I lost a very dear friend a few days ago.  Ramesh Mahajan, whom I had known and grown up with from the young age of 13, passed away.  He had been suffering from cancer of the lung.  I was deeply saddened by his death but, at the same time, it was a blessing as he had been suffering for a very long time.  I had called him every week for the past one year to enquire about his health.  If I missed my call for any reason, he called back to enquired if all was well with me.

His memory brought into focus an incident that took place sometime in 1987/88.  I had introduced Ramesh to a person whom I have written volumes in some of my earlier Posts - Naresh Goyal.  They not only became good friends, but Naresh enjoyed the hospitality of Ramesh and his wife Asha whenever he was in New York.  

I was in India on one of my assignments with PanAm when I got a call from Naresh Goyal who happened to be in NYC.  He stated that he had been negotiating with TWA for their GSA in the USA and that the talks had progressed to such an extent that he (Naresh) was setting up an office in NYC to take reservations for bookings on TWA flights to India.

He once again urged me to join his Organization and, in particular, take over the GSA.  He also stated that he had hired my friend Ramesh Mahajan’s nephew and wanted me to come immediately and start recruitment of additional staff.  I declined his offer, as I had done on many occasions in the past.  There were many reasons including the fact that I had no respect for him.  He did not treat his staff very well nor was his “word” good enough.

I am glad that I turned him down because when I returned to NYC, Ramesh said that he was privy to a conversation between Naresh Goyal and Ali Gandhour (former Chairman of ALIA, Jordanian Airlines) in Ramesh’s apartment.  Ali Gandhour asked Naresh that what would be the next step in case the TWA GSA venture did not come through and, in the meantime, Mr. Sethi had left PanAm.  Naresh Goyal’s answer was - too bad.  I am sure he can look after himself.  The TWA venture died a stillborn death.

This reconfirmed my opinion of this person whom I had helped out in many instances, including the threat of a jail term.

Which brings me to two other instances regarding Naresh Goyal.  

In one of my very early posts, I had indicated that Naresh had become the GSA of Gulf Air in India, in addition to Kuwait Airways.  I had helped him in getting the latter appointment, but he managed the Gulf Air appointment on his own, having befriended  Adli Dajani, who was, at that time, GM - Commercial of the airline.  Their friendship lasted many years until Aldi retired from Gulf Air and took over as Secretary General of the Arab Carriers Association.

I met Adli at the IATA AGM in Montreal in 1991 when I was part of the Air Mauritius delegation and asked him how was our common friend?  Adli’s reply was, and I quote “I have lost contact with him.  The honeymoon was over the day I retired from Gulf Air and was of no further use to him”.

A similar situation took place with Ramesh Mahajan - when I spoke with him on one of my visits to Delhi, his comment was remarkable similar to that of Aldi Dajani - I have no more contact with him - he has not returned my calls.

That just shows his character and I am very glad that I rejected his offer to leave PanAm and join him in his ill fated venture with TWA, which never took wing.

The passing away of my dear friend James Mahajan, brought back the memories that I hav related above and I had to get them out of my system.  These are not happy memories but show that the world is made of many different characters.  Ramesh Mahajan and Naresh Goyal stood at two ends of a spectrum and I am proud to call the former a true and great friend.  He had been genuine in his relations with me in many instances.

I will get back to relating my progress in life in future Posts.