquaintance with Sir Anoorad and Mrs. Jugnauth and sat with them.  Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder and one of the Secret Service staff asked if I could meet him and his colleagues outside the VIP room.  I did and was told “We made a boo boo.  Their baggage was tagged to La Guardia and we have just realized that they are flying to J F Kennedy airport.  Can you help us out”.

By this time, I had had enough and tore into both of them.  What happened to the decades of experience that you boasted about, I asked?  I have half a mind to report your inefficiency to Secretary of the Treasury, I stated.  I then took the baggage tags from them and called Bill Pankow at the MK office.  I read out the tag numbers to him and requested him to go to LGA , pick up the bags and deliver them to the Waldorf Astoria where the P.M. and his wife were staying.

There was no further incident and I traveled on the same flight with the P.M. and on arrival at JFK, handed over the VVIPs to the Mauritian Ambassador who met us in the terminal.  The Ambassador asked if I was coming to the hotel and I said to him - sorry, I am now going home.  They are all yours.

I took leave of the P.M. and Mrs. Jugnauth who were most gracious and effusive in thanking me for all my patience and consideration.

On my next visit to MRU, I related the entire set of incidents to the CMD who apologized for all the travels I had to undertake but stated that the P.M. had specially asked for me by name as he was quite impressed by how their earlier trip to the USA in 1988 had been handled.

At the Air Mauritius office in the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, we seldom got walk in customers and, therefore, I was surprised when a well dressed gentleman knocked on our door and announced that he wanted to work for us.  Francisco Rebelledo had visited a Trade Fair in Madrid where he saw the Air Mauritius booth and wanted to know how he could apply for a job in the USA.  He was directed to speak to us in NYC.

Francisco lived in Los Angeles and had some experience working for airlines on the West Coast.  I told him that we had recently opened the NYC office and at that stage, were not looking for nor could justify an expansion to the West Coast.  However, I assured him that I would keep in mind his desire to represent us on that side of the country.

On my next visit to MRU, I mentioned the incident to our CMD and CD who said that while they were satisfied with the revenue that we were generating, the additional expense of another office in the USA would be difficult to absorb.

We had been covering the West Coast by sporadic visits but did not appear to be making any serious impact and so, the thought of a permanent presence seemed quite attractive.  I, therefore, decided to give the subject more thought and came up with the following idea.

Office rents in Manhattan were going through the roof and on top of that, the parking charges for my car itself was close to $4,000 annually.  If we moved the office out of the city, we would pay far less in rent and at the same time, eliminate the cost of parking.  There did not appear any major reason to have a Sales Office in the city and I worked out that the savings in expenses would cover a major portion of hiring a part time resident representative on the West Coast.  On the positive side, we would have a presence and exposure there, which would inevitably result in additional revenue.

Accordingly, I proposed to my Head Office that we move the office to Englewood Cliffs, in New Jersey.  An added advantage of this move was that my commuting time would be shortened considerably - 10 minutes each way compared to one hour plus each way, thus improving my own productivity.

 The only objection came from the CMD who said that the loss of a NYC telephone number may indicate that we did not have an office in the most important city in the USA, which may, in turn, indicate that we are not represented in the country.  I countered by stating that under the telephone system, we would maintain our NYC telephone number and all calls to it would be automatically routed to our New Jersey number.  

And so, Francisco Rebelledo joined us as a part-time Sales Manager - Western USA and within 6 months, I was proud to show H.O. new AOS revenues from the West Coast.

On one of my visits to MRU, I enquired if we were carrying any Postal Mail originating from the USA and was told that while we did carry it, it was a very insignificant amount.  I made a pilgrimage to Washington, DC and met a number of Postal officials and convinced them to use MK as a connecting carrier at Paris, whereby the transatlantic portion would be retained on a U.S. Flag carrier.

The first year saw a new source of revenue which increased at a fairly good rate as each year went by.  All it took was a regular visit to the same Postal officials which I could easily accomplish since I was making regular visits to the World Bank and the IMF. 

While Francisco was proving to be a great addition to our team, I was soon to see dark clouds on the eastern seaboard.  

The MK Manager for the U.K. (George Tang) was very keen to move permanently to Canada.  He was a Mauritian and his wife and two children had already moved to Toronto and become Canadian residents.  His request was supported by Mr. Nari Dastur who, as I have mentioned in my Post of February 27, 2018, was known as the “de facto CMD” of MK.

I soon felt my arm being twisted and H.O. created an additional Post of Sales Manager - Canada.  I, therefore had two Sales Managers which meant a considerable increase in expenditure.  In addition to the wage bill, we had also an increase in the cost of maintaining an establishment in Canada. 

