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.