Ashit's Autobiography

(As recollected in 1996, and continued later from time to time, by: Ashit K. Sarkar, being a personal narrative of the many transitions in his life: The thumbnail pix range from 1938...)

NOTE: Links to some of old photos have been included, which will take you to supporting images of the past, as well as to Family Trees. A Flash slideshow of the pictures (with titles) is also being provided right at the end, for a relook at the pictures of the past.

My memories may be fading, but I still clearly remember the annual summer trips from Lahore with my mother & baby brother, certainly in 1937 and 1938, and perhaps in earlier years too, to the hill station Kurseong, near picturesque Darjeeling. We visited my maternal grandfather Sri Jogesh Chandra Roy (Click to see 1937 picture with Ma), the son of the great Brahmo reformer at Dacca, Sri Banga Chandra Roy. (click to read a brief life sketch) As most grandfathers do, he spoilt both the young grandsons thoroughly with lots of love & presents! I, even now, have a mental picture of his bushy moustache and penetrating looks. On our return to Lahore, I recall missing the hills and all the ups and downs during our daily walks, not to mention the goodies, the affection, and the cool weather & the serenity of the hills. I also recollect making a combined family trip to Kashmir one summer - probably in 1936, with vivid memories of a snow capped mountain visible from our tent (yes, we actually stayed in a tent by the side of a flowing stream in a deep gorge!). Going where? & being told that we were going 'there' (possibly Gulmarg area) the next day. I was three years old in 1936, and my youngerbrother Deepak (Choton) was still a toddler. Unfortunately all the photographs and other memorable possessions, from the above trips, were lost forever because of our unexpected and unplanned exodus from our then home in Lahore in 1947, and caused by the unfortunate partition of India by the British rulers.

Roots of the Sarkar ancestors

The earlier history and details of our family roots have been lost with time, and the passing away of any knowledgeable elders. Only some vague impressions remain, which unfortunately cannot be verified or confirmed now, despite some research. It seems that one of our ancestors was given the title of Sarkar, possibly during the Moghul or later period, as a reward for managing state finances for the local Nawab. The family's location in then undivided Bengal, or the clan details are not known, but there were some uncertain suggestions that we were initially Moitro. What is known is that during the Renessiance of Bengal in the early nineteenth century, my grandfather Madhusudan Sarkar embraced the Brahmo religion and credo, as many enlightened and educated intellectuals did at that time, to move away from the then irrational Brahmin controlled traditional Hindu religion which had been somewhat distorted by them. This caused considerable consternation within the staunch feelings of the family seniors, and resulted in him having to leave home and Bengal for good, and settling down then in far away Lahore. Thereby, the family connections were cut-off, and all contacts with the family for his offsprings got lost. Other than the names of his father, Dina Nath & grandfather, Gopal Chandra Sarkar, no other family details are known today.
Click to download & see The Sarkar Family Tree

Reaching back, reaching out: Lahore

Baba - my father, Ashok Kumar Sarkar, popularly known as Theo, was then (around 1935-39) the Miller of a big flourmill on the outskirts of Lahore, at Badami Bagh, next to the river Ravi (earlier, he was based in Simla - now spelled Shimla, where my younger brother Choton was born in 1934). We lived in a large sprawling bungalow next to the Mill, which had a railway siding, where often wagons would wait to be loaded or unloaded. An enjoyable pastime was to use their vacuum hoses (for brakes) as telephones, since the sound carried from one end wagon to the other end wagon beautifully amplified! Electric power was only available during the daytime when the mill was running, and we used petromax & lanterns in the evenings! My father's immediate elder brother Chutka (Amal) Jethamoshay and Monica jethima and their two children also lived with us. The four of us youngsters, each spaced about a year apart, consisted of my cousin sister Ratna, then myself, popularly nicknamed Khokon, followed by my cousin Ajit, and finally my younger brother Deepak, pet named Choton. I was born in Calcutta (May 18, 1933). I recollect that we had hens and a buffalo in the compound, besides a large vegetable patch, providing many homegrown products. Each of us had our own pet dog that we were responsible for. My mother and Monica Jethima, having both being married a few months apart and joining the Sarkar family and later staying together, had become more like sisters, and shared the responsibilities of running the household jointly, and also in bringing up the four youngsters (1938 portraits Ratna, Ajit & Me - Choton missing). We sometimes made trips to the City on horse drawn Tongas to visit our other family members then living in Lahore. They were: (1) Baba's eldest brother & wife, Boro-jethamoshay & Jethima, and their daughter & sons, Pennadi, Phoringda & Bittuda (other son, Lutherda was in Calcutta, and another married daughter Kokanidi at Patna), (2) their eldest daughter Babydi & husband, Bhanuda, and the then children Manju, Bubli, Ranjit (also nicknamed Khokon) & Tubli, & (3) Baba's eldest sister's daughter - the Auditto family: Miradi & husband, Gyanda, and the then children Dilip, Nita & Arun (Bablu). Recollections of regular family gatherings and feasts at our Badami Bagh home, with noisy card games of Bridge and Twenty-nine by the elders, are vividly remembered. Our delightful trips to the city to visit the cinema - especially to see Tarzan and Western movies are also clearly recollected, for which we fought for turns going on my father's bicycle! The four of us children and the pets grew up together playfully in such a serene environment, happily, and were getting ready to begin our formal schooling soon after the start of basic studies at home.

When I was only six, major tragedy struck the family. My mother, Bina, passed away after a fairly long period of sickness. I remember that night of August 16, 1939 vividly, when we knew that something was seriously wrong that day with so many people coming and going throughout the day, and we children being kept out of the way by our faithful retainer Makru. So much so, that we had to sleep on unmade beds that night after a frugal meal, as against our normal practice of the family dinner together being followed most nights with Jethamoshay telling us a bedtime story, usually an adventure story from The Wide World magazine, which was regularly subscribed at our home. The next morning as soon as I woke up, like any other day, I went running to see & talk to my mother at her sick bed, only to find it absolutely empty, even without the mattress and bedding, and with me still not realizing that we were never to see her again.

That was a very major upheaval in our sedate lives, as my sorrowful father soon thereafter gave up his job at Lahore. He moved initially to Lyallpur - the granary of the then undivided Punjab, & later took up a job in Karachi, and subsequently at Jammu, while we two brothers continued to stay on and being well taken care of by Monica Jethima along with cousins, Ajit & Ratna. Our lives therefore, continued without any major disruption, which most others would have to face under similar circumstances. Faithful Makru, who had been with us from before we were born, went with my lonely father, and continued to serve him and run his household for very many years till he became too old to work and was unable to return from his native place in Himachal Pradesh. We moved to Gwalmandi in Lahore city from Badami Bagh, and later to a first floor flat in Sevakram Buildings at Nisbett Road, which was the new home till 1947, and still remains so very memorable.

The early pre-partition Delhi years

The following year - in 1940, Pennadi's wedding took place at Lahore, when many of the family members came to attend it from all over India. My father's second eldest brother, Saroj (Mejo-jethamoshay) had built his home in Delhi after his retirement from the Government of India service. They had come to attend the wedding too, and both he and Mejo-jethima (Indira) very affectionately wanted me to come and live with them in their large new house at 95 Daryaganj. Their two sons, Khokada (Sudhir) and Munnuda (Dileep) had both grown up, and since she had strong sentimental memories of my young father having stayed with them in the late twenties soon after my grandfather's death, was keen to have another youngster running around their house once again! So, my next five years were spent at Delhi. Initially, I had the luxury of a separate room, which soon I had to share with my cousin Bittuda (Amarendra), who came from Lahore after completing his MA to start his career in a Government job at Delhi in 1941. I initially joined the Happy School, and traveled daily by a horse drawn Tonga to Churiwala Gali near the Jama Masjid, which regularly picked up and dropped five children from the Daryaganj area. This was followed with Anglo Sanskrit Victoria Jubilee Higher Secondary School (ASVJ - which was also my father's old school), and was about half mile away, to which I was old enough to walk on my own. One of my proudest moments was when the old peon of the School Principal recognized my father as he came to see me at the School during his visit from Karachi. He told me that my father was one of the best sportsmen of the School in the years past, and was often the top scorer, and had once sent a sixer over a Church spire during an inter-school cricket tournament held near Kashmiri Gate! I used to go to Lahore during each summer vacation to join my brother, though one year (probably in 1941) - when our summer vacations coincided, we all gathered in Dharampur (in Simla Hills) instead, at our Sejo-pishima's villa. We all had a great time. Pishima insisted that we must learn something new during the holidays, and that summer we were made to take up and successfully learn knitting (using broom sticks for knitting needles) - at her insistence!

My Delhi stay was exciting and memorable - they were the World War II days, and Jethamoshay followed the details of the war over the radio and newspapers most carefully (TV was then not in existence!). He marked the progress of the war with red lines on the many maps spread out in his room, and which he explained to me frequently. Munnuda, and Pratapda had both joined the then Royal Indian Air Force, as pilots, and later Joyda and Robida also joined the Air Force. With four illustrious cousins in the elite forces during the war years, any young wide-eyed boy would become a hero-worshipper! The house was always alive with excitement whenever they, and young fellow officers from their squadrons, visited Delhi - they became my idols, and I was determined to be a pilot when I grew up! I read a lot about the World War II then and in later years, and remembered Mejo Jethamoshay's briefings, and also the occasional tales from my cousins and their visiting squadron mates about them and their flying machines. During that period, Khokada (who called me "Captain") managed to bring the US Army K ration packs occasionally - I tasted cheese, & also saw egg and milk in powder form for the first time - with great amazement.

Mejo Jethamoshay was meticulous, and insisted that when I started getting a weekly pocket money of four annas (25 paise today!) that I should submit an account before getting the next week's quota. He demanded that I must save a part of this minuscule amount, in order to develop the good savings habit! However, both Khokada and Bittuda often quietly slipped in some extra cash from time to time, on the guise of payment against services rendered, like fetching glasses of water, or putting away their shoes etc.! Bittuda had a bicycle, and he very often took me out sightseeing on weekends. The family Hillman Minx, was cleaned and maintained carefully by Jethamoshay, and I was expected to help. Since, I studied in a non-Bengali school, my learning of the Bengali language came about by sitting at the kitchen entrance with 'Barna Parichay' - Parts I & II, and Jethima's loving guidance! Thereafter, since I was an avid reader, books from the Bengali library, and later Khokada's collection of Rabindra Rachanabali and other books, were instrumental in my getting to know the language, even if in an imperfect way. Munnuda's visits were always very enjoyable, especially when he recited (and made me participate) from "Abol Tabol" - the hilarious funny poetry of Sukumar Ray, the father of Satyajit Ray. Similarly, Joyda too always gave us a treat (mostly ice-creams) whenever he came to Delhi - they were then my favourite cousins besides Khokada & Bittuda! I joined the Boy Scouts movement, and was also in the School Band. I was a pretty good student, almost always got the first position in the class. Sunday prayer services were often held at home, and Mejo-jethima and Jethamoshay took me to Brahmo Sunday services and functions regularly that were held in Delhi, so that I may become aware of, and also learn about our Brahmo upbringing and religion. The five years at Delhi passed happily, just before I grew up into my teens. We periodically visited my Chotomashi (Lotika Ghosh) and family and played with my cousins Bhanu, Bubu & Chantu, and went to Santoshmama & Protima Mamima (Das) and play with their children, Babu, Tubu & Khukuma, who were also in Delhi, besides Sejo Pishima & Pishomoshay (Basant Lal) literally next door at 70, Daryaganj. My classmate and best friend Raj Bhandari & his family lived nearby, with whom I spent considerable time - almost daily. I was invited to spend a lovely and enjoyable summer holiday with them at Mussoorie in the summer of 1943 - which was my first visit to this then lovely hill station.

Partition and after Lahore & Delhi

I returned to Lahore in 1945 so that I could again be with my own brother and cousins, and joined the famous DAV High School, which I was surprised to find, had as many as eleven sections in my class VIII. I was given admission in the K section, and was told that the "A" section was reserved for the best students for which I needed to prove myself. After the very first terminal examinations, I did just that and got into the A section of 40 boys, being about twenty-something in the class of more than 450 students - a big drop in the rank as compared to the past! Significant memories of all three of us brothers playing Hockey at the Pioneers Sports Club (which was also our BP Boy Scouts Troop & Cubs Pack), and an adventurous two weeks Scouts Camp at Tararadevi near Simla in 1946, remain strong. Sejo-Pishomoshay (see an earlier Family Group photo) was then the finance minister of Jind State in the heartland of undivided Punjab, and we had a holiday at Sangrur whilst returning after the camp. During these days, with my friend and neighbour Subrata Dutt, we got interested in experiments with Physics & Chemistry projects, and we both were known as "the scientists!" amongst the locality youngsters - I recollect building an induction coil, giving unexpected high voltage shocks to friends and many others! Lahore was a memorable and lovely city indeed in my formative years.

March 1947 brought about tremendous pre-partition communal turmoil preceding India's independence, at Lahore in particular, just as I was completing my academic year in Class IX. There were wide spread arson and violence cases all-round, and on most days in class we would learn about the loss of one or two of our classmates. At the start of summer vacations in April/May, Jethamoshay sent off Ajit and Choton to peaceful Dharampur in the Simla Hills, while we stayed back at Lahore hopefully waiting for the end of the turbulence. I had to do volunteer sentry duty on many nights in our Hindu locality - to raise alarm in case of any attack or arson - they were very difficult and uncertain days for us all. There were extensive curfews and inconveniences, and finally we decided to temporarily get away from Lahore till the border issue was decided - at that time Lahore could either be in India, or fall in the newly to be created Pakistan, as it did. However, we intended to continue to live at Lahore as always, not realizing what was to happen in the future. Baba was in Jammu at that time, and he gave up his job in July 1947 and came to escort Jethima, Ratna and myself to Delhi. This became necessary since whilst on an official tour, Chutka Jethamoshay was stuck at Assam due to floods, and was unable to return. During an hour's break in the curfew, we all went to Boro Jethamoshay's house near Nicholson Road to try persuading them to accompany us the next day, till peace returned, but to no avail. He insisted that since he had built the house with all his life savings, they wished to continue to stay on there whatever might happen. He and his eldest son, Phoringda, regrettably lost their lives eventually - both being stabbed to death in the Court itself at Lahore after being released from trumped up disturbance charges by the partisan local Muslim police in early August. This resulted in the saddest tragedy and major loss in our family during the 1947 partition of India.