Till then, George Papamoros was using one of the bedrooms in his house as an office and with the addition of another body, we had no choice but to get a regular office.  The first problem came when between the two of them, they could not agree on its location.  The Mauritian wanted to be in Toronto city itself having worked at a city location during his previous postings at Rome and London, while the Canadian felt that we should have an office in the suburbs, for the same reason that we moved from NYC to NJ.

I had to intervene and we opened an office in a suburb of Toronto.  The Mauritian eventually accepted this compromise as his own residence was in that same suburb.

Peace was also restored in the office after I allocated different portfolios to them.  George Tang was told to look after the Mauritian ethnic traffic and George Papamoros was directed to develop business and tourist traffic.

Unfortunately, I soon found a problem for my own self.  Someone in MRU raised the question - why do we need Mr. Sethi to look after Canada since we now have two relatively senior persons there?  Have Mr. Sethi concentrate on the USA and also develop Latin America.  I was summoned to MRU where the CMD told me that they had decided to make this change.

Fortunately for me, the CD recognized that the change would affect me financially as I would then no longer be eligible for the over-riding commission of 3% on Canadian sales; an amount which at that time worked out to about US$30,000 on net sales of around US$1million.

One solution was to raise my salary by that amount (which the Finance Director  opposed as it would automatically result in higher expenditure in MK's contribution to my 401K and the annual Bonus. Each of these amounts represented 8.33% of my salary.

The CD recommended a compromise - I would continue to draw my commission on a gradually reduced scale whereby the commission would become zero at the end of 6 years.  In the meantime, if I concentrated on promoting traffic in the USA and Latin America, perhaps the shortfall would be overcome.

And so, I came back from MRU with a new title and new assignment.  

Interestingly, in the next two years, while MK saw that the USA was exceeding its target, Canada was well below not only its target, but was earning less than when I was in charge. 

Management soon saw “the error of their ways”.  I was politely approached by the CD if I would agree to “oversee” the Canadian operations which I equally and very politely declined.  My gross income had not seen any appreciable dent and, at that time, I was not interested to acting as a constant mediator between the two Georges (Tang and Papamoros) whose inability to work together was a detriment to the revenues from that country.

When I first joined Air Mauritius (MK) on a part time basis, I requested H.O. to supply me with Area of Sale statistics.  They replied that they did not have such stats.

When my tenure was made a permanent one, I pressed H.O. for the A.O.S stats.  I was told that since the bulk of MK’s traffic consisted on Inclusive Tours and Incentive Travel, they had not felt the need for such figures, but promised to initiate work on this document.

I spoke with Dhiraj Jesseeramsingh, the Mauritius Ambassador in Washington, D.C, whom I had got to know when he and I had accompanied the Prime Minister to Seattle.  He told me that there was a small population of Mauritians in the D.C. area who worked at the World Bank and the I.M.F.

I met the in-house Travel Agents at both of these institutions and learnt that in fact, there was a small number of Mauritian employees who did travel to MRU on their annual leave but in the majority of cases, used BA as their preferred carrier.  The World Bank and IMF paid their Business Class fares and BA upgraded them using the Frequent Flyer miles that they had accumulated.

I approached Suresh Seegobin, our C.D. and got his approval to upgrade them to First Class on the LON-MRU and PAR-MRU sectors.  With this incentive, we are able to get a fair share of this small hi-yield market.

The rest of the USA had very few Mauritians but the word did get around and we started getting calls from places like Wichita, KS and Los Angeles, CA and managed to get a loyal following, though at highly discounted net fares.

Canada, however, offered a different market as there were between 5,000 and 10,000 Mauritian families in Quebec and Ontario - the exact number differed depending who you talked to.  Fortunately, we now had a Sales office in Toronto and George Papamoros did considerable leg work and soon we were getting these Mauritians to use our Europe - MRU flights.

Air Canada were quite difficult when we approached them for special trans-Atlantic prorates, but we got around this problem by tie-ing up with Wardair.

I then contacted the Jeremy Pask who ran the Mauritius Tourist Office in New York.  I learnt that they did absolutely no advertising and only answered telephone or written requests for information on Mauritius.  They did, however, hold some tourism literature, which they offered to share with us.

Soon after we opened our office in NYC, the Mauritian Ambassador in Washington called a meeting with Pask and myself at which he asked for information on our promotional efforts.  He asked both of us to advise the budgets that we had for such promotion.  I indicated the figure that we had, but Pask refused to divulge his figures.  Additionally, he had no statistics to indicate the number of enquiries his office had received.

I thought his attitude to be very peculiar and going behind his back, was able to learn that he did have a fair amount of money allocated by the Tourist Department.  I then made a few anonymous calls to his office asking for information on Scuba Diving and was very surprised to hear his staff recommending Belize as a destination for such a sport.

