I was deeply saddened by the passing away of another former colleague and dear friend, Shanu Mukherjee.  Shanu had been suffering from poor health for some time and I had called him regularly almost every week for the past two years to enquire how he was faring.

I was a member of the Senior Panel when Shanu came up for his interview for the post of Station Superintendent.  We did select him and after he had joined Air-India, he mentioned to me that in his previous job, he had worked for my brother in Jamshedpur.  I remember his remark that he now had the unique opportunity to work for two brothers.

It was ironic that he never did work for me.  He did not spend any time at Commercial Headquarters until I had left the airline.  As a matter of fact, I received a letter from him expressing regret that he never had the opportunity to learn marketing techniques from me.

Shanu was 8 years younger than me and hence, one could say that he was from a different generation.  I still have a few former colleagues of my generation and hope they will continue to enjoy good health.

Incidentally, there was a very nice and very positive article recently in the Hindustan Times written by Mr. Vir Sanghvi.  He highlighted the great years of Air-India and paid excellent compliments to both Mr. JRD Tata and Mr. S.K. Kooka.

Unfortunately, towards the end of his article, Mr. Sanghvi engaged in “sensational journalism”.  I say unfortunately, because what he said was grossly erroneous and cast the then Top Management of Air-India in a very poor light. Perhaps, Mr. Sanghvi presumed that there was no member of the airline’s Top Management still living who could contradict  him.  He didn’t realize that I was the then Dy. MD and the sole living member of that Team.

Mr. Sanghvi stated that both Mr. Tata and Mr. Kooka were evicted from the Air-India building, which is a blatant lie.

Mr. Tata never - repeat - never had an office in the Air-India building at Nariman Point. His office was in Bombay House at Flora Fountain which is the Headquarters of all of the Tata Companies.  Mr. Tata only visited Nariman Point for Board meetings and for certain events.

Mr. Kooka’s stay in Norman Point requires me to provide some background which I have not talked about in my Blog so far.

Air-India Charters Limited was created sometime in the early 1970s when we need a vehicle to combat under-cutting of U.K - India fares by the Middle East carriers.  Here, I would like to reproduce an extract from my Post of September 2015:

“The U.K. originating market was our next target.  We sent a Market Research Team to the U.K. to study the market potential and come up with a plan to get our rightful market share.  The Team was led by Randhir Singh and included Michael Mascarenhas and Kanwal Jasuja.  They spent almost a month and produced a series of recommendations which included not only the establishment of a low round trip fare for the VFR (Visiting Friends & Relatives) market, but also the opening of new offices, such as one in Southhall. 

This Report was discussed at a Top Management meeting and negotiations commenced with the British so that we could jointly sponsor the introduction of such a fare.  Unfortunately, the British declined to agree and we responded by going unilaterally at this market.

Air-India Charters Ltd. (AICL) chartered aircraft from Air-India and commenced operating flights between Delhi and Ostend in Belgium, since we were denied traffic rights by the British.  An agreement was negotiated with British Air Ferries (BAF) to operate flights between Southend in the U.K. and Ostend to connect with the AICL flights.  A consortium of Indian Agents was mobilized to get passengers to travel on the connecting BAF/AICL flights.

The success of this venture was soon proven when the British asked us for talks to introduce  a low round trip fare - low enough so that the 6th freedom operators would have difficulty in undercutting it.  We established such a fare and then to ensure the success of this venture, I suggested to Mr. Kooka, the establishment of an “Ethnic Sales” cell in the U.K. headed by Randhir Singh.  He agreed ….

At Mr. Kooka’s request, T.K. Rao, Manager - Charters and I made a detailed study of the European market to ascertain the potential of operation charters under the AICL Banner.  We toured Western and Northern Europe and submitted our Report which I believe, ended up on a shelf in Mr. Kooka’s office.

To the best of my knowledge, AICL never did get off the ground until quite recently when it was converted to Air India Express.  After Mr. Kooka, the next Chairman was Nari Dastur and I did take over the reins for a 2 year period from 1978 till I left Air-India in 1980.”.

When Mr. Kooka retired as C.D., he should have gracefully moved out of his office, handed over the reins to Mr. Dastur and left the AI building at Nariman Point.  However, he wished to retain a connection, no matter how fragile with his alma mater and as a parting gesture, Mr. Dastur agreed to let him remain as the Chairman of AICL even though it was only a “shell” company and had neither a single aircraft nor a single employee.  Mr. Kooka came to his new office to attend to his personal affairs. 

Air-India even gave him a very selective parking spot which was reserved for Chairman AICL.  As a humorous aside, I should mention that at the end of my tenure, I had three parking spots - Dy. MD, CD and Chairman AICL.

The only time Mr. Kooka spent on the Company’s affairs was when he chaired the Annual Meeting held in his office.  I have personally attended some of these half day sessions as the representative of the parent Company - Air-India.

In my capacity as Chairman of AICL for 2 years (1978-1980), the only time I spent on its affairs was when I chaired its Annual Meeting, which took one afternoon.

So, to brazenly state that Mr. Kooka had been evicted from the building was to deliberately cast the then Top Management in a poor light.  

Sad that some so-called professional journalists have to stoop to sensationalism to get their columns read.