We had come to Delhi with minimum possessions, expecting to return to Lahore in due course, but soon realized that going back to our well organized home left behind was out of question, and consequently we lost everything we possessed, including even my mothers jewelry kept in the bank locker. I was particularly sad that the pocket money given to me by various relatives or visitors, and the wrist watch that my father had given as a prize for being first in the class, were also lost forever! It was due to the generosity of our Sejo-pishima & Pishomoshay, who gave us a part of their large 70 Daryaganj house in Delhi to stay, and various household things, that enabled us to live with dignity at that time. Another part of the house was given to Pishomoshay's other relatives who too came as refugees from Punjab. At that time, we were too young to understand their benevolence and that from many others in the family that saved relatives and friends during the crisis. To support the family needs, my father had to take up jobs in small broken down flour mills around the country having no security of service and with little money and no facilities, as most of the major or large flour mills were in West Punjab within the newly created Pakistan.

My disturbed studies in Class X were eventually restarted in October 1947 in the D.A.V School at Pahargunj, New Delhi during evening shifts, after their regular school was over. It was in one of the evenings during class that news arrived of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, and disbelievingly we walked all the way to Connaught Place (about 5 miles away) to confirm the news from the Hindustan Times hoarding. That night I was called up to represent the BP Boy Scouts Association in India at the funeral, along with another scout. We both went to the Birla House early in the morning, and the two of us Boy Scouts walked just in front of the gun carriage carrying the body of Mahatma Gandhi all the way to Raj Ghat for cremation on this momentous and historic sad occasion. It was also during this period that much to my delight, I constructed my first ever working crystal radio set from a Popular Science magazine circuit, which I showed off proudly to my earlier somewhat sceptic but tolerant relatives, and to many of my friends.

A very significant memory that remains includes the historic Independence Day of India on August l5th, 1947 - when we all celebrated the great moment of change of the country's status, and listened to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's famous "Tryst with Destiny" speech on All India Radio during the midnight broadcast!

On looking back about the terrible tragedies during the partition, I feel that I personally remained detached in accepting the happenings somewhat more calmly despite the anguish, and could not direct my anger towards any community in general, instead of the actual culprits. This may have been due to my enthusiasm and focus on the freedom of the country - for which we all were so eagerly looking for from my early school days and being prepared to suffer. I had been earlier involved with minor protest movements for the British to "Quit India" in anticipation, and had mentally been conditioned to bear consequences, I guess for this attitude. Moreover, since I had a number of Muslim friends & neighbours whose homes I had always been welcome to, I was never able to understand the frenzy that many got caught up with the religious aspect and the mob revenge syndrome, despite our own personal losses of life, property and possessions. I clearly recollect that I learnt rumours of a likely attack to annihilate our neighbouring Muslim family in Delhi during post partition days, but was averted on my informing Pratapda, who got an Air Force vehicle to safely escort them away to safety before any such incident. The terrible tragic images of the pile of dead bodies of Sikhs and Hindus killed during the riots that were being dumped from a truck at the Hospital mortuary that I had earlier seen in Lahore whilst going to School haunted me for years and deterred me from any such thoughtless communal mob reaction.

Back to academics & family

I completed my matriculation (ten year programme of the East Punjab University) in July 1948, four months later than the normal academic year, due to the disruptions. Since Delhi had changed to the eleven year Higher Secondary system of education, it became more convenient for me to join a college elsewhere instead of continuing studies at a Delhi school. While waiting for our results, Monica Jethima took all of us children soon to Allahabad, to visit her brother & other relatives, whom she had not seen for many years, & then to Calcutta. I was therefore able to renew my relationship with my relatives on the maternal side in Calcutta. I stayed with my Boromama at 74 Lansdowne Road, and Babyda took me around to meet other family members etc. including my Mejomama & family at Sibpur. Ranidi, Banidi, Khuku, Babyda & Sonu along with their prize bull terriers and various other pets filled their 74 Lansdowne Road house those days! From my paternal side relatives then living in Calcutta, I met and visited Chotopishi, Pishomoshay, Khokonda (Ranjit), Romoladi & Mriduladi, as well as Lutherda & Protimaboudi, and also got to know her family members well, during this memorable trip to Calcutta.

At that time, Baba was working in a small flourmill at Allahabad, and having to stay in a small tin shed next to the Mill and to live on simple meals from the workers canteen! I was shocked to note whilst sharing his living conditions during my brief stay with him. While returning from Calcutta, he made it possible for me to continue with my Intermediate Science studies at Ewing Christian College in Allahabad from September 1948 (late for the session), despite strong suggestions made to him by many that I should get employed to contribute to the family needs after my matriculation. He insisted that the boys must continue with their education or training. I stayed in Princeton Hostel. He similarly ensured that my younger brother Choton joined the naval Training Ship Dufferin, for which he had qualified. These were at a very substantial cost, which he could then not really afford, but did with great difficulty and only by relinquishing most of his personal comfort and needs. We both justified his confidence and great sacrifice by doing well in later life.

I recollect a quick two-day trip to Delhi from Allahabad during my college days to be present there for the original Republic Day celebrations on January 26th, 1950. We were still in the happy state of our independence, and most of New Delhi was lit up for this occasion, and I thoroughly enjoyed the then most impressive parade in free India that I saw, and being home with the family.

After completing my Intermediate Science examination in 1950, I went on a trip to Kurseong, to my late grandfather's house Snehalata Cottage, named after my grand mother - this time on my own as a grown up. Two of my mother's brothers, Bholamama & family, and Susovonmama were then living there. The view of the Kunchenjunga range from the window was fabulous, and I remember it vividly. I made a day trip to Darjeeling from there, and returned to Calcutta going through the then East Pakistan by train. I had another enjoyable long stay in Calcutta with Boromama at 74 Lansdowne Road, and revisited many of the relatives whom I had met two years earlier. I specially remember taking Babla, Buro & a number of their young cousins to the Calcutta's famous zoo - chaperoned by Protimaboudi, who had limited trust in my ability to manage the seven or eight youngsters on my own!

In the meanwhile, the refugee rehabilitation programme of the Government recognized the losses incurred by those fleeing from West Pakistan, and Jethamoshay was lucky to be allotted a small house at a nominal cost on then the outskirts of Delhi in Nizamuddin Extension - next to the normal picnic spot Humayun's Tomb and the Boy Scout camping site - and the family settled in this new home, which gradually developed into the prime residential colony in the expanded capital city as it grew in due course. Since Baba was moving from job to job in different locations, and was not quite aware of the programme, we were not able to claim or get any similar assistance. A-4 became our new home, with Jethima nurturing the small garden to perfection with her care, and the home and possessions always shining and spotless! Later, an extension was added in part of the lawn, which soon became the residence of Romadi and Anantda after his retirement, till the end of their lives. Jethamoshay, and later Ajit, were happy to be able to repay the generosity of Pishima in a small way, and glad to have part of the family next door, with the children moving away gradually. Ratna got married to Kulbhushan, and lived in the neighborhood for quite some time, till they built their own home - which regretfully she was not able to enjoy due to her early sad death. Her daily "dhobi-ghat" and meticulously kept home is well remembered - no doubt taken after Jethima! Their daughter Tunia grew up in the meanwhile with the grand-parents not too far away. Ajit too, after a few years working life in Delhi with Burmah-Shell, had been transferred on his promotion. Choton and I were away right from the start, but we came "home" whenever we had a break from our studies, training or jobs. Baba too, came for stays in between his jobs, and his favourite relaxation at the 'Neela Gumbad' near the station watching the arrivals or departure of the trains - along with faithful Rana, his favourite dog, is fondly remembered by all. Talking of our dogs, Tipsy was our first pet at 70 Daryaganj, and became the founder resident of A-4, followed with his off spring Bingo! They were more human than most, and were loved and pampered by all, especially Ratna! Rana was next, a very affectionate and faithful companion to all at home. For a brief period, Bittuda and Moynaboudi also lived in the neighbourhood, at A-20, before shifting to Vinaynagar. It was always a treat to visit them during my college days and later, and to see Munia & Borun growing up, and enjoy Moynaboudi's superb cooking, as she invariable produced simple but quick snacks for the hungry youngsters! After Bittuda's retirement in the sixties, they settled in Whitefield, Bangalore, where finally they got their home built.

I continued with my studies - to complete my Bachelor of Science from the University of Allahabad. The total of four years of hostel life, two at Princeton in Ewing Christian College & rest at Holland Hall at Allahabad University, were invaluable experience. My training in the Provincial Education Corp, and later in the National Cadet Corp was also very enjoyable, including the competitive NCC Cadre camp at Amausi, during which I won first prizes for Inter-Battalion Rifle Shooting, for Guard Duties and Turnout, and was awarded the coveted B Certificate. I also completed the one-year diploma courses each on Photography and Workshop Practice at the University, and became Secretary of the Photographic Association, winning many prizes in their photo competitions. The use of the Photo-lab supplemented my small pocket money by processing and printing photos for others at discounted price! I was appointed the Student Editor of the Allahabad University Reporter, and also published a special pictorial magazine with help from a few friends covering the Inter-University Sports Meet in 1951. Other achievements included being admitted to the highbrow Alpha Club during the University days, and being appointed as a Prefect at my Hostel - Holland Hall, and having a major role in organising the golden jubilee celebrations of my hostel. I have many pleasant memories of the Allahabad days, including a three-day long exciting, but very tiring, cycle trip of about 180 km to Tanda Falls, near Mirzapur with another hostel mate, Om Prakash Goel (who later became a Professor in Jaipur), and being invited by Anukulda to a three day Christmas trip to a forest lodge at Dhandraul. He was my cousin Robida's wife Chaya boudi's brother, owner of the famed AH Wheeler & Co - the Railway Bookstall proprietors, and who were a most affectionate family and warmly insisted on my visits. I became a very avid borrower from their huge home library, and regularly visited them for badminton, cards, and of course, tasty home meals during my hostel days. Another very welcome and enjoyable invitation was to a School picnic by Suravidi, who was the Principal of the famous Jagat Taran Girls School, followed with card sessions with their senior hostel girls! It all started when a cousin, Bacchu (Monju Sinha - later Mitra), joined the Hostel for a short while, and I went to visit her from time to time, and got to know Suravidi well, who kept inviting me even after Monju left the School and returned to Calcutta!

Career launch

In May 1952, after completing my studies while awaiting my B.Sc. results, I attended a very interesting Training programme run by the United States Information Service (USIS) at New Delhi about conducting Public Opinion Polls, after literally talking my way into this assignment, for which I was initially deemed to be unfit & unqualified! USIS took me on a six weeks assignment as an Interviewer, and followed this with making me continue on a series of Contractual Studies and Analysis till end 1952. This first employment of six months with USIS was extremely interesting and challenging, and I really enjoyed it, and learnt a lot from the assignments. My earlier dream of joining the Air Force, or even the Army, had been shattered due to my eyesight not being 6 by 6 without spectacles. However, with limited opportunities for growth for a "foreigner" in USIS, I started applying to various commercial organizations for employment, even though USIS was keen for me to continue working with them. Kodak offered me a position, and to be sent abroad for technical training and on return, start their planned Colour Processing Laboratory at Bombay, whilst Martin Burn Ltd. also selected me for The Indian Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. However, I accepted an offer made by Tobacco Manufacturers India Ltd., who I learnt only later, was then the manufacturing side of The Imperial Tobacco Company, where my professional career began in February 1953. This company, soon after my joining, was merged with, and became The Imperial Tobacco Company Ltd., and was later renamed India Tobacco Company Limited, and finally ITC Limited, as it is well known today, & where I spent the next thirty years of my professional working life!

I started as a young innocent Management Trainee with no idea or knowledge of the commercial 'boxwalla' culture, in their large cigarette factory at Saharanpur, where most of the senior management staff was then expatriates. I was made to manually carry out and learn every single job by replacing the worker and performing in his place - from one day to a few weeks - & be given every kind of odd jobs by the seniors, and at the factory floor was literally treated as being next to nothing! However, at the same time I had to maintain a social status externally never to let down the Company's good name or image by observing all the expected traditions - just like the schoolboys at Eton! The English bosses were strict and demanding. They looked at the new Indian "managers to be" with some disdain, but were generally fair and straightforward. I was put up at the Chummery for the bachelors within the factory compound, which also had the Clubhouse, a Swimming Pool, Cricket ground and Tennis Courts. We were certainly expected to have formal black dinner jackets on for the Club nights on Saturdays, and participate in all the sporting and social activities, most being quite new to many of us - like Billiards, Snooker or Ball Room dancing, or for that matter, Tombola or Roulette! We were quick learners to the new living standards, and led a very hectic life - hard and long hours at our training schedule, and still continue with a very energetic activity level otherwise, including factory work, tennis or cricket matches on weekends! I discovered after joining that there was a big class distinction amongst the Indian managers too - the Covenanted staff being the elite. The expatriates were the A or C staff, and Indian Covenanted managers were in B, whilst the rest of the Indians were either D, or E staff - in which latter junior most category I started life! Those from premier Indian families, well connected or foreign educated, were taken in the Covenanted grade, and were sent to the UK for training, after which they started as Superintendents, as against E staff becoming Assistant Foremen, with remote chances of ever becoming a Superintendent! The lady secretaries were quite appropriately and amusingly graded as the Staff X. During my Saharanpur days, I often made trips to Delhi during any long weekend, or went on the monthly "amenity trips" arranged by the Company to Dehradun. Sometimes I went to Mussoorie from Dehradun for the weekend. We were given a generous cigarette allowance, which I gave away, mostly to Baba, as I was determined never to smoke!

Two years training period passed quickly, after which I was posted early in 1955 to Bangalore, the largest factory of the Company, as a junior management staff in the Primary Manufacturing Department. I had different shift timings each week, and the job demanded ensuring production quality and output, and supervising men, machines and materials initially in one of the sections, and extending gradually. I lived as a paying guest with a retired couple, the Hankins, very near the factory, who were childless, and never made me feel like a guest. I replaced my bicycle with a Triumph 200cc Tiger Cub motorbike in 1956, and became more mobile, and was always available to provide lifts to friends, and ever ready to go for a picnic, which was very often on almost every weekend. Pratapda was heading the Indian Air Force Training Command at Bangalore at that time, and Hashiboudi and he provided me the warmth of the family as and when needed. Gopa and Robey were schooling then, and Robey invariably thrashed me at table tennis! However, good days suddenly came to an end, and I was transferred at a very short notice to the Parel Branch at Bombay (now Mumbai) in early 1958, only a few months before my impending marriage to Anita. We had met a year earlier at the home of her uncle and aunt, then Air Commodore Corry Singha & Preetidi, who were very good friends of Joyda during his UK posting days, and I had become very fond of them and their three children after meeting and getting to know them at Bangalore. We both had some common interests and background and Anita's father was also a flour miller, and we discovered that they knew each other well professionally too. She had started her career in journalism as the Assistant Editor of Treasure Chest - a children's magazine, after qualifying from Nagpur, and was at that time staying at the Bangalore YWCA.