I mentioned this to our CMD who must have taken up the issue with the Director General of Tourism in MRU as I received a very irate call from Pask.  I countered by asking him to prove what exactly he did to promote Mauritius as I had not seen any evidence.  He mentioned that he attended Trade Shows, but when I asked for details, his answer was very vague.

It was later that I learnt from a confidential source that indeed, he did have a fair amount budgeted but that this amount was “shared” with the DG - Tourism. I guess he found that his secret had been discovered because he came to my office and asked if he could join MK in attending Trade Shows; he would be willing to share the costs equally.

Pask stated to me that there was no Tour Operator who promoted Mauritius as a stand alone destination.  We agreed that the only way to sell MRU was as a joint destination. I then contacted a few T.O.s who promoted South Africa and East Africa and tried to get them to show MRU as an extension.  I was successful in getting two T.O.s, one of whom (African Travel) agreed to devote two full pages to MRU in his brochure.

I attended the annual meetings of the U.S. Tour Operators Association (USTOA) and soon realized that I could use my limited budget more effectively by speaking directly with the 2 or 3 African Tour Operators.  Even then, our efforts did not meet with much success.

I mentioned this to our CMD who said - Inder, why don’t you become a Tour Operator yourself and promote MRU?  And that was the start of my second career as a Tour Operator in addition to being the head of the MK offices in North America. 

Indian Ocean Enterprises, Inc. came into being with the primary purpose of promoting tours to islands of the Indian Ocean.  Having by then a fair knowledge of what Mauritius had to offer, I did a great amount of travel to learn about other countries in the Indian Ocean - Seychelles, Madagascar, Moroni, Rodrigues and additionally, South Africa, where I attended two annual meetings of their local Ground Operators and Travel Agents (INDABA).

 In the course of the next full year, I had tied up with Ground Operators in each country and personally stayed at hotels and resorts which we would promote and negotiated special hotel rates. 

Air Mauritius gave me a special budget to cover the cost of brochures and advertising and I listed the support of Bob Desley, our Advt. and P.R. Consultant in getting our promotion off the ground.

Our brochure had tours to Mauritius and combinations - MRU/SEZ, MRU/Madagascar and MRU/South Africa.  In the same brochure, we promoted Honeymoon packages, Scuba and Snorkeling and Deep Sea Fishing.  I will talk of the latter (Fishing) in greater detail in a future Post.

In late 1989, we had a formal opening of our office at the Roosevelt Hotel in mid-town Manhattan.  Sir Harry Tiruvengadam, our CMD was attending the IATA AGM in Montreal and came down for the opening.  The ribbon was cut and a Sterling Silver memento was presented to him to commemorate the occasions.

My memory of this occasion also brought forward another very pleasant thought.  I received a call from my very dear friend - Yash Johar - who called from Singapore.  His opening words were “Brother, how are you”.  He had always addressed me by that monicker. Yash was going to Mauritius to do a site inspection for a movie that he wanted to produce.  He needed two things - one, a room at our finest hotel, The Royal Palm and two, a seat on a flight from MRU to BOM at the end of his visit.

I made a few calls and took care of his requirements.  He did produce the movie - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - which was shot in India, Mauritius and Scotland.  It was also the debut of his son, Karan Johar as a Director.  Yash gave me a DVD of the movie when he next visited NYC.

The last movie that Yash produced was Kal Ho Na Ho and it was partly shot in NYC.  Yash asked me to advise him some suitable locations and I was happy to assist.  It was during this visit that he discovered that he had cancer of the esophagus.  The movie was released in 2003 and he passed away the next year.  Manju and I were fortunate enough to spend some time with him and his wife, Hiroo, in their apartment in Mumbai, just before he left us.  I miss him; Yash was a very dear friend.

I have tried to add a page from a brochure that Devonshire (our Community) has published and is using as a piece of promotion Literature.  The photo above shows me sinking a putt on the 18th green at the Championship course at PGA National.   You can see the PGA logo at the back.  The three companions watching me include my wife Manju.

We are now fully settled at Devonshire and I would like to speak about the eight months that we have been here.

In one of my earlier Posts, I had described our initial days here and would now like to confirm how warmly we have been welcomed as residents.  Manju and I are the only Indian-Americans among the entire community which also includes one African-American couple..  We will soon be joined by two more Indian-American couples, one of which are Ed and June Macedo, who are expected to become residents by the end of April.

I was invited to be a member of the Marketing Committee at the start of 2018 and also invited to join a very select think tank, comprising 7 residents whose objective is to advise Management in making  Devonshire a greater success.  We have increased our occupancy from about 80% when we moved in to 86% and expect to achieve 93% by the end of the year.

Manju has started playing golf, table-tennis and Canasta.  She is the reigning table-tennis champion and also participates in other activities, such as flower arrangements.

I am also playing golf and croquet, each three times week, which takes care of 6 of the 7 weekly mornings.

Devonshire has Corporate membership at PGA National which offers residents free green fees at 5 golf courses, 4 croquet courts, a Health Cub & Spa, tennis, swimming and 9 restaurants.  Live entertainment is provided on weekends plus on certain Mondays and Wednesdays.  We have Yoga classes, Aerobics, Dance lessons and various other activities, if one wants to keep busy.

We have weekly lectures by residents who have specialized in various fields, such as Cardiac Care, Thyroid and Colon Cancer etc; etc.  In addition, we have our own small movie theatre which shows both Classic and recent movies 4 times daily.  For example, this month we will be showing Murder on the Orient Express and the Shape of Water, which was a winner in this year's Oscars.  An added facility is the branch of our Bank (PNC Bank) which is located on the premises.

Manju and I have joined the Florida Atlantic University's Lifelong Learning program and attend a weekly lecture on American Foreign Policy.  Later this year, we plan to include lectures on U.S. Supreme Court decisions.  There is plenty to keep one occupied and we can be selective.  There is no regimentation and no one is forced to participate in any activity.

When we moved to Devonshire, we ate at any one of the 5 restaurants every day.  However, we missed home cooking and also eating at many of the very good restaurants in this town and so have started to eat only 20 dinners each month starting January 2018.  This allows us to sample various ethnic restaurants and also enjoy our 'daal roti' on occasion.  To be quite honest, we can take only so much of western cooking.

The children have been here every month since November and this includes our grand children whenever the schools have closed either for Christmas or Winter/Spring break, which has added to the variety to our life.

It is truly a very upscale Continuing Care Retirement Community which of course comes at a high cost.  The monthly service charges are substantially higher then those at similar communities in Florida, but not when we consider the differences.  For example, when I need to go for a Doctor's visit, I can avail of a complimentary chauffeur driven limousine provided by Devonshire.  The limo service is provided to any resident for travel within a radius of 10 miles.  Plus, the added attraction of being dropped off and picked up at Palm Beach International airport at no cost.

When we looked at other retirement communities, we did not find any which offered more than two restaurants.  Here at Devonshire, we have a choice of 5.  Two of these are truly upscale and require a jacket and/or jacket & tie for men.

Added to the above is the comforting fact that if at any time, we need Assisted Living, Memory Care or Long Time Nursing, these services are provided at no additional cost.

So, all things considered, we believe we have made a good choice.  

Having said all that, I am signing off to enjoy a little walk in the sunset.

At this stage, I would like to take time off from talking about my tenure with Air Mauritius and speak of what was going on in Air-India during this period.

Hari Kaul had moved from New York (R.D. - North America) to Bombay and taken over as Commercial Director.  His tenure was cut short because of reasons which I will not dwell upon but should be known to many.  He was transferred as head of the Planning Department and Harish Malik took over as Commercial Director.

I met Harish on one of my visits to Bombay and soon realized that there was no great love between him and Rajen Jetley.  The latter was a “hands on” Manager and wanted to be involved in the day to day affairs of the Commercial Department.  At the same time, Harish did not endear himself to his deputies whom he treated as subordinates and did not build a team.

Jetley took full advantage of this state of affairs and had one, if not two, C.Ms. “in his pocket”.  I was confidentially informed that based upon what he had been led to believe, Harish Malik took a calculated decision and put in his papers with the hope that his “benefactors” would be working behind the scenes to oust Rajan Jetley.  Unfortunately for Harish, matters did not work out and he was left out in the cold

Harish set up his own Company handling cargo charters and tied up initially with TCI. He was later associated with Naresh Goyal and I met him and T.K. Pillai in Frankfurt when they were on a market survey of Europe.  I happened to be in that city to attend a meeting between MK and Lufthansa. 

It was on that occasion that Nari Dastur made a statement to me which read something to the effect that “finally someone has taken TCI for a ride”.  It was a reflection on how TCI took great advantage of their relationship with Mr. Dastur to the detriment of other Indian Travel Agents.  I believe I have spoken about this in one of my earlier Posts.

With Harish Malik out of the scene, I think we all know of at least two other Commercial Directors who served at the pleasure of Rajan Jetley.  They were pure “Yes men” and here I will take the liberty of repeating what I have written in one of my earlier Posts.