Bangalore was then a very peaceful sleepy paradise for mostly retired people and pensioners, and the roads were generally empty after about 8 pm, with a small spurt at about 9 pm when the cinemas gave over! Most homes were bungalows with gardens or lawns, and hardly any fans were needed in this so called "no fan station" in this then garden city! I was unable to even buy a table fan easily, and had to get one from Madras. I had joined the Bangalore Golf Club, but gave up my membership before long, and played tennis at the nearby Indian Gymkhana in Frazer Town. I had acquired my cherished Siemens Spitzensuper 10 valve radio set - then the most powerful set imported, and my first Tape Recorder - a rarity in them days. Choton had brought me LP's of some then new pop-group called Beatles, which certainly became my prize possession, as were my recordings of a then new unknown Canadian Singer, Pat Boone, from Radio Ceylon - well before the films & hit records! There was a substantial Anglo-Indian population here, and many such individuals were in ITC in the junior Management cadre those days, since the Britishers expected them to be more loyal! We visited the Catholic Club or the Bowring Institute with them at times, especially during the festive season, to attend dances and other enjoyable functions.

Family matters

After my initial stay in the Chummery at Bombay, I had to find own lodgings, as there was no Company accommodation available for junior management staff as at other postings, nor did they compensate us for the very high local rental levels. After the initial year's stay at Bandra after our marriage, I had no option but to sell off my motorcycle to pay for the six months rent demanded as brokerage and deposit, which had to be paid for a tiny flat in Kings Circle finally. The rent itself was twice the allowance given by the Company for this purpose and more than a third of my meager total salary, which may have been sufficient for a bachelor earlier at Bangalore, but was quite inadequate at Bombay for a married couple! Luckily, Anita started working immediately, and we just about managed with our combined income - at least during the early parts of each month! Hard that it may have been financially, we enjoyed those days without complaint or worry, and lived well enough from day to day without regrets. We often had friends for simple meals & went out a lot, were great movie buffs, attended concerts and shows, and often went to the theater, whatever we could afford. Both of us worked hard and with lots of enthusiasm, and hardly thought of, or complained of the slow and low level of rewards. Life in Bombay was hard, but we remained optimistic during these initial early years. Memories of regular flooding during the monsoons and our having to wade through knee deep water in front of our building to the higher mid road remain vivid, which did not deter us from managing these difficulties like most other Bombayites!

Anita changed from journalism to advertising copywriting - from Femina to J. Walter Thompson, and before long progressed fast and was in great demand by other agencies because of her very high creative talents. I was able to catch up with my dream partially by joining the Bombay Flying Club, and learning to fly Piper Super Cubs during 1959-60 through a highly subsidised training scheme offered by the Government to young people. Joyda, Bani and young Rita & Deepa were also living at Bombay during the early years, and we all got together often, and had very enjoyable family gatherings. Amongst other relatives, the Neogy family consisting of Granny, Munnakaka and Renuka were also in Bombay, while Monica was then in Delhi. We made annual holiday trips to Delhi, and also to Chandigarh/Simla, to visit Anita's mother at St. Bedes College, where Rekha was also studying initially. They too, and other family members, visited us quite a few times.

In the meanwhile, our son Vivek was born in the early hours of March 29^th, 1960. I had just reached Anita to the Nursing Home (on my scooter!) only some hours earlier after dinner the previous night, since we had a dinner guest! We had a delightful time in bringing him up even with the very limited available help, since we could barely afford a part time young maid for only three to four hours a day at that time. My shift working hours helped, since the overlap in our working hours became less, and we could juggle our timings to manage him despite the limited & inadequate help. It was such fun and so exciting to see his development - he was the most trouble free baby, very undemanding, never gave us any problems, learnt fast and was bundles of joy. He traveled with us wherever we went on our Lambretta scooter. He got used to visiting our friends, and even staying with them overnight whenever we had to go to any official, or other late night functions. I loved my family life and my professional work, and was totally content. In due course, Vivek happily started schooling at the Don Bosco School, near Kings Circle.

My brother Choton (nick named Dicky by his colleagues) had joined the Scindia Steam and Navigation Company after completing his training at Dufferin and obtaining his coveted Second Mates "ticket", followed with the Masters Certificate from the UK. He had become a Captain in due course, and his ship came to Bombay from time to time on brief visits. We always had a great time on board his ship, or on board INS Cuddalore, and later on INS Tir, on which Bablu - Arun Auditto - was then posted. We had many other good friends, Ralph Lazarus, Suman & Veena Saksena, Vijay Menon, the Aroras - Ajay, Aruna & Rekha, Jayant & Veena, Balaji, KV Krishnamuthy, Buddha Guhathakurta and the Hemmadis - Usha, Manohar & Rajiv, to name a few, during those initial eleven years at Bombay. We often played Bridge on Sunday afternoons after a good lunch, and frequently went to the movies, on some days to two or three, especially if Balaji was around! At that time we were members of various film clubs as well.

In mid 1963, I was finally provided with Company accommodation in a large 3000 sq. ft flat on the first floor of the factory at Parel. This was a huge benefit financially, as the Company housing came complete with furniture, furnishings, crockery, cutlery and even linen, with a Maintenance Allowance as well, against a pitiful allowance previously - equivalent to less than half of the actual rent paid for an unfurnished tiny flat by me in the past.

I eventually upgraded my Lambretta scooter to a car, initially with a Fiat Topolino (Bug) 500 cc, which I replaced later with an Ambassador after about two years. An interesting incident was when one day I had difficulty in starting the Bug, Vivek kept reminding me - Daddy, put some water, and the car will surely run! This was due to the fact that on account of a minor leakage in the radiator, I had to ensure topping it with water daily without fail, while the fuel was needed seldom, and Vivek was absolutely convinced that water was the secret power provider to the car!

First trip abroad

In 1963, I was sent on a four-month posting cum technical visit to the Southampton and Liverpool factories of the British American Tobacco Company. This was basically to reward me ostensibly for one of my very major innovations about re-using the earlier wasted 'winnowings' produced during the manufacturing process, which generated over Rs eight crores in savings annually for the Company - without otherwise acknowledging the original process change idea!

We left 3 year old Vivek at Delhi with Monica Jethima, and part of the time with Anita's elder sister Onila, during our trip from September 1963, and he stayed back happily with minimum fretting, only asking for getting him a train set when we returned. The tour went off very smoothly. At the UK factories, a number of people expressed their surprise at my punctuality and regularity of attendance and the seriousness with which I worked - they mentioned that most similar visitors usually took plenty of time off to tour around the countryside instead of the factory! I made very detailed notes and drawings, and had a lot of discussions with concerned people after the study of any process, machinery or procedures, and devoted considerable effort, including corresponding with various machinery manufacturers, and collecting technical literature and drawings. Alas, on my return to India, it seemed so strange that hardly anyone showed much interest in the knowledge gained or on my many suggestions for modification or improvements. At that time I was eager to justify the considerable expense that the Company had incurred for this long tour, whereas they hardly seemed to be bothered. I later realized that the special & unusual UK posting was possibly to indirectly reward me for a very major process innovation that I had developed to reuse waste tobacco winnowings. This process generated huge on-going financial savings to the Company amounting to millions annually, & they did not want me to claim any rights arising out of my idea. I was much too naive to claim one anyway!

The very memorable but sad event during our UK stay was the assassination of US President John F Kennedy. I was watching TV after work and waiting for Anita to return from London after visiting Rina, when the news broke - the BBC programme was interrupted to announce this terrible event, followed with very detailed summary and the live coverage of events during the next few days. The BBC/ITV & VOA radio coverage of such earth shaking live news was most impressive.

The foreign exchange sanctioned - of only about 250 Pounds for this 4 months trip, was totally inadequate. We had to live most frugally in 'digs', skipping meals and even six penny bus rides by me daily walking to the factory about two miles away, so that we may be able to manage to see a bit of Europe at the end of the tour. Thanks to the arrival of Choton's ship, which we visited, when he gave away all his precious foreign exchange to us & the 'borrowed' help from many others, we could actually enjoy such a holiday. We managed some countryside trips including seeing the city of Chester in Wales, and Stratford-upon-Avon (whilst returning from Liverpool), and a fair bit of sightseeing in the city of London. Highlight was "My Fair Lady" at the Drury Lane in the West End, and "We Never Closed - The Windmill" (always nude but never rude) at Piccadilly Circus, with Choton. We spent an enjoyable Christmas fortnight with Rina at London - Vinita was just a tiny baby then. Our European holiday started at Paris, where we brought in New Year 1964, and took the conducted sightseeing tour that included the "naughty" Pigalle! Later, we had a Roman holiday sightseeing, and 'wishing' at the famous Fountain of Trevi whist throwing the penny into the pool. We took the conducted tour, as well as spent a day walking around with the help of a map, to get the feel of this historically ancient city. It followed with visiting Athens (and Parthenon at the Acropolis), and the coastal Greece. Then, we made a stop over at Cairo, and visited the famed Cheops Pyramid at Giza (well into its granite heart through the sloping tunnel - even if feeling somewhat claustrophobic!) Later, The Egyptian Museum which holds the greatest collection of Egyptian antiquities, with the famed stone sarcophagus with three coffins - the innermost being made of 110 kg of solid gold. Of course, Queen Nefrititi's Statue just could not be missed!. Finally, we made the last stop at Beirut, en route to New Delhi. Switzerland was also on our schedule, but as the Geneva airstrip was snowed under, we had to give it a miss. We were on a very tight budget, and had to return early despite another week of leave still in hand, as we just ran out of all our foreign exchange - returning literally penniless. (In fact, we had to borrow a few dollars from a co-passenger to pay the Airport Tax at Beirut!) It was great to see Vivek's joy on our return and with the electric train set that we had brought for him, which he mastered and demonstrated his skill to us all within the hour, before he had turned even four years old!

We shifted to Colaba a year later, and soon afterwards Vivek joined the very well known Campion School after a year at Dunne's Institute. He did extremely well in not only academics, but also in all other spheres during his school days. We made a few trips by car to Mahabaleshwar, and also an exciting overnight trip with Krish (KV Krishnamurthy) as a passenger in his own Fiat, (straight after his work day at the Factory) to Bangalore so that he could be present for his sister's wedding at Erode on time the very next evening. Vivek & I used this Bangalore break to spend an enjoyable break with Munnuda, Umaboudi, Monju & Pradeep at their Training Command residence at Hebbal, before the three of us returning to Bombay the following week, after the wedding!

Personal losses

Unfortunately, I was insensitive in not realizing that Anita was very unhappy and was getting disillusioned with married family life, and I literally fell from the sky when one day she told me so with tears. I had been so sure and firmly believed that we were a very happy family. Both of us had professionally done well, and for the first time were financially not so badly off, and had such a darling and intelligent child, whom we both loved so much. Despite lots of discussion, and effort spread over several years, I was not able to do anything to convince her otherwise. She remained distraught and obviously desperately unhappy and did not herself know the reason, except only that she wanted to be alone & free. I mistakenly never believed that she had the strength and capability to manage on her own, and presumed that this psychological breakdown would eventually pass - maybe that itself was one of the causes for her wanting to separate. However, involuntary separation resulted when I got transferred to Monghyr (now Munger) in Bihar in January 1969. I had expected that after a period of my absence, she would change her mind and that everything will again become all right. This proved to be a totally wrong analysis, and after an agonizing two years, I gave in to her wish by not contesting to her plea for a mutual divorce. Fortunately, we could part without any acrimony, and continued to remain on trusting and friendly terms, and gradually to build back limited interdependence. She never asked for or wanted anything from me, despite having contributed all her early earnings to our joint kitty for running the household all these years. She suggested on her own that I should take care of Vivek's future, and that we could share his holidays. We remained considerate to each other, and Vivek was a positive link, instead of the usual pull and push, between us. Her mother and all other family members, especially Rekha, Viney & family, and Rina, continued to maintain the warmest love, regard and bonds with me despite the breakup. Our friendships have only strengthened over the years. Similarly, all others in her family too upheld the very warm relationship with me without any interruption, and continued to treat me as a very close family member most affectionately.

Baba had in the meanwhile finally retired from his flourmill jobs, last one being in Guwahati, where I visited him several times. After an unfortunate financial loss of most of his meager life savings at Calcutta by a con-man because of his trusting and simple nature, he came to permanently settle down with me in 1968 - initially at Bombay, and remained with me thereafter at Monghyr, Calcutta & finally till his demise in 1979 at Bangalore. With Choton and me settled in life, we both had decided to ensure that his simple needs could be jointly looked after by us, and that he should never be wanting of a home or to his needs. He became an institution by himself to the children especially, both in our residential neighbourhood at Alipore in Calcutta (where he became known as "Toffee Dadu"), and also later at the ITC Park in Bangalore, as he invariably had a sweet for the passing children! He spent a good part of the day sitting on the parapet around the large banyan tree in ITC Park in front of my flat, sipping his cups of tea and having his smoke. Strangely, soon after his death, this huge tree came tumbling down suddenly one day, as if missing his presence! He led a very simple undemanding life with me, and looked forward to the regular weekend visits to 74 Lansdowne Road home of Boromama at Calcutta, or to Bittuda's home at Whitefield - which became a practice and need for both! Moynaboudi often told me about Bittuda pacing around with impatience, whenever we were late in coming, communications not being easy those days. As mentioned, he was a heavy smoker, and addicted to his daily rounds of tea. He was diagnosed to have diabetes while he was in Monghyr in 1970, but earlier, was very fit and enjoyed excellent health.

Vivek joined the Notre Dame Academy, a convent at Jamalpur, but within six months, his admission to the very well known public school at Gwalior, The Scindia School, came through, which he joined in June 1969. Anita had come to Monghyr for a final visit in 1969, and we all made a memorable car trip to Gwalior with Vivek as the enthusiastic and capable map reader & navigator, breaking journey at Tillaya Dam, Varanasi (Benaras), Lucknow, & Agra en route, and on the way back visited Jaipur & Delhi. Monica jethima & Baba traveled back with me from Delhi to Monghyr for a long stay, with stops at Allahabad & Arrah.