I received a telephone call from Ranga Rao who quite bitterly told me that he had lost his opportunity to become C.D. entirely because my no “yes men/women” policy had worked against him.  He said that he was in line for the post of Commercial Director but was sidelined and was informed by Rajen Jetley, the then M.D. that he (Ranga) was not going to get the post because he was not a “yes man”.  His (the M.D.)’s need was for a Yes Man and Ranga was not going to “fit the bill”.  

I told Ranga that while I sympathized with his predicament, I was still of the view that my policy had helped Air-India.  We had people who were encouraged to speak up and gave him the names of a number of such persons (including himself); the result of which had been to the benefit of the airline.

I am firmly of the view that I could not have achieved what I did during my tenure with Air-India if I had group of yes men/women.  I encouraged my staff to speak forthrightly and give me opinions which helped in formulating decisions by which we benefitted.  It became a team effort in the airline’s favor.  It is true that some of my successors did not have the same view and because of this, I can name (but will not do so), a number of Commercial Directors who did not have a team because of which the airline has lost out.

I believe Rajan Jetley left Air-India before his term was to expire but not before he made a very important decision with a large financial impact.  From what I was given to understand by more than one insider, this decision helped to justify his appointment by the politicians who supported it.

The decision was to change Air-India’s image by not only eliminating the Centaur, but also to repaint the exterior of the aircraft in an all-white color and replace the beautifully decorated panels in the interior of the aircraft.  In addition, the crockery, cutlery and various other items were changed.  

I was also informed that this change was recommended by Landor Associates, Inc. and the amount paid by Air-India was $35 million.

In my Post dated July 26, 2016, I wrote about a proposal from Landor Associates, Inc. to change Air-India’s image and I quote below the relevant extract:

“I met their representatives and they gave me an excellent presentation, but I was personally not happy to move away from our Maharajah and his promise to offer the highest quality of service.  Landor felt that with the change in Government from the Congress to the Janata party, it may be the opportune moment for Air-India to also offer a new image to the traveling public.  I asked and was told that the total cost to AI would be $7 million compared to $35 million that BA had paid them.

I promised to discuss their proposal with my CEO and get back to them.  On my return to Bombay, I spoke with Mr. Appusamy who agreed with my views and I informed Peter to tell Landor that we would take a “pass” on their proposal.”

It is interesting to note that for the same changes, Rajan Jetley agreed to pay a sum five (5) times higher than what was quoted to me. Even accounting for inflation, the figure of $35 million appears way too high and is mind boggling.

When Mr. Appusamy was the M.D., we had two deputies - CL Sharma and myself.  CL was in charge of Finance and Administration, while the portfolios under my charge were Commercial, Planning, Inflight Services and Ground Handling.  Operations and Engineering reported directly to Mr. Appusamy.

Druba Bose was the Operations Director and was very keen to be appointed as a 3rd Dy. MD incharge of Technical Services, but Mr. Appusamy did not feel happy with such an appointment and because of this, he had asked me to take additional charge of Ground Handling.

This situation remained unchanged when Mr. BS Das took over as MD.  When Raghu Raj took over as CMD, Druba Bose raised this issue with him and Raghu Raj indicated to both CL and myself, that pressure was being brought on him by Pranab Mukherjee to make the change.  In addition, he was also asked to transfer Inflight Services under the 3rd Dy. MD.  The Bengali connection was making a move.

I left AI less than a year after Raghu Raj came on the scene and his task became easier as this caused a vacany and Druba took over as Dy. MD.  When I met CL a few months later, I told him to “watch out”.  He had better make some serious contacts with the powers that be in Delhi or be left out when RR left.  The situation remained unchanged when Rajan Jetley took over from RR, but changed with his departure.

Druba’s opportunity came when Rajan Jetley left and and it became quite clear to CL that his opportunity to become MD was slipping away.  He decided to leave and joined the Tata Group as head of their European Organization, taking over from Manek Dalal in London.

As I write this Post, I learnt with great sorrow that Francis DaGama has passed away.  Francis and I joined AI at about the same time and we grew up together in the airline.  I have very fond memories of our association.  At the time I left AI, he was our R.D. for the Middle East based in Dubai.  Our paths did not cross but he called me on two occasions when he was a little perturbed. 

He was receiving instructions to undertake some tasks which he did not feel should take place because they “smelt of corruption”.   My advice to him was to reject them unless such instructions were in writing.  

Another old colleague is no more.  I can count on my fingertips a small number who joined AI about the time I did, who are still with us.

When I joined Air Mauritius (MK), I was pleasantly surprised to see the warmth with which I was welcomed.

Some of the Mauritians had heard of me from my days in AI when I served on the MK Board.  For example, Suresh Seegobin the Commercial Director, was AI’s Senior Sales Representative in my AI days and he and his wife, Renuka, always welcomed Manju and me whenever we visited MRU.  We had dinner with them on almost every trip that we made to MRU and these were many.  I estimate that I must have visited MRU about 32 times.

Sir Harry Tiruvengadam, the CMD, was also known to me from my AI days and he and his wife (Elahi) were very warm in their approach.  Let me relate an incident.  Elahi was running a restaurant in MRU and on one of our visits, she called Manju and invited us to dine at this restaurant.  She added that we should pack an overnight bag as she wanted us to spend the night at her residence.

On waking up the next morning, I went out for a walk and on my return found the front door locked.  When I rang the bell, the door was opened by Harry who looked surprised to see me on his doorstep so early in the morning.  When I mentioned that Manju and I had slept at his home, he welcomed me and asked me to join him for breakfast.

Harry and Elahi always held a dinner at their home at the time of the Annual Sales Conference which was usually held in February of each year.  All Regional Heads and Country Managers were invited.  Suresh and Renuka held another dinner to which selected outstation Heads were invited - we are always included.

What was interesting and intriguing was that Suresh & Renuka were always absent at the CMD’s dinner and similarly, Harry and Elahi were absent at the CD’s dinner.  It appeared that their was no love lost between the CMD and the CD and this spilled over to the respective wives.  This was confirmed to me by a number of senior Mauritian staff who also indicated that many staff members took advantage of this “rivalry” to their advantage.

Nari Dastur took me aside one day and stated that if I wanted my annual Budget to be approved, the man to cultivate was the CD.  Further, I should avoid items requiring Capital Expenditure as the CMD “saw red” whenever he came across large sums for  purchase of cars, furniture and office equipment.  I soon learnt that if I leased equipment such as Copying or Fax machines, the CD would approve them and the CMD would never notice them.  This was the way I replaced my car when it was time to do so.

A few retired members of Air-India’s staff were already serving in Air Mauritius prior to my joining the airline and it is interesting that the remuneration and service conditions of some of them differed quite considerably from each other and from the Mauritians who served in the airline.

The first AI employee who joined MK was H.L. (Lal) Sikka who was deputed to MK way back in the late 1960s.  In one of my very early Posts, I had mentioned how Lal got this assignment.  I was at that time CM - Planning and was hoping to get back to the Commercial Department but was thwarted in my efforts by the then M.D. who quite bluntly told me that such a move would block any possibility of his “protege” becoming Commercial Director.

He was keen to send me on deputation to MK but Mr. Kooka came to my rescue and Lal Sikka went.  He was happy to go and when I joined MK, he told me that it was the best move he ever made.  He was a very helpful person during my MK days and I was sorry to learn recently that he had passed away.

La Sikka’s designation was Adviser to the CMD and he was a very close confidant of Harry Tiruvengadum.  One of Lal’s major assignments was to recommend where to cut costs and he must have been very effective as Harry spoke very highly of him.

Nari Dastur played a very important role in MK.  He was the R.D. - Europe; a region which produced the highest revenue for the airline.  

In addition to being responsible for the entire continent, he was also the GSA for Switzerland, Germany, Benelux, Spain and the former Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union.  It was a very interesting and remunerative arrangement for Mr. Dastur.  He earned a GSA commission of 3% on all sales within his territory, and was also responsible for the administrative expenses incurred in these countries.

The best part of it was that he had almost complete control over the capacity of all flights operating to/from these countries.  The Manager - U.K. was told to concentrate on selling space on LON terminators only.  France was instructed to concentrate on PAR flights. The situation of Italy was interesting. Rome was an intermediate point on the Zurich terminator and they had an allocation of seats and were told to fill those and not ask for release of any additional capacity which was left to ZRH to fill.

It so happened that a new Manager was appointed in Rome and on a visit to the airport to see off a flight to MRU, he found two empty pallets and on speaking with his airport manager found that very often, the flight left with one or two empty pallets.  His Cargo Sales Manager told him that he had instructions from Mr. Dastur to sell the bulk cargo hold but not touch the pallets.  Despite this the new Manager - Italy decided to sell one pallet on every flight and so instructed his Cargo Sales Manager.

This happy situation lasted exactly 6 weeks when ZRH found some cargo and filled all pallets on a flight leaving ROM holding a fully loaded pallet load but no space.  On raising the issue with ZRH, he received a telephone call from Mr. Dastur who told him to “lay off” and never try and use the pallet space on any flight.  Now, the Manager - Italy happened to be a Mauritian and he raised the issue with the CMD who told him to concentrate on selling passengers only.  When he protested, he was promptly transferred to JNB and given a promotion as RD - South Africa, to keep him “happy”.