Expanding horizons

I converted my loneliness to many activities, both at the factory and outside, and kept a golden cocker spaniel puppy - named Fuzzy, who became both Baba's and my favourite and constant companion for the next 9 years. I got promoted to Asst Production Manager at Monghyr in April 1970, considered to be a break through those days for those starting life in the E Staff. I wrote and produced a monthly magazine Basdeopur Bulletin for the ITC park community, which was a great success, and also took up many responsibilities in our Club, initially in the Entertainment Committee, and then as the Club Secretary. I had a very busy life at Monghyr and also made lots of trips all over Bihar - to Calcutta & also to Khatmandu in Nepal, by car, besides many local picnics. The Tagores - Sunritda, Boudi, and Surasree & Shyamlu - were my next-door neighbours then, and he was instrumental in guiding me to most of the picnic locations around Monghyr. I was popular with the park children,and was often asked to be present at the pool when any of them wished to swim, as the club rules demanded the presence of an elder, for which I was readily willing or available! This enabled a warm bond with many of them, specially the Baldrey children - Wilie, Jenny & Paula; the Littles - Brian, Douglas & Candy; Ratna Ghosh; Sudhir & Sunder Rao; Neena & Seema Ali, to name a few, and I got enthusiastic support from all of them, particularly for the Basdeopur Bulletin & Club entertainment programmes. Wilie in particular became a very special favourite - she stopped over after school almost daily for a chat. Later on, she kept up long and frequent correspondence with me for years from Madras & later, the UK, which I cherished & enjoyed. Similarly, Seema would often drop by very early in the morning (when I was often in my bed reading a book or listening to the BBC news over the radio), as she was ready for school but the family were asleep still, and had time before having breakfast and then to catch the school bus!

I was transferred to the Kidderpore factory at Calcutta in 1971, and moved there in my car with Fuzzy and Raj - my cook cum right hand man, arriving late evening in the midst of Calcutta observing a practice air raid blackout in view of the Bangladesh liberation war! Baba had dropped off at Madhupur for a short holiday with his old friend. Two months later I went back to Monghyr on a week's temporary duty to take charge of the production function due to Tony Drayton's illness, and had a very pleasant stay with the Baldreys.

I had very happy memories of my visits to Protimaboudi, both at her parents place in Calcutta and earlier memorable short breaks at Asansol over the years during my college days. Now, having come to Calcutta, Lutherda & Boudi stayed with me often. Her sisters and their families, Khukudi and the Guhathakurtas and their children, always gave me very warm welcome in their homes, as also Togokaka, Kakima & Tuktuk - later on, also Shankar, after his marriage with Tuktuk. At that time, Boromama, Babyda, Ranidi, Banidi, Khuku & Khokon of 74 Lansdowne Road, were going through bad times, and Baba & I ensured that some help was always available to them and visited them regularly to provide support - it had traditionally become Baba's weekly Sunday visit to their place. Santoshmama, Protimamami, Pradip & Surasree, Tultul & Tubu, Nomitadi, Gutunda, Papribowdi & Babluda were some of the other close family members with whom I had lot of interaction, during my several postings & visits to Calcutta, that grew with the years.

Disaster took place next year when Choton, who came for a three months holiday after a very hectic period of command of the then largest Scindia ship on the Japan-Australia run, died as a result of a road accident in Calcutta on December 13, 1972. I had just left for Delhi only a week earlier to receive Vivek coming from Gwalior for his winter break - a trip which Choton was to accompany me but had postponed at the last minute in order to get some treatment for a throat infection. It was the cruelest blow to all of us in the family, especially for Baba, Jethamoshay & Jethima in their old age having ever to see such a tragic day.

Production to Personnel, & later HR

I was next transferred to Saharanpur in 1973 to take temporary charge of the production function there, with plans to be shortly made the MbO Advisor for the Northern India Cigarette Factories & Marketing Branches of the India Tobacco Division of ITC. I attended an MbO programme held in Srinagar, and enjoyed the Kashmir trip. However, the MbO team got disbanded, and instead I was offered the opportunity to move to Personnel function at the Kidderpore factory. I accepted the change readily, despite severe labour problems being predominant those days, especially in West Bengal, where violence, gherao etc. were common, and mainly targeted against the Personnel Managers. I never regretted this move to this very challenging function, and in retrospect, had certainly made the best choice for my future career. I was very successful in making major contribution to Kidderpore becoming productive and manageable in my three years there heading Personnel. In the meanwhile, Joyda had joined IISCO in Calcutta after his retirement from the Air Force. Rita, Deepa, Bani and Joyda settled in New Alipore (later to Niharika in Alipore), and became my very dear and close extended family - & the very close and warm bonds continue. I acquired a yellow 'love bug' VW Beetle in replacement of my Ambassador car, and had a great time for the next seven years with my Herbie!

I was later transferred (my second posting) to Bangalore, the largest ITC factory, in 1977, as the Personnel Manager, where I had my greatest success in productivity improvement settlements and reorganization of the workforce that brought about a 30 percent productivity increase in my three years there. I was nominated to attend an important Workshop/Conference called SEACOMD (South East Asia Conference on Management Development) organised by the British American Tobacco Company, at a place called Cisarua near Bandung & Jakarta in the Indonesian Island of Java in March 1979. It was an interesting programme, and I combined a lovely long vacation with the official tour that included visits to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore & Hongkong factories of the BAT as well. In Indonesia, I visited Bandung, Surabaya & Bali, traveling extensively by road, boat & train. I went down into a volcano crater near Bandung, and also saw the fascinating sunrise at Mt. Bromo - an unforgettable trip from Surabaya. Then on to Manila in the Philippines, Hong Kong & Bangkok before returning to Bangalore via Calcutta, to be informed at the airport by Rita that Baba was down with pneumonia at Bangalore, whilst staying at Bittuda's home - the start of his declining health, and to my great loss, his eventual demise within six months - on September 27^th,1979. Bani and Rita had come from Calcutta to give me great support during Baba's hospitalization, as he had to undergo an amputation of his right leg above the knee to control the Burger's disease affecting the blood circulation to the toes. Unfortunately, despite the surgery being successful, he was unable to withstand the strain and after-affects. His great mental strength was evident from the witty observation to Sumi just prior to the surgery "carry on with your 'pronam' now - as later you will not have both legs to do so!"

I had to make many visits to the Head Office at Calcutta during my Bangalore posting, and the flight necessitated making overnight halts at Madras en route (there were no direct flights!). I regularly stayed with the Baldrey family during these stop-overs, and enjoyed their hospitality and warm friendship. I specially remember going to an all night dance directly from the airport, only to learn that jackets were essential - which I had to borrow from Brian! I finally saw them off when they immigrated to the UK towards the end of my Bangalore posting.

I was soon promoted to take over as the Employee Relations Manager for the entire Tobacco Division at ITC Head Office at Calcutta in late 1979. This move got delayed to early 1980, due to a long and major strike at the Bangalore factory called by a dissident and militant communist leader, soon after a very productive and good Wage Settlement. Having already dispatched my personal effects to Calcutta, I consequently spent a very hospitable period as houseguest of Chitra & Aravind Katre, my earlier next-door neighbours at the ITC Park at Lavelle Road.

My ITC career hit a bad patch next year due to some differences with my immediate senior. Strangely, many of the Directors despite agreeing that I was right, did not have the courage to do anything about it, but finally shifted me in late 1981 on a promotion as the General Manager of a subsidiary start up company in Sikkim! I worked very hard and succeeded in making this Company achieve and exceed the high profit target given to me within less than a year. However, I remained disillusioned, and in August 1982 accepted an offer of Britannia Industries Limited to become their General Manager heading the Personnel function, to be based at their Executive Office at Bombay. I therefore, took early retirement from ITC after almost 30 years service, and discovered that even then I was denied some of my due benefits, mainly on account of technical reasons, which were accepted as unjust, but nothing was done. After years of follow up, only due to the sympathetic decision of their new Head of Personnel, Anand Nayak, a partial compensation was made after thirteen years in 1995. Despite all this, ITC continues to remain my cherished organization, where I grew up and developed from a naive youth into a professional manager, and where I made so many life long friends.

Farewells and welcomes

On the family front, we lost Monica Jethima at Delhi in March 1978, followed exactly a month later by Chutka Jethamoshay at Ajit's home in Pune, followed with Baba on September 27^th 1979 at Bangalore after serious illness and a leg amputation - thus removing the umbrella of the elder generation from us all. Soon afterwards, I lost my loving and most affectionate Fuzzy. Ratna died the next year, leaving only Ajit and me from the original eight of Badami Bagh, as is inevitable to all with the passage of time. Sadly for Tuktuk, Shanker passed away suddenly in March 1982. Pratapda died in London on August 13^th1982, the day I retired from ITC. There were of course, the new additional family members of the next generation: Vivek, Tunia, Abhijit & Amit, and many cousins, nephews and nieces, and the next generation, with the future progeny to follow - as is the way of families, and life.

My greatest satisfaction, however was Vivek's steady and meritorious performance throughout in School, and later at lIT, Kanpur, where besides his academic excellence, he was involved in dramatics, debates and elocutions, and was given responsible positions demanding leadership and trust, which made us all immensely proud. I visited him both at Gwalior, as well as at Kanpur several times and could not but note the praise of the teachers and others. He was made the School Captain in his final year, and was all along the main star of their annual English plays. In 1976, he won the Silver Medal for Mathematics in the All India Higher Secondary Examination by the Central Board of Education along with four distinctions, and also qualified for a National Science Talent Search Scholarship. He joined the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur to do the then five years Bachelor of Technology course in Electrical Engineering. He achieved many distinctions at the lIT, and ended with a top Cumulative Performance Index of 9.6 (in a ten point scale), and went off in 1981 on a scholarship to do a Master of Science programme at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, USA.

Vivek married Ratna, daughter of my friend and ex ITC colleague, Rajeev and Vinodini Gupta, on December 22, 1982 at Mathura, in a fabulously hospitable and memorable ceremony. It remains unforgettable to all those who were present, and were treated as maharajas! Since I had "formally" introduced Ratna (as my friends daughter) to Vivek at lIT Kanpur during my first visit in 1976, I was certainly most delighted with this match, and happy to have her in the family. The wedding party returned to Delhi, and we held the reception on Dec 26^th at the Welcomgroup Maurya Sheraton, which was very well attended. This was followed with another smaller reception at Bombay, before the couple returned to California after their hectic two weeks eventful vacation! Vivek thereafter obtained a Ph. D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. Ratna had also done her B. Tech from lIT, Kanpur along with Vivek most creditably, and they had been jointly awarded a prize for the best Project work, which was done at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at Bombay in 1980. She completed her Masters in Computer Science at Stanford University, and after a period of work to contribute to the family finances (since Vivek was still a student doing his Ph D), did her MBA from the Stanford Business School. She then became a consultant with the famous firm, McKinsey & Company at New York, while Vivek joined IBM, at their prestigious T.J. Watson Research Center at Yorktown Heights in New York State. They bought their first home in Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester in upstate New York. With the very premature arrival of Shilpa on February 26 1989, she gave up her job, and they decided to move back to California. She then completed her Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University, while Vivek got transferred to IBM's West Coast establishment at Palo Alto. Aparna was born on April 10, 1992, thankfully without the complications faced in 1989 with the premature birth of Shilpa, and the delightful family brought tons of joy to all of us. Ratna's sister Ruchi had gone to help on both the occasions, and was, and continues to be, a great source of help and support to them, even after having settled in Tennessee after getting her license to practice in that State as general physician. They are now moving back to the East Coast, to the Boston area, where Ratna would be joining the Harvard Business School in September 1996 to teach, while Vivek will become a Visiting Associate Professor at M.I.T. across the river, on a year+ long due sabbatical from IBM, with confusingly the two Dr. Sarkars living in the same home! I made frequent and regular visits to them over these years, and they too came to India off and on, thus enabling the warm relationship to develop with my two lovely growing granddaughters!

Life with Britannia

I initially spent a total of ten years in Britannia (another three year spell later on from 1997 post retirement, described later), of which, from 1982 to 1989 was at Bombay, and thereafter at Bangalore, when the Executive Office was shifted there. These were all very hectic years professionally, and I became Vice President - Human Resource in due course, and was a member of the Company's Executive Committee, besides being made the Managing Trustee for the Retiral Funds. During the Bombay days, I always had a loving home at Panu & Munia's place, where Pia and Bonu grew up to be the young ladies as they are today. They all were most affectionate, and majority of my initial weekends were spent at Andheri with them. So much so, that the building watchmen believed that I actually lived in the building, but was away at work during the week - my yellow VW was well recognised by them! They gave me a family that I lacked. Later, Indrani and Amit came to Bombay, so I had to alternate my weekends with them, where too I got nothing but a most warm welcome always. The Goyals - Sudhir & Radhika & the family had over the years been based in Calcutta, Bombay & later at Bangalore during my postings, and had become very close and special friends, with whom I spent considerable time through many ups and downs. Most of my Bombay stay was at Maker Tower at Cuffe Parade - a fabulous flat with a grand view of Marine Drive, Malabar Hill across the bay, and also the shipping route near Colaba point. Later years were spent at Worli in a very central and a comfortable flat near the Nehru Center. In the meanwhile, my VW went kaput, and I obtained a Maruti 800 in 1986, which only recently I have replaced with a Maruti Zen. Large number of family & friends frequently visited me at Bombay, and my flat became well known as a guest house! Tubu, Tultul & Jojo - made several visits, and one most enjoyable one was for 1983 yearend, when we had a fabulous large New Year party - partly at home and also at the US Club. Another memorable visit of Tultul consisted of non-stop watching old Amitabh Bachan movies - a definite record indeed, much to the delight of the shop below renting out the movies

However, this past enjoyment was soon overcome tragically, when as Tubu was to return home in March 1985, most unexpectedly he was seriously sick whilst on command of his ship off the coast of Sri Lanka. Despite a quick return to Madras after preliminary medical attention, where he was to be relieved and be treated, he died literally in sight of the Madras port. This was indeed a most tragic and sad loss to us all, and especially for Tultul & young Jojo, who was just about to appear for her school finals. They endured this terrible tragedy with tremendous courage and dignity in the coming years.

They visited me later at Bombay and as did a large number of other guests from time to time. One such visitor was Bill Franklin, when Jojo & Rita Ronita were also with me, and we were amazed at their number of shopping trips to Bandra (which almost matched their number of days stay with me at Worli!)!

Raj, my cook from Monghyr days, & his family took good care of me & my frequent guests, but he got into gambling and bad company, and finally I had to get rid of him with very great regret, as he started stealing various things, and later money, to meet his debts. Uchit was the replacement, who took charge of my household & carried the mantle thereafter, most efficiently & honestly.

One major event was the need to undergo prostrate surgery in July 1986, during which unfortunately, there was serious complications post surgery whilst a blood transfusion was in progress. However, Vivek's quick and decisive actions, and timely response by the doctors, saved me after a very close call. Ruchi had specially come from Hyderabad to be with us at Ratna & Vivek's request before the crisis - she was of great professional help, and the care and concern from them, as also Anita, Sudhir & Radhika made all the difference to me during this sudden critical emergency, and the subsequent recovery.

I was responsible for shifting Britannia's Executive Office from Bombay to the newly constructed modern Britannia Gardens, located on Airport Road and close to the HAL Airport, Bangalore in May 1989, and to employ all the new staff there, as well as start with an open organization culture. The Bangalore stay of the next three years was very enjoyable, Bittuda and Moynaboudi were residing at Whitefield, Borun, Sumi and Mini, as well as Gopa, Sanju, Vikram & Jitu lived closeby at Indiranagar. We had regular family gatherings at each others places on most weekends, and they were indeed most enjoyable. Moyna boudi's super cooking and the affectionate specials for me can never be forgotten! Besides her culinary skills, she knitted so well and regularly, which mostly benefited Panu! There were a large number of other friends, including many in or ex ITC still at Bangalore, and I had many family members and guests throughout who came and stayed with me often at 2B Chinar at the Britannia Gardens, often to or from the airport en-route, making life interesting & enjoyable - my home becoming well known as a convenient guest house amongst friends and relatives! Towards the end of my Bangalore stay, Bittuda expired quite suddenly, bringing our such warm and long affectionate interaction of over fifty years to an end. It was in 1941 when he started on his job at Delhi, and we shared a room in the Daryaganj, that we had so much to do with each other and interact during my postings or tours so regularly with the family which made this a very sad personal loss. Since Gopa & family had earlier moved to Delhi, our family gatherings became limited to only Borun's family and me getting together. Munia came often from Bombay to see to Moynaboudi, who too sadly died in 1993, a year after my departure from Bangalore on retirement.

I had been nominated by the Government of India to a Food & Drinks Committee in 1988, and as a result, was invited to the International Labour Organization's Second Food & Drinks Committee Conference at Geneva in December 1991 as the Employers representative from India. This was quite an eye opener for me to see international politics at play in the background, and I ended up taking up issues on behalf of the absent Indian Government representative to the conference as well. I enjoyed the distinction and the bonus of an almost free trip to USA during my return journey from Geneva to Bangalore - via Palo Alto! This enabled me to spend a most enjoyable Christmas week in 1991 with Vivek, Ratna, Shilpa & Aparna, and be the Father Christmas!

I had wisely (in retrospect) invested in a small two bedroom flat at Palmtree Place, Victoria Layout at Bangalore in May 1990. At that time it seemed to cost an unaffordable fortune that I thought that I never could manage, but somehow with God's grace and luck, it just about worked out miraculously! Initially for the first three or four years it was rented out, but later, was left vacant in anticipation for eventual settlement. Various modifications and additions made this into a very usefully compact flat located so centrally that I would still find suitable and comfortable after living so luxuriously in large company flats for decades!

Retirement and renewals

August 1992 - and the time to say Good Bye to my colleagues in Britannia finally arrived. I retired on September 1st, and came to Calcutta for an year'' assignment with The Assam Company - the oldest tea Company in the world, established by Royal Charter during East India Company days.

Sadly, first Togokaka, and then Joyda suddenly passed away within three months after my arrival in Calcutta. Both these families and homes were very special to me, and the losses being so personal. However, such inevitable periodic loss of loved ones and family elders was to be expected, and had to be accepted.

In the meanwhile, I was offered a non-executive Directorship of Tega India Limited, an engineering Company with foreign partners, and which I finally gave up after about seven years. For many years, I had been involved in various Management Development activities and Seminars, and have successfully run many programmes, internal or external, as faculty/directing staff. Earlier, for a while I casually undertook lectures at the Bangalore University's Department of Management, and was also became an examiner for Ph. D. students at the Indian Institute of Science during the eighties. I wrote quite a few articles off & on, some recently being translated in Bengali and published - enjoyed doing it, including this very special write-up now! These were so satisfying and professionally helped in expanding my horizons.

Another enjoyable project was preparing the Family Tree (both for the Sarkar & the Roy sides of my father and mother's families) after corresponding & following up with very many relatives, and also getting help from many to develop a database, and the result of this effort has been most satisfying. I was happy to use an Excel spreadsheet for this purpose; despite my then very limited knowledge of the programme capabilities, or for that matter, computer use! Since my grandfather Madhusudan Sarkar had left Bengal at an early age and had come to settle in Lahore, possibly due to major disagreement with his parents on account of converting to the Brahmo teachings, earlier links or roots were totally lost, more so with the passing away of all the knowledgeable elders. This took me well over a year to develop initially, and now the amendments & corrections continue from time to time, and have resulted in an extensively detailed database.

After my year with The Assam Company was up, I was invited to join the expanding IFB Group as Senior Vice President - HR in September 1993. This too has been very interesting and rewarding. I believe that I have been able to professionalise the management processes for more effective management, and have contributed substantially towards greater motivation and team building. Significant contributions were the restructuring of IFB's organisation, employee levels & grades and the applicable terms of service, compensation and systems, besides managing industrial relations, during my three years with IFB. I enjoyed getting to know the tea industry & gardens.

Tuktuk - my very favourite cousin and sister, and with whom I had such close relationship, was heading for another tragedy few years after the very unfortunate death of Shanker. It was noticed that she was gradually losing memory - after being so outstandingly efficient and capable in the past. Despite her physical disability affecting her leg due to polio from her early age, she had overcome all problems, and had even learnt to drive the specially modified car that I had helped to get made for her years ago, and was such a prized and dependable employee, first at Bokharo Steel before her marriage, and later at ITC after Shankar's death. This was the start of Alzheimer disease, which soon disabled her completely, and besides having to give up her job; she had to be soon shifted to Shefali Kakima's home for being looked after, with loss of speech and most of physical and mental faculties. What a major loss and cause of worry for poor Kakima in her advancing age. However, this prompted Kakima to very bravely start the Alzheimer Association of West Bengal, to provide help and assistance to similar patients and their families.

Other vistas

During my Britannia, Assam Co. & IFB days, spreading over 14 years, I had to tour all over the country extensively, particularly the metro cities. Earlier ITC days also called for some work related travel. This gave me the opportunity to keep up with very many relatives and friends during my trips, and attend many family functions. I often stayed with many of them, instead of using Hotels or Company Guest Houses - and was therefore, able to build warm relationships while spending time with them rather than just a quick visit (if at all!). I also made many personal international trips; one very memorable & enjoyable trip was to Thailand, Malayasia & Singapore in early 1981 with Joyda & Bani, when we used train travel from Bangkok to Singapore & back with quite a few sightseeing stops en route. This was consequent to a challenge given to me when I suggested the use of trains instead of air for internal travel, and told to organize it! Later in 1981, Vivek joined University of Wisconsin at Madison, and we did part of the travel together & visited the Baldreys at London, and Rina & family at Toronto, besides my extensive travel around the USA on a VUSA to about twelve destinations, before coming to see Vivek settled in his new place! Thereafter, I visited the US regularly - initially every alternate year, and then almost annually - to be with them in various locations. I managed to include en route stopovers, and also use Greyhound or VUSA internal air travel with many of my US trips. They included visits to Hawaii, Canada, Japan, Germany, Holland, UK etc. and also to an interesting World Communication Expo at Vancouver, Canada, arranged by Ratna & Vivek well in advance. I was thus able to meet many friends and relatives all over the world, and enjoyed their warm hospitality too. These have helped me in keeping up & building the strong bonds of affection. I enjoyed my stays especially with the Baldreys in England, Sitangshuda & Beate at Witten in Germany (being the first family member to be with them within a week after their marriage in 1988), Hans & Anne at Utrecht, Rina at Toronto, Raj at Washington DC, Atashi at Minneapolis, Veena & Jayant at Hartfort CT, Monica & SP at Blue Bell PA, Abir & David at Valparaiso IN, Adukias at Mattoon IL etc. A very wonderful visit was to meet & stay with the Schwartings (Karl and Ursula) - early friends of Choton during his frequent travels - at Bremen, and get to know them and their daughters, after years of correspondence. A sad trip was to Hartford CT, when I was with Jayant as he died due to a sudden heart attack.

I had always enjoyed good health (other than minor issues), and had generally taken it for granted. On Jan 30th 1996 night I was suddenly very unwell, and the next morning the Doctor diagnosed it due to a stroke with partial paralysis of the left leg, resulting from extremely high blood pressure & a possible blood clot in the system, and I had to be hospitalized immediately. While with God's grace I have got over all this very quickly, and am back to normal life, thanks to the doctors and moral support from many, time has perhaps come now in July 1996 to ease off a bit from the very hectic pace of life, and high pressure work environment. I believe that doing nothing is bound to accentuate the aging process, besides taking away all the joys of life, that one does not like to even think about and wishfully avoid, and is likely to drive me up the wall for sure! I enjoy professional management work challenges, and hope to be able to find something suitable that will keep me utilising my experience and knowledge profitably in the coming future, but hopefully with a comparatively lighter physical load - as an Advisor or a Consultant perhaps, or part time work maybe?

I draw a great deal of satisfaction that from my very humble beginnings, I have been able to reach where I am today with my own consistent efforts, and that whatever I have today has come from scratch totally on my own, with the blessings of the many well-wishers. I believe that I have learnt from some of my failures, and at the same time, not allowed my successes to go to my head, and that I continue to remain unassuming and non egoistic, and most importantly, content. However, what surpasses all this is the pleasure of seeing the fine, calm & considerate, value based and brilliant but most affectionate son Vivek grow over these years, and now with Ratna not only being charming and loving, but also sharing most of these qualities and values, and both of them in bringing up their lovely and affectionate children with topmost priority in their lives. With such a wonderful family, what more can one look forward to - I have had a rich and wonderful life so far - am more than content, and I thank God for this eventful great life and the blessings!

It is just not possible to close this journal without expressing sincere gratitude and appreciation to a very large number of un-named relatives, friends, colleagues and well-wishers, including many of their children. Whether senior or junior, well-off or otherwise, male or female, young or old, they have been warm, affectionate, tolerant, hospitable, generous, respectful, loving, or helpful to me by their actions or deeds, given me their involvement or time patiently to listen to me or just being with me, and make me feel wanted. Often through advice and discussions during the past years, when I may have been feeling lonely, down in the dumps or maybe in sad or even high spirits, or in the course of normal or abnormal periods, I have been comforted. They have shared my burden with their concern or help, or participated in my joys. I have received much selfless and undemanding friendship and love from so many that has often touched my heart with its genuine warmth, and made life so pleasurable, interesting and worth living, and I have drawn sustenance from their friendship and warm affectionate concern. It is just not possible to describe all such incidents, and with my short and somewhat fading memory, I may not even recollect many experiences or people, but there have been lots and lots of such events that have consistently brightened my life time and again - thank you all!

These personal memories and sentiments are especially dedicated with my love to Vivek & Ratna on the eve of the start of their new careers in the academic world, and also later, for dear Shilpa and Aparna to know more of me, as they grow up into lovely, mature affectionate young ladies.

_________________

POST SCRIPT - August 2000:

Experiments with time

Since writing the above narrative in July 1996, I have come to realize that from time to time it will be necessary to bring this journal up to date through additional pages. The turn of the century (and the start of the new millennium) may perhaps be a very significant moment of time to pen down the first post-script (whilst I am holidaying at Amsterdam with Hans & Anne, in Europe en-route to the US, and have a fair bit of time to introspect and the use of Hans's computer) to cover the past four years. I am also using this opportunity to carry out some minor editing in the earlier write-up, which I am sure will continue whenever I re-read this chronicle (almost every time!).

Back to Britannia

Good intentions often remain "intentions", or get modified - depending on the circumstances. In my case too, it was no different, and as per the then plan, I called it a day at IFB in September 1996, in order to retire once again (third time!) from full time active work life. However, on learning of my intentions to retire, Britannia urged and invited me to return again to take full time charge of the HR function of the Company, at Bangalore. This function had fallen into a bit of disarray being headless for quite a while, and Britannia had plans for a major commercial upsurge. Sunil Alagh, the Managing Director & CEO, was keen that I develop the Corporate HR team and set future directions, build a strong and competent management team for the planned expanded business, and develop strong bonds with Britannia's partner Danone, and their Asia Pacific HR director at Singapore. He too had his period of ups and downs in the Company, and had been ousted soon after my retirement in 1992 due to disagreement with the then Chairman, Rajan Pillai, but had come back again not long ago with the support from the international partners, Danone. He wanted to get Britannia back on tracks based on the plans developed in earlier years before my retirement, whilst I was in the Executive Committee, and had been a party to most of these plans. He assured me of full freedom to work on my ideas to meet the Company's objectives. My loyalty to Britannia at their time of need, the trust demonstrated by the recall, and the challenge was something I just could not turn down, not to mention the substantial likely & steady income once again for a while! I therefore, came back to Bangalore with full executive authority to become their Senior Advisor & Vice-President - Human Resource, from January 1997 - but technically not as an employee! This was immediately after the weddings of Rekha & Viney's son Ranjit with Miho, & their younger daughter Aarati with Rohit, at Delhi. Vivek, Ratna, Shilpa & Aparna, besides Anita & Rina, were all coming to Delhi, and we had planned to be together to celebrate this very special double event. We had been able to rent a large suite and a couple of rooms at the New Delhi YWCA, and also borrow a car for the two weeks stay, which made it so convenient. It was a most delightful and enjoyable family get-together during this grand celebration soon after Xmas 1996.

One complication was my immediate need for bilateral hernia surgery, for which Vivek insisted that he should be present. This was carried out at Bangalore in the first week of January immediately after we arrived from Delhi, and he saw to the organizing of my Britannia Gardens flat at 1B, Deodar - helped by Anita, while I was still recovering post surgery at the Mallaya Hospital. I had an absolutely smooth and quick recovery, and got down to full time work at Britannia from the third week of January 1997, and rejoined the Company when all the top management were away at Thailand for a brain storming session - to which I too had been invited, but had regretted due to my impending surgery. My work-life remained similar to the past, and the Company grew spectacularly during this period as per the plans (Sales more than doubling from Rs 6024 million in 1996 to Rs. 13384 million in 2001, and Profit after Tax from Rs. 110 million to 434 million in the same period)! I believe that HR had contributed significantly to the achievement of these dramatic success results during my period of return to Britannia.