I am relating this incident to indicate how powerful was Mr. Dastur’s position in MK.  After all, Europe produced almost 40% of all the passenger revenue of the airline and what Mr. Dastur wanted, he got.  When schedules were being finalized, Europe got “first bite” and only after Mr. Dastur’s needs were satisfied, was the remaining capacity allocated to other routes. It created many anomalies such as lack of immediate connections between the JNB/DUR - MRU flights and flights MRU-SIN and MRU-BOM, but as everyone knew, first priority was given to Europe’s needs and all others came second.

Even more interesting was the fact that Mr. Dastur addressed the CMD as “Harry” and the latter addressed him as “Mr. Dastur”.  As a middle level executive at H.O. once remarked to me - Mr. Dastur is the de facto CMD of MK.  This, of course, created many jealousies which would surface in the years to come with inevitable results.

In addition to the 3% over-riding commission, Nari Dastur’s emoluments “package” was a secret in the airline and very few persons knew the details.

Ravi Misra joined MK as Manager - U.K. and reported to Nari Dastur.  I had great sympathy for Ravi as almost every Mauritian VIP visited the U.K. and the poor man had to cater to their whims and fancies.  I use the term Mauritian VIP very loosely, as it included all of the top Management of the airline who made considerable demands on many outstation heads.  Ravi was paid a good salary by U.K. standards and in addition, had a fully furnished Company apartment plus a car and chauffeur.

I have mentioned my own remuneration package in an earlier Post, but what was remarkable was that I never received an official appointment letter.  The only letter I ever got from Mk was when they appointed me initially on a temporary basis for one year.

Whenever I raised the issue with the Finance Director, his answer was that the Contract was being drawn up. When I mentioned this to the CMD, he questioned “Who signs your checks?” and when I told him that I did based upon his verbal offer to me, he said “Carry on” and this is what I did for my entire career with MK.  I did mention this peculiar arrangement to Suresh Seegobin, the C.D. who said that my position in MK was unique and no one else had such a relationship with the CMD.

The other two senior retired AI officials in MK were K.L. Ramchander who was the R.D. - East Asia and T.K.P. Pillai who was Manager - Italy, both of whom had remuneration packages similar to Ravi Misra.  In addition, they all had Contracts which stipulated there emoluments and perks.

Ram had joined MK before I did, but T.K.’s appointment was later and I played a small role in it.  Nari Dastur was looking for a replacement in Rome and asked me what my views were regarding T.K., whom he had in mind.  I replied positively and then called T.K. who, was at that time, working for Naresh Goyal.  I told T.K. to expect a call from Nari Dastur and suggested that he accept the offer.  

On another subject which is still close to my heart, I see that the Indian news media has reported that the Aviation Minister has now confirmed what was always a well known “secret” - AI has not been paying Invoices submitted by the Indian Airports Authority and the Oil Companies.  He has further stated that Air-India’s total liabilities may well exceed Rs. 70,000 crores.

The question that arises is - how is AI allowed to declare an Operating profit when it does not include pending Invoices in its expenses?

I also wonder if there will be any suitor who wants to take over such a debt ridden airline and is the Aviation Minister making a case for the airline to remain in Government hands.  Only time will tell.  Interestingly, the Minister states that he doubts if there is a “Bakra” who would buy the airline.

In my last Post, I had spoken about the Mauritian PM’s visit to the Boeing factory in Seattle to look at the assembly of the two 767s on order by MK.

A few months later, I received a telex from the Finance Director that we would be receiving a sum of $7.5 million from the Export/Import Bank (EXIM Bank).  The  telex also stated that the amount would be directly credited to our account at our Bank - Irving Trust - and that on receipt, I should advise the Finance Director. 

Shortly thereafter, Irving Trust called and stated that an amount of $7 million had been received from the EXIM Bank.  I promptly telexed the Finance Director and:

1. Mentioned that the amount was less than what he had stated; and
2. What would he like me to do with it?

I did not hear back and sent a reminder to which there was no reply.  The money was lying in our Bank account and earning no interest.  Additionally, I count not place it in an interest bearing account as that would require MK to start filing Tax returns with the U.S. IRS, which may open a Pandora's Box as, being an international airline, we were not filing any returns.

Over a month passed and we still had no instructions from the Finance Director. I consulted my personal Investment Adviser who suggested that we open an “off-shore” account and place this sum in that account, which would earn a good rate of interest and at the same time, not have to declare the income to the IRS.

I decided to do that and we started earning a fair amount of interest every month.

About 6 months later, we received a telex from the Accounts Department asking us to pay a sum of money to an Aviation Fueling Company against an Invoice for services rendered.   We were also told to take this money out of the $7 million received from the EXIM Bank.  I instructed my Investment Adviser accordingly and kept a record of the transaction.

Shortly thereafter, we received similar telexes asking us to pay additional Invoices and take the money from the $7 million account and this process carried on for over an year.