This assignment with Britannia got extended from the initial offer of two years to three due to organizational needs, and finally ended in January 2000. I was happy to be able to leave behind an excellent HR team, and participate in the incredible success of Britannia, and in their future plans. During these three years, I toured a fair amount within India as required, and made some foreign trips too, in addition to my annual personal travel to the US to be with the family. It started with a trip to Singapore & Malaysia in March 1998 for the First Asia Pacific HR Conference, during which I developed the interaction with the Danone's HR heads in this part of the world. This was followed with participating in a worldwide Danone HR Managers Conference at Cagliari in southern Sardinia, Italy in May 1998. I was able to make a quick five day visit to Vivek & family at Boston prior to this meet, and also do an enjoyable tour of Rome, Venice, Florence & Pisa whilst returning after the Conference. There were also trips to Bali and Singapore (in April 1998), and another to Sri Lanka in January 1999 for the Britannia's annual Top Management brain storming meetings. I organized the Second Asia Pacific HR Conference at New Delhi in late 1998 (for Dannone) with a visit for the participants to Agra, which was much appreciated. The next HR Conference was for a week at Beijing, China in June 1999. The combination of work with interesting sightseeing and entertainment etc. organized so meticulously by the hosts at China made it the most memorable finale for me prior to the end of my assignment with Britannia. These interactions not only enhanced the Group's HR objectives, but helped in building greater understanding amongst the participating personnel from so many different countries, a task I was entrusted with during this extended assignment. I could proudly leave Britannia having made tremendous progress, and leaving it to a very fine team to continue thereafter.

Post Retirement - after 47 years of Work life

A very satisfying professional honour was the invitation by Dr. R.L.Bhatia of The Center for Organisational Change to be the Guest of Honour and the Keynote Speaker at The Asia Pacific HR Conclave - held at the Nehru Center, Mumbai from January 13th to 15th, 2000, immediately after my saying the final goodbye to Britannia on January 1^st. This was very well attended, and an excellent Conclave. I enjoyed this unique distinction immensely at the end of my professional career of over 47 years, as a befitting farewell. My presentation was very well reported by the press, and was appreciated by many participants, and quoted in several professional magazines, and in web-sites, with many acclamations from even strangers, making it so personally satisfying!

Going back in time before I called it a day with Britannia, Uchit - my all-purpose cook-cum-retainer for many years, had an unfortunate massive stroke in 1998 with one arm being partially paralyzed, even after considerable medical help and long treatment. He had to return home to his family in Bihar after two months of recuperation at Bangalore. My smooth running household went through a period of difficulty till I found a suitable replacement after about one year - even if it was not a full time staying-in help.

Monica & SP, who was very sick after a stroke whilst in Philadelphia after a very successful long career, and needed constant attention & help being bed ridden, decided to shift from the US to India in 1998. They stayed with me at the Britannia Gardens flat initially for about two months prior to moving to a suitable rented flat nearby at Domlur. I was happy to be able to help & support them in their settling down process, and later with very many other needs, that they continued to require. Granny & Renuka also shifted to Bangalore after their years of stay at Mumbai, and joined them since. Unfortunately, SP finally passed away in December 2001. I continue with my help & support, and it is nice to have the family around, and especially Granny, who is approaching 100, and has always been so especially affectionate to me.

Another very shattering event was the sad death of Vinita at Toronto in 1999, while Rina was visiting India to put up a Kathak performance in Mumbai - she had been to Bangalore shortly before this news came.

Other change was that I decided to replace my five-year-old Maruti Zen with a Santro made by Hyundai in late 1999, just before I signed off from Britannia. At the start of the millennium Borun & Sumi moved to Jaipur on transfer, while Mini went to Pondicherry to continue with her post graduation education. I will certainly be missing them in Bangalore - they were always a great support, and are very close.

Travel bug bites again

I undertook a long two months trip at end of the century on my final retirement from full time service, which started with a most enjoyable weeklong holiday at Dubai (my first) - with my ex-ITC friends from years, Revathi & Venkat in mid December 1999. They made me welcome, and we did a fair amount of running around and the traditional shopping, despite the trip was supposedly a 'no shopping' one (and which finally still needed an extra suitcase!). I managed to catch up with Joyontoda's son Sumit, Chimu & kids, and some other friends in Dubai as well.

I then went to Calcutta for attending various family functions. It started with the "mukhebhat" of Jojo's twins, and thereafter, Shona's wedding with Suranjan. It was excellently organised by Tidu & Enid, & was a lovely occasion to enjoy with so many people. I also made a short visit to be with Ratna's brother Sanjeev & family at his tea garden, and to see Protimaboudi, Bhaiyya & family at Jamshedpur from Calcutta. Another great occasion with all the gathered family was Abhi's wedding with Mithu. I accompanied the bridal couple to Delhi from Kolkata for the reception at the YMCA, Nizamuddin East, before returning to Bangalore in the third week of February.

The important task of vacating Britannia Gardens flat and moving to my own Palmtree Place apartment at Victoria Layout was done at end March 2000. This naturally necessitated getting rid of a fair part of my personal effects and furniture etc. accumulated over the years, so as to be able to fit into the very much smaller flat. Vivek came over all the way from the U.S. for a five day stint just to help me with this difficult decision making process in early April. It was lovely to have him, and also Anita, stay at my own home for the first time instead of at the Company flat - soon after the change in my status after a busy 47 years full time work life.

Even after Britannia, I continued to be active professionally with occasional Consultancy work for Dynamix Dairy Industries at Baramati off & on, (which had began a few years earlier), and on other short-term advisory work etc. The NIPM (National Institute of Personnel Management) Executive Committee work also demands time from me, besides being called for making presentations, or as Guest speakers, by various Institutions. However, it is at a relaxed pace of work as compared to the past, and on my own choice.

Another tragedy was in store for the family - on July 16th, 2000, Rita called to convey the sad news that Deepa's husband Bundle had been on the ill fated flight to Patna which had crashed that morning - I had spoken to Deepa only the previous evening. Robey, and later Borun, too called to reaffirm this very sad news. I had known Bundle from the seventies as a youngster playing cycle polo with Vivek. After he married Deepa, I had short visits to their homes at Guwahati & again at Coonoor, and he too stayed at my Britannia flat during his Bangalore visits on work.

My health has remained reasonably well & steady, and I continue to be fit with no evident problems of the past. The medications, periodic checks & reasonable care, have enabled my life to go on smoothly.

The travel bug continues to be busy, and I am now making my usual "annual pilgrimage" again from last week of July 2000. The trip began at Mumbai with a couple of days enjoyable break with Radhika & Sudhir, before leaving for Amsterdam. Hans & Ann gave me a very warm and hospitable relaxed spell, but not without trips to The Hague to see the Peace Palace etc. and the famous stained glass windows at the St. John's Church at Gouda (besides the cheese making!), and many other sights. There was also the visit to Sitangshuda & Beate at Witten, and meeting Beate's mother Inge (Nettman) after about 12 years - for a delightful dinner at her place. Despite the fairly wet weather during my stay in Germany, the holiday was so very enjoyable - just by being with them! An enjoyable walk in the nearby forest taxed my energies to the limit, but in most picturesque settings and fresh & clean atmosphere.

From Europe to the US for another seven weeks - soon to Vivek & Ratna's new home at Stamford CT after spending the initial few days at Washington DC with Jojo, Raj & Bonu/Joy, & then to Knoxville TN at Ruchi's place to join Ratna, Shilpa & Aparna, before they take possession of the house - here I come!

With a serene environment and time in hand, I am penning down this postscript comfortably, using Hans's PC, and contemplating on my good fortune of being able to manage my retirement with so much enjoyment and in affectionate and friendly atmosphere in so many different homes, and having such serene time for reflection, and with anticipation for a good time ahead.

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POST SCRIPT 2 (recommenced in 2006 - and continued thereafter from time to time....):

It was indeed a very enjoyable US trip in 2000, when Vivek & Ratna were in the process of taking possession of their new home at 336 Den Road, Stamford CT, and were temporarily homeless as I arrived at JFK. As such, after spending a night at NYC, I visited Pensylvnia & DC before meeting Ratna, Vivek, Shilpa & Aparna at Ruchi's place a week later at Knoxville TN for a lovely holiday, & to celebrate Ruchi's birthday, before finally getting to their new home at Stamford. It was large and lovely, and I was able to help Ratna & Vivek a little bit in setting it up. As always, it was a very enjoyable visit with good weather during August & September, when I made very many short trips, and finally whilst returning, had a break journey in London with Brian & Joan - as I had been regularly doing whenever visiting London (at their first Hounslow home in England for the last time!), and with them visited Wilie & Peter's place near Taunton for two days. Later (in 2002) Brian & Joan bought a lovely house & shifted to Chard, near Somerset, which I visited in 2003 during my next UK visit. They now live quite near to both Wilie & Jenny, a very supportive convenience.

Family and festivities

Early in 2001, we had a delightful gathering at Kolkata for Asha's wedding to Narasimhan. Bhanu, Aparna & Anna were all there from the US, as were Sitangshuda & his son, Stefan, from Germany, and so many other known and unknown relatives and friends! However, shortly afterwards, sudden tragedy was to take place - as Sitangshuda expired on 9^th February after a sudden short hospitalization on the very day he was to fly to meet Stefan at Bangkok airport for their trip back to Germany together. He was such a fitness freak, and so active, that this was indeed a much unexpected sad blow to the family, and me. We had both got along so well with each other, as I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to be with him and Beate much more than most others.

Venkat & Revathi shifted from Dubai & settled in Bangalore in 2001 - providing me with a ready second home and family to interact with most frequently, which I certainly I enjoyed. We made a fabulous two day trip to the Nagarhole National Park in early 2002, and the following year to Bhadra National Park, and visited Halebid & Belur whilst returning. Both these trips were most enjoyable. Chiku got married to Manaswi at Bangalore in June 2002, which was great fun celebrating with them all, and I was very involved with this grand occasion. Finally, Venkat & Revathi's new flat at Sarjapur Road became ready in June 2004, and after a very well organized puja, they shifted to their lovely new penthouse apartment in Sobha Onyx. Snoopy - a beautiful cocker spaniel became their family member shortly before Raja joined Vivek's family in the US, and is my great favourite, is now well settled there with them in the new home, and excitedly greets & welcomes me whenever I visit them - I have to devote the first few minutes only to him, and not even talk to anyone else first - he has become my surrogate pet!

The wisdom years

After my retirement from full time work in 2000, initially I continued to remain fairly busy (which dwindled gradually!) with calls from various Colleges to make presentations to their Management students on topics of interest. I was invited to join the Executive Committees of NIPM & FKCCI, and later also the Bangalore Management Association, and which continues year after year. The All India Manufacturer's Association (AIMO) also approached me to be their honorary advisor on labour issues. These ex-officio positions have kept me in touch with professionals, and occupy a fair bit of my time. In this connection, I was invited to present a paper to the National Commission on Labour on behalf of AIMO in November 2000, and was subsequently invited to join the NCL's Sub-committee at Bangalore during their deliberations in 2001, prior to making their final recommendations to the Government of India - a very prestigious professional assignment indeed.

The residents of the Palmtree Place Apartment Owners elected me to their Managing Committee, initially as the Secretary in 2000, then Vice President, and later as the President, which covered the next three year period, and which demanded a fair amount of administrative work and responsibility. I was happy to contribute in developing systems, budgets and administrative procedures during my tenure, and also organize and negotiate a very attractive long term annual income for the Association. With my frequent long absences from Bangalore, I was finally able to give up these responsibilities, but continue to help the Association whenever possible.

There were some formal consultation assignments too, but these were fairly limited and covered short periods only. They were fairly remunerative and required some travel, but have gradually dwindled with passage of time! The only consistent organization that used my services, even if for short periods, quite regularly till mid 2004 was Dynamix Dairies Ltd., Baramati. As stated earlier, I had been associated with them from its very inception in the nineties. I was responsible for their top level organization restructuring, and especially develop their Management Compensation system and procedures - from a much disorganized state and for the annual reviews regularly. This provided me opportunities of travel to Pune, and also Mumbai a few times each year, whilst visiting the Baramati plant. I stayed with Sudhir & Radhika at their newly purchased home at Chembur during these trips, and visited many others. Bunny (Jayavant) had settled at Pune after Goa - I managed to meet him often during my Baramati trips, as also Nita & Kamlakar.

In the meanwhile, the recently married couple Abhi & Mithu came to Bangalore on a posting, and we had another family member in town! However, their stay did not last long, and they moved to Bhopal by end 2002 (then to Indore in 2005). Abhi and Mithu's baby son, Arunanshu was born a month prematurely in June 2004 at Raipur, adding to the grand-children generation of the family! Mithu's twin sister, Mishtu also got married at Bangalore, and lived here for a few years, but regrettably she had to take the ultimate step of leaving home with her young son, to settle at her mother's home at Raipur, due to the ill treatment meted out to her by the in-laws.

More journeys, Nine-eleven, & Circular Journey Rail trip:

During 2001 & 2002, I made my usual annual trips to the US during the summer, and they were extensive as ever! I spent a week in Singapore in 2001 en route, and stayed with Vijay & Shanti (Menon) for a couple of days, followed with Monju (Banerjee), before reaching NYC via Seoul! During a short visit to Sujoy & Simanti at Tampa, Florida, they took me on a very memorable excursion to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral - which was just great, and most enjoyable. I also had a very ambitious three week Greyhound travel chalked out from Stamford to Philadelphia (Ratula & Abhi) to DC (Raj Bhandari) to Knoxville TN (Ruchi, where Vivek & family had come to celebrate Ruchi's birthday) to Indianapolis (Debu & Meher) to Minneapolis (Atashi, & also Shona & Suranjan) to Acron OH (Veena) to Syracuse NY (Salma) to Wrentham MA (Bhanu & Aparna) to Framingham MA (Gutli & Joy), before getting back home! While I had been often using Greyhound in the past, this was indeed a pretty hectic trip and very enjoyable, comfortable and economic. Then there were the usual several short trips to NYC etc with Vivek/Ratna - so it was indeed a whirlwind tour! Shilpa & Aparna had grown up to a more mature age, and we had very enjoyable interactions, and which gave me lots of joy and pleasure.

However, the wonderful holiday was shattered on Sep 11^th 2001 (the ill famed Nine Eleven) just a week before I was due to return, with 19 hijackers killing almost 3000 innocent people in the US using hijacked jetliners by deliberately crashing into the World Trade Center in New York and also the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane was made to crash through the bravery of the passengers into a field in Pennsylvania instead of the intended target. I watched the entire spectacle live over the TV news almost from the beginning after learning about a plane crash early in the morning from a visitor who heard just it over his car radio news. This terrorist activity has changed the world forever, and the Western world has now realized the tragic consequences from this unfortunate event when it impacted them - but what India had been facing for over a decade with no sympathy from the very same Western world. I left on Sep 18^th, on one of the first flights leaving JFK since that morning, only after the total shut down of all international flights for the full week. The security arrangements were very tight indeed, but it was funny when they confiscated my shaving razor, but which on request to the crew was replaced during the flight!

Comparatively, the 2002 trip was more restful. I had planned that on my return leg, I would make a trip from Delhi to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan to visit Jojo & Bhaswer. However, the Bishkek trip was later cancelled, and I managed to extend my US stay at the very last minute whilst waiting to catch a train at the Stamford station, for going to DC for my return flight to India! I made Mumbai & Delhi stop-overs before & after this US trip, and the usual short trips within the US to visit Bhanu & Aparna, and also Gutli & Joy, and be with Raj at Washington DC, when we both were with Bonu & Joy for the "Griha Pravesh" puja for their new home. However, the highlight was a quick trip to Richmond VA with Vivek right at the end of my stay, to collect Raja (a field spaniel puppy), who became the newest member of the family, and the center of attraction for years to come! The drive itself was anxious and exciting, as it was during the height of the shooting spree going on in the same vicinity of Virginia and on the very same highway that we were using by some unknown marksmen! We spent a night with Ranjit & Miho on our way, and got back safely next day with Raja (much to everyone's relief) just in time to take my return flight the following day!

However, a major family tragedy was in store whilst I was still in the US. Chitra had gone to attend a Sradha at Kolkata, and whilst returning, the Rajdhani Express had a serious accident, and though injured she was able to walk to a helpful local resident's home, and talk with Ajit over the phone, but died shortly thereafter, mainly due to lack of any medical help being unavailable. Abhi, Ajit & Amit had rushed to Kolkata (from Bangalore & Delhi), and had to go to Bihar to identify and bring back the body, and then carry out the last rites - a most horrific experience.

Health issues

During my regular routine medical check-up, some problems with the stress test were found, and therefore, I went in for an Angiogram in January 2003, which indicated three arteries to be partially blocked. Anita had specially come down to Bangalore for being present, and Tidu was also luckily in town at the same time - which gave me good support. I had planned for a long circular train journey in February-March from Bangalore to Hyderabad, Bhopal, Delhi (side trip to Jaipur), Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Chennai & back, using the Circular Rail Journey facility and the Senior Citizen's concession offered by the railways. This centered on attending the wedding of Babla & Babli's daughter Doyel at Delhi. I had a very enjoyable visit to Rajeev & Vinodini and others at Secunderabad, and then visited Abhi & Mithu at their new posting at Bhopal, and then a delightful week's stay with Borun, Sumi & Mini at Jaipur, after attending the wedding (traveling back with them). Whilst at Delhi, I took the opportunity of showing my angiogram report to the Escorts Heart center, and was advised that I should get a cardiac bypass surgery done soon. I therefore shortened my Kolkata stay and cut off the Jamshedpur & Raipur visits, in order to return to Bangalore in the first week of March 2003. Thanks to the help from my ex-colleague Nishit Mohanty (of Britannia), the most reknowned Dr. Devi Shetty was consulted, and he agreed to do the surgery personally at his new Narayana Hrudalaya Hospital on March 21^st. Vivek & Anita reached Bangalore the same day, and with the support and good wishes from them and many others, I had the surgery done, and the recovery was speedy and steady. The aftercare and attention managed by Anita & Vivek, followed by Viney (Kapila), and then later by Sumi & Mini, ensured that my household operated smoothly and capably, whilst I also had excellent company! These three months cover was most helpful, and surely contributed to my quick and smooth recovery. However, at this critical juncture, Savitri, my maid of quite a few years suddenly left my services, and Sumi was instrumental in managing this hiatus smoothly till an excellent alternate was found. In the meanwhile, Mini had got a job at Bangalore, and even though she found it convenient to stay at a guest house nearer her work place, she was mostly home during the weekends or whenever convenient. My routine post surgery recovery was very quick (it was the leg artery surgery that gave more trouble in healing!), and I was back to normal soon. I was content with life moving smoothly thereafter.

However, this serene period was suddenly shattered when Borun & Sumi met with a serious road accident on July 1^st, 2003 whilst driving back by car to Jaipur from Delhi after attending a wedding. I was at that time in Baramati, and Mini immediately rushed off from Bangalore to be with them. They both had multiple fractures with severe injuries, and were lucky to be alive. Their MICO colleagues were of great help, and their gradual recovery after the prolonged stay in the hospital took place mostly with their steady help & support. As Baby, Pranab & Khuku/Manosh had already reached Jaipur to be with them, I put off an immediate visit to be with them at Borun's suggestion. I went there later during the last week of July (after attending Amit's marriage with Gauri at Delhi), and give what little limited support that I could give by being with them at the hospital daily. Their recovery is a long saga of their personal courage and the support of many others. Thank God! However, the casualty was Mini losing her job with the NGO at Bangalore, on account of the long break that she was forced to take to care for her parents - a task she did magnificently, with help from many friends, colleagues and others, to nurse them back to normalcy.

Central Asian Journey

After my Jaipur visit, I made up my previous year's aborted Bishkek trip from Delhi, and had a delightful two weeks with Jojo and family, which helped considerably in my post-surgery recovery. It was indeed a new experience with Central Asia being so different to either the Western world, or the East, and this place being close to the very famous silk route of China, in the nomadic country of the past. After the breakup of Kyrgyzstan from USSR in 1991, considerable upheavals with deteriorating economy, had taken place, and many industries were closed. Many professionals had to do menial or low level jobs, while the lucky ones managed to grab positions and property. Bishkek, the capital city, is situated in a plateau at 2600 feet above sea level, and is surrounded by mountains and picturesque snowy peaks at over 15000 feet. Wide boulevards (even if in need of some repairs!) with green pedestrian walkways on its sides are provided so thoughtfully for convenience and possible future expansion to meet traffic needs - which I used for my daily walks. There are many marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards and, especially outside the city center, thousands of smaller, often privately built houses. It is laid out on a grid pattern, with most streets flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels that water the innumerable trees which provide shade in the hot summers and give a generally beautifying effect to the city's otherwise rather drab appearance. The weather was just right during my visit, and I had a very enjoyable and a relaxed holiday, and was taken around the city and nearby areas a lot and also taken very good care of by Jojo & Bhaswer, and their old faithful Karunakaran, besides other retinue. The twins, Radha & Tara, were in a very interesting age, and we got to know each other well. A very enjoyable long weekend was spent by the huge Issyk Kul Lake (being the second largest alpine lake in the world), about four hours drive away from Bishkek, and at 5000 feet above sea level between two major peaks in the Tien Shan Mountains. My lovely Bishkek visit ended with a breakfast gathering with the Indian community at the Indian ambassador's residence on our Independence Day morning, on August 15^thbefore catching my flight back to Delhi!

Granny celebrated her 100^th birthday with our presence for the occasion in 2003 and with her amazing vitality. Despite having become frail, her faculties continue to be strong, and she remains so special to us. It is so encouraging to see her, and be blessed with her abundant affection.

Thanksgiving 2003 & later

Instead of my usual annual summer trip to the US, Vivek & Ratna had suggested that I join them for Thanksgiving (Nov 25^th) in the winter of 2003, and also celebrate Xmas & the New Year with them for a change. I decided to take a break in England on my way out, and stayed two days with Monju (Mitra) in London and then spent four days with Wilie & Peter at Taunton. Since Joan & Brian were nearby, we visited each other daily, and all of us had a very enjoyable time together. Gill & Tony (Drayton) had invited all of us for lunch at their lovely home in Hereford, and Wilie also took me to meet Tony & Maureen (Sparrow) in Devon the next day. They have a very historic vintage property, which they have further developed. It was delightful to meet my ex-colleagues, remember our old ITC days and especially renew old contacts! The new home of Joan & Brian was lovely, and as expected, very well maintained.

Thanksgiving at Vivek's turned out to be a surprise special ceremony for me as well to wish me for my 70^th birthday belatedly (that actually took place a few months earlier) during Thanksgiving party at Stamford! It was indeed a real gala affair with a very large number of friends joining them, like each year (the number for dinner was almost 30, if I am not mistaken!). Miho, Ranjit & their baby Sayo were certainly the center of attraction! They had specially come from Chicago, where they have shifted after DC. Ruchi, Ranjana & Viney & their daughter, Anjali were also with us, and it was a great weekend. Of course, Raja had grown up and I had to rebuild my friendship with him since I was last involved in bringing him over a year ago. It snowed heavily two days later, and even the deck had more that ten inches of snow! After a couple of days, I went to Bhanu's new home in Hopedale - not too far from their earlier home at Wrentham MA (whilst their daughter Asha & Narasimhan became my neighbour in Palmtree Place in Bangalore at my behest, around the same time!), and spent a couple of days with them. Thereafter, I stayed with Gutli & Joy for a day & a half, and then one night with Rimjhim & Jesper in their new home in Brooklyn, NYC, to specially see their baby Rasmus, before returning to Stamford. After Xmas, all of us went off to be with Ruchi for a week, and to bring in the New Year at Knoxville TN, in a slightly warmer and more comfortable climate! Ranjana & Viney had also come, so we all had a merry time together. Despite the severe winter this year, I managed to find reasonably comfortable days to take walks with Raja, or to make many trips to NYC, and specially one with Vivek to see a great show "Remembering Sinatra", after visiting the Naval Museum on the US WW-II aircraft-carrier Intrepid. I got back to Bangalore on Jan 6^th after a lovely memorable winter trip.

Borun & Sumi came on a short holiday to Bangalore in early January 2004, (after their amazing recovery) and Mini stayed back with me trying to get back her lost job after their accident. Unfortunately, despite a long wait and sympathy, this did not materialize, and finally Mini decided to rejoin Pondicherry University to do her Ph. D. She went to visit her Mashi, Khuku & family at Kochi in early May, and I too accompanied her for a week's visit, and despite the weather had a lovely hospitable stay with them. Anyway, it has indeed been good to have Mini as a very undemanding and pleasant company during these months - she is so helpful whenever the maid is off or occasionally when we feel like going out for a meal or a movie!

During March 2004, Vivek had to make a very brief India trip on work - he spent two days in Delhi, followed with two nights at Bangalore, and then about half day at Mumbai before returning to the US! This bonus visit was indeed nice, and we could see each other, even if so briefly. I had earlier been to Mumbai to spend Holi with Sudhir, Radhika & Aditya, and also to meet Anirudh & Sharon, who had just got married.

I had a very interesting house guest. Aditya (Goyal) needed a break after his very taxing period of work on shooting the film "Asambhav", mostly in Switzerland, and decided to spend a week's holiday with me in mid 2004! We both enjoyed this visit - mostly watching movies on his DVD, which he had brought! He claimed that he had a very relaxed and enjoyable break, and I was delighted that he was here! No one could even imagine that soon afterwards a great tragedy was in store. In Jan 2005 he was diagnosed to have Leukemia, and I rushed off to Mumbai to be with the shattered family to provide some support. I spent my three weeks daily being with him at the Tata Memorial Hospital, till he was released after the prolonged treatment. However, despite all efforts, including a bone marrow transplant (from Anirudh), his condition worsened, and he finally succumbed to the dreaded disease in Sep 2005 - what a tragic loss of such a lovely personality. Anirudh & Sharon (and her mother) had also visited me on a short break to Bangalore just before the unexpected tragedy, and we had a fairly enjoyable time with them around.

Further travel and other adventures

I guess travel details will continue to dominate my memoirs, since after my retirement with the free time availability, the warmth & affection of friends and family and reasonable health, I will fully utilize opportunities to visit people to combine festivities, family functions or work whenever possible, and therefore recount of such journeys will take precedence over most other activities. My retired life has remained interesting and busy, with time never hanging heavy or making me uncomfortable with nothing to do! There are plenty of activities still on my lower priority list to be done! I still continue to be very content both mentally and physically.

Like previous year, I again made a very enjoyable circular journey rail trip in the winter of 2004 to Chennai, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, New Delhi & Secunderabad. Kolkata was festive as usual and I had a good time there followed with a visit to Bhaiyya (Prosenjit) at the Steel City, and enjoyed renewing the bonds with Tumpa, Koyel & Sanjit. Of course, it was lovely to see Protimaboudi again, who has settled down with them. The Kolkata winter stay was enjoyable as always and in meeting large number of people during the festive season. I attended Ajit's grandson Arunanshu's formal 'mukhe-bhat' party held at Delhi, for which Abhi & Mithu had come from Bhopal, and Amit & Gauri were back from the US, making it a lovely family get-together. However, I had to quickly change my travel plans to Mumbai (from Delhi) on learning of Aditya's serious illness.

Ratna, Shilpa & Ruchi made an India trip in Feb 2005 mainly to show the Taj to Shilpa just prior to her sixteenth birthday. I went to Hyderabad for a week to be with them in the first stage of their visit. Shilpa wore a saree for the first time for a pre-birthday dinner party, and looked gorgeous! They later visited Delhi, Agra & Jaipur before returning after a very enjoyable and hectic time.