I am not clear about the exact date, but about 2 years after the $7 million was credited to our account, we received instructions to “remit the balance to the MK Bank account in Paris”.  We complied with the instructions and I told my Investment Adviser to close the Off-shore account.  I also informed the Finance Director the exact amount transferred.

About a month later, my Investment Adviser informed me that there was a small amount of about $25,000 in interest that had accrued and what I wanted done with it?  I told him to remit it to the MK account in Paris.

Lo and behold, someone in MRU finally woke up and asked for details of this transaction and when I responded, I received a frantic call from the Finance Director asking me to explain how we earned this amount of interest.  When I told him of the other interest amounts that we had earned and explained how we had opened the Off-shore account, he "hit the roof".  He stated that I had no authority to do so, because opening of any Bank account would need the approval from MK’s Board and that he could not do so retroactively.

By this time, I had had enough and I asked him point blank, why he had not responded to my various telexes on the subject.  He had no answer and we left the matter unresolved until my next visit to MRU.

On my next visit, the CMD brought up the subject over lunch when the Finance Director and other senior executives were present and I related the entire incident and mentioned that:

1. We had received no responses to various telexes sent to the Finance Department
2. We had earned substantial interest
3. Till date, no one in MRU had asked for an accounting of the monies spent and interest earned on this account.  Isn't anyone interested in knowing what happened to this large sum of money?

I was delighted when the CMD congratulated me for my initiative, at which point the CD humorously stated that instead, I should have called him and that both of us would have emigrated to Brazil with the $7 million as that country had no extradition treaty with the USA.

I am relating this incident because I want to highlight the culture of the airline and relationships between various top executives.

On the one hand, there was a great deal of camaraderie and yet, on the other hand, there were a lot of loose ends.

Let me go back to November 1972 and the appointment of Nari Dastur as Air-India’s Commercial Director.  Nari had waited a long time for this appointment and suffered quite some humility at the hands of Mr. Kooka, particularly when he was the sole Regional Head who was never given the title of Regional Director. He remained Regional Manager until he took over as CD.

Nari Dastur had considerable ambitions and had done some long term thinking.  He wanted to become the Managing Director of the airline, but at the back of his mind, had back-up plans.

Very soon after coming back to Bombay, he made a trip to Mauritius.  On his return, Nari Dastur convinced the Air-India Board to purchase 10% of Air Mauritius who had recently started international operations.  Nari was the AI representative on MK’s Board; a position he maintained until he left AI and I took over as the representative.

Nari Dastur quickly established excellent relations with the top management of MK. He invited their Chairman, Dede Maingard and his wife to visit India as our guests and he was very close to Harry Tiruvengadum who was not only the No. 2 man in the airline, but the Communications Secretary of the Mauritius Government who owned the majority shares in the airline.  Harry would eventually take over as the CMD.

He kept up his contacts and was very smart in ensuring that he did not “ruffle any feathers”.  He arranged for Mr. K.K. Unni to be invited to visit Mauritius as the guest of MK (I accompanied Mr. Unni on this trip).  It was a grand affair - the red carpet was rolled out.  We not only met the Sir Seevoosagar Ramgoolam, the Prime Minister, but were invited to attend a session of Parliament and have lunch with the P.M. and members of his Cabinet.

Nari Dastur’s rise in Air-India took a step forward when he was appointed as Deputy Managing Director (Commercial).  He was now one of two Deputies to the M.D. (the other being Mr. KG Appusamy who held the title of Dy. M.D.).

However, when Mr. Unni retired, his replacement as Managing Director was Mr. Appusamy  and Mr. Dastur became the only Deputy.  It was at that time, that he realized that his ambition to take over as the Chief Executive of Air-India had come to an end.  He decided to look at various options and settled on Air Mauritius.  He was appointed to the newly created position of Regional Director - Europe.

Interestingly, Nari himself raised the subject with me when Mr. Appusamy took early retirement from Air-India.  I was on a visit to Geneva for a European Sales Conference and was having dinner with him.  He was extremely upset with Mr. Appusamy’s decision stating that he had lost out in AI because Appu had made such an issue of his seniority and now gave up the post which could and should have come to him.

Changing the subject, I was interested in reading conflicting news about Air-India’s profitability.  On the one hand, a news item stated that AI had doubled its operating profit in the latest financial year.  On the other hand, the Net Loss had widened substantially - from Rs. 38 billion to Rs. 57 billion.  And in another news item, the Aviation Minister stated that Air-India’s debt was much higher than originally stated.

WHAT GIVES?  Are we getting correct information or is someone hiding the truth?

In my next Post, I will speak of the hierarchy in Air Mauritius and its culture.