My US & Europe trip of 2005 turned out to be one of the best with excellent weather almost throughout. I used the convenient direct Lufthansa flight out of Bangalore on May 11^th to reach New York with just one stop this time. Soon, I made a week's visit to DC, during which mostly I stayed with Jojo & Bhaswer, after a day at the hotel with Vivek, and finally a night with Dilip & Nutan at Germantown. Raj was not in town and was not contactable, so unfortunately missed meeting him this year, but visited Bonu & Joy, and also met Champa, who was visiting Somit & Lauri, and Savita and Puchkun too came over, besides visiting Radha & Tara's school. In early June, Aparna & I accompanied Vivek to Chicago for a week, where he had a Conference at the famed Palmer House Hilton. We had a luxurious corner suite, and Aparna & I were the veritable tourists, and made excellent use of the seven day pass for using the excellent Chicago bus and train systems - daily doing the rounds of various museums, aquariums, fairs, art exhibitions and shows (including the famed Blue Man show), and including an excellent architectural river tour of the downtown Chicago buildings, organized for Vivek's conference participants! Abir & Debu, with their families had invited us for a terrific "Sunday Champagne Brunch" at our Hotel itself, and later took Apu & me to Abir's home at Munster for the rest of the day. It was lovely seeing them, & also to meet Debu & Meher with their children, who had specially driven over from Indianapolis that morning. We also met Ranjit, Miho & Sayo several times and had a lovely dinner at their home. Sayo has grown to be lovely youngster full of fun, and who got along so well with Aparna. The Chicago trip was certainly a very enjoyable one, with a new perspective this time. My earlier visits were short, mostly whilst traveling from or to Minneapolis by Greyhound for a day visit.

Major part of my this US stay was at Stamford with Vivek & the family, and we made several trips to the 'city' (NYC) and near about places - saw a Broadway play of Somerset Maugham, "The Constant Wife", and a super musical "Ella - Off the Record" at Hartford CT, bringing back haunting memories of my college days & old favourite, Ella Fitzgerald! We celebrated Ratna's birthday by having a super & a fancy dinner in one of the on-campus restaurants - the Ristorante Caterina de' Medici - manned by the students, of the famous "Culinary Institute of America" at Hyde Park NY campus, following a tour of the Institute. Few interesting movies "Madagasker" & "Herbie: Fully Loaded" brought much joy. Whilst I was visiting them, the election of Aparna as the School President was a very proud moment for all of us, and also her participation in a Hindi play at her weekly Hindi School, where I had to make a speech to the gathered parents and students! Shilpa attended a Leadership Camp, involving tough and adventurous trekking with a group in the wilds/hills without any modern facilities, and included a 36 hours managing totally alone in the forest, which she claims to have enjoyed. Another major attraction was Raja - whom Vivek & I had collected as a small pup from Virginia two years ago, and who has now become the absolute center of attraction of the family, with whom I had to successfully re-establish my bonds once again! I finally made a four day visit to Hopedale to visit Bhanu & Aparna towards the end of my US stay, and enjoyed their hospitality. I missed meeting Gutli & family due to an incorrect impression that they were away.

During my return journey to Bangalore, I stopped-over for 11 days break at Frankfurt, and used a Benelux-Germany Eurail Pass to travel around conveniently. After a busy weekend with Beate at Witten Annen Nord, I went to Drierburgen in Netherland (near Utrecht) to be with Hans & Anne and then to Bremen to have lovely two days with Ursula/Karl (Scwarting), before returning to Witten for a lovely dinner at Inge's with Stefan's cooking, before leaving very early next morning for Frankfurt to catch my return flight to Bangalore.

In Holland, Hans & Anne took me out to the old city of Delph this time, and I had a most lovely and enjoyable visit with them. At Bremen, I was delighted to meet all the three Schwarting daughters, Heidi, Ulli & Burgi again, & their families, besides a fabulous champagne buffet lunch in a very well known place on the outskirts of Bremen during my brief two lovely affectionate and memorable days with Ursula & Karl.

It was also great to meet Stefan, Arunima & her daughter Lale, at Beate's mother Inge's home, but missed Natasha. Sitangshuda's old friend and hiking companion, Martin Schmitthenner was keen to meet me, and invited us to a nice dinner in a nearby old time village restaurant. Beate was most helpful and took excellent care, and ensured to make my visit most caring and comfortable. We enjoyed half day picnicking at a nearby lake, where I had been earlier with Sitangshuda. This Europe trip will always be memorable - as was the US visit!

Sad turnaround in Britannia's core values

In the meanwhile, there had been major changes in Britannia. While changes have to take place as needed, it was very distressing to see that within three years after I left, the value system and integrity that I had painstakingly contributed in developing in the organization was being thrown asunder by the very top. The Board of Directors had dishonestly decided to stop (from April 2004) the committed tri-annual pension increases intimated in 1992 as terms of service (as approved by the Board during the Company's Platinum Jubilee) for all pensioners, and also retrospectively change the existing Defined Benefit Pension scheme for the Officers and Managers to a Defined Contribution type of superannuation, which resulted in very substantial reduction in the pension eligible amounts to most individuals suddenly on the verge of their retirements. However, instead of making this change for the future after protecting the accrued benefits for past service (as done by many organizations) and openly, they did it quietly and retrospectively, denying the promised and agreed terms to the pensioners. As a result, those retiring from March 2003 stopped getting any pensions at all (on their refusal to accept the lower amounts based on proposed changes), contrary to all rules and laws, since the rule changes needed prior approval of the Commissioner of Income Tax, which has not been obtained. A Pensioners Welfare Association was eventually formed in mid 2004, and I got drawn in at the year-end to help them get justice and fair play on behalf of the suffering pensioners. I am therefore much involved in guiding the Association in their efforts, and had to do some trips to advise some affected pensioners at Chennai. The issue still remains unresolved, with the Company deliberately flouting the rules (and getting away with it), in view of the very slow speed of justice in our country, and their vast resources to "manage" the official authorities! A very sad state of affairs indeed - and especially hurting behaviour from a respected and trusted organization like Britannia, that I had so proudly served in the past, for their loss of credibility to their commitments, and being so unfair. The struggle continues.

My Personal Philosophy:

I have come to strongly believe that we all need to overcome or shift away from excessive anxiety, worries and concerns - on which we have often little or no control. Instead, our efforts should concentrate towards areas or issues, wherever some action is feasible, in taking positive steps - where some personal actions or decisions can make a change or difference, and provide satisfaction with results emanating from such practical steps or actions. Worrying by itself resolves nothing, and just makes life difficult, and therefore a state of mind which does not get overburdened with such worries needs to be attained with a positive attitude to overcome, or at least lighten, such situations, through the acceptance of reality with a degree of equanimity, even if it ought to be worrisome - partly by 'switching off' the mind from these anxieties. Easier said than done....

My belief is that we need to concentrate on the long lasting 'being content' - rather than aim for the illusory and limited 'happiness' that we cannot cling onto for long - seems to be much better strategy in meeting the negative scenario. This helps in being able to be least affected from most worries. It is of course, easier to make the above claim, but is very hard to actually be 'content' - and needs lot of effort in training the mind to achieve this state of 'nirvana'! I have been able to successfully follow this principle to a fair extent, and often take actions rather than agonize over the years, which has given me a great deal of relief from anxiety on many issues, and I feel that many others can surely benefit from similar attitude and philosophy - which key recipe I am happy to share with all others.

American Impressions:

I am often asked about my personal impressions about America, and about Americans, in view of my frequent visits to the US (about 18 times so far!), and having a fair amount of interaction with Americans during my long stays. I hesitate to respond, as I find this to be a very complex question in the ever changing scenario that influences one considerably, which tends to colour ones views.

My early contact with the Americans was during my USIS assignment in 1952, when I was amazed at their open friendly behaviour with one and all, with little or no consideration for age or position. On joining (I was barely 19), when I was introduced to the Head of USIS, Mr. Charles L. Mullin, a grizzly old diplomat - older than my father, his first sentence was "call me Chuck"! Whilst on his office rounds, he often sat at the edge of our tables for a short chat, and at times picked up and sharpened my blunt pencils on the office automatic pencil sharpener! During the poll data analysis assignment, I was chosen to head the workgroup consisting only of seniors including a lecturer of a college despite being so young, with the comment "he is a good enthusiastic leader, and understands the job best." Dr. Ruth Wright, the Educational Attache of the US Embassy and head of the Fulbright Foundation in India, gave me daily lifts from home to office and back, as I happened to live on her route, and treated me as one of her students (she was earlier the President of a US University). Such friendly informality from senior diplomats and others was so different to the British 'correct' behaviour and our Indian culture of deference that we were so used to! Soon afterwards - on joining a very British Company ITC, I had to revert from my newly learnt easy & informal behaviour style quickly!

America being colonized only in the last three centuries has resulted in them lacking the period architecture and structures that is so significant in the old world of Europe and Asia. There is a tendency of sameness amongst the cities of America, which makes one feel that 'if you have seen one, you have seen them all' feeling, despite some differing features or facilities, and some other differences including cultural, that one observes across the vast country. The obvious wealth provides for much of the high standard of public facilities that is taken for granted there, but is quite amazing to us. Whether it is the public roads or parks, nearby forests, lakes or riverside, children's play grounds, schools, libraries, sports facilities, the museums or the art galleries, they all are mostly so well maintained with pride by the city or private foundations, and are often freely available to one and all. Each city or town attempts to highlight their uniqueness in some way proudly, and at times create some very special themes. The commercial success of enterprises play an important role in everyone's lives in the vicinity, and many develop their business with some unique facilities, and provide imaginative and interesting conducted tours etc. to the tourists and visitors, which also bring glory to the organization as well. A lot of emphasis and attention has been given to attract this very large group by developing tourist spots with very well thought out infrastructure bringing large revenues. The highways and the national road systems are uniquely excellent, and so well marked to be easy and helpful, and are continually improved or modified. The vast country is very well linked through very competitive airline systems, and roads, with excellent bus services. I have regularly used Greyhound extensively, and most comfortably. The rail system is comparatively lesser used and not so extensive, but still of much higher standard.

The average American remains quite unconcerned with the events outside their city, state or at most the country, despite the available communication facilities of such high standard. Many have seldom traveled outside their immediate vicinity, and therefore remain somewhat insular. The poor and under privileged in America is vastly different than that of the third world, and are well off in comparison, with the availability of social security and other benefits. Many are intellectuals with strong views and beliefs, and having special talents or abilities to survive. There is generally a very strong competitive spirit in an opportunity environment that drives people to pursue success with determination and hard work of high quality at all levels of society.

By and large, people are mostly easy and friendly even to strangers passing by, but it is not easy to bridge the distance to closeness, as mostly they tend to mind their own business, which limits interaction at very personal levels. We are used to much closer relationships in comparison, and find this aspect somewhat strange to find such distance even within their own families, in otherwise such an open society. Their expectation from the children to be independent from an early age and mostly manage on their own is so different to our dependence on parents till much older age generally. It seems strange that even well off families urge their children to undertake university education with loans, which they have to repay themselves from their future earnings.

What impresses me a great deal is their drive for education, and the free facilities they provide for this purpose. The emphasis is more towards creativity and practical application of knowledge than just course work from early age that makes for independence of thought, and imaginative action during the learning process. At higher levels, the tilt is even stronger, that makes success more achievable. It is well known that the Indian or Asian children mostly do extremely well in the US academic scene, and their early basic learning system combined with the later practical application emphasis gives them an edge over the US students. Average work life is highly challenging and competitive throughout, but is very rewarding.

Life is hard generally, and demands a lot from the individuals, and despite this, one notices the extra efforts put in to generally look after the exteriors and homes, the lawns or gardens, or even in the balconies of apartment blocks. They do have the inevitable slums and shanties, and the dreary and drab parts, which are a blot to the modern and rich country, and also the roadside vagrants and gangs bringing much disrepute. Crime with violence is commonplace, and the free availability of handguns increases the statistics for sure, in otherwise law abiding population generally. The countryside with vast open spaces and farms are a delight to us city dwellers living in the highly populated poor country.

For visitors from third world countries, cost of living is high mainly because of the exchange rate, but still America is much cheaper than Europe or Japan in comparison. For those earning in the US, life & standards are easy to improve, and to accumulate savings with time which many Americans do not, living it up from day to day! Be what it may, I do enjoy my visits to this great country and the interaction with the people there with admiration most of the time, even if I find their international superiority attitude, and their shifting logic to justify their actions, quite galling.

Back to my story

During a recent social evening at Bangalore with an old friend, Roger Pereira (Anita's ex colleague at JWT in the sixties), I was invited to assist his expanding PR Company, R&PM: Edelman in HR and recruitment. I happily made a week's trip to Mumbai in October 2005 to attend an interesting Q Workshop organized by their international partner Edelman, and to get to know his people and business. I had a delightful three day stay with Mithu & Devsaday (Dutt - ex ITC colleague), and another two with Ranjana & Bablu, besides staying with Indrani & Amit. Sudhir & Radhika were abroad after the sad death of Aditya a fortnight ago, so missed them, and also Munia & Panu, who were in the US with Bonu. Nina (Robey) was visiting her parents, so managed to have a lovely meeting with all the Malvi family this time, and the usual chin-wag about old days!

A recent interesting pastime was developing my Website - from an earlier VSNL Homepage, I made a new Webpage with Webspawner.com, and then later an improved one using Yahoo Geocities, - which I updated & modified from time to time. Besides containing my C.V. it includes links to my published articles, few photos, the Family Tree details and miscellaneous items at present, and also to this narrative! To me, it was an exciting learning experience having started from scratch to learn the basic HTML language, and to search and find the huge free resources from the web! (Later, I obtained a very convenient short Domain Name - http://ashitsarkar.co.nr, and also web storage spaces with SnapDrive.NET & HotlinkFiles.com. Google & Picasa were also invaluable!)

Finally, great news indeed! Our beloved Mini discovered her future life partner amongst her friend's friend in September 2005, and that became a valid reason for her to visit Bangalore off & on, and finally get engaged, whilst I just left the same evening for a pre-planned Secunderabad trip to spend a very enjoyable Diwali week with Rajeev, Vinodini & also Ruchi, who was visiting home! Sumi & Borun are indeed delighted, and were present for the event after having come from Jaipur, soon after a huge deluge a week earlier at Bangalore, with the highest recorded rainfall. We all are excitedly waiting to welcome Abhinav to join the family in due course.

Yearend 2005 & early 2006:

Besides being busy with the Britannia's pensioner problems, I made a seven weeks trip in December 2005! It started with two days at Secunderabad for the Griha Pravesh for Baby, Pranab & Shubra's new flat at AWHO on December 15th. This commenced with Baby sweeping the floor of the new flat, which was captured on my camera, besides the Puja ceremony! I then had a two day pleasant stay with Abhi & Mithu at Indore, and then got back to Secunderabad thereafter, and was back at Secunderabad in time to receive Aparna & Vivek for their five days Xmas week stay, which was indeed enjoyable. The year-end was spent at Jamshedpur with Tumpa, Bhaiyya & Boudi very pleasantly. Most of January 2006 was at Kolkata, except for three very pleasant days at the tea estate near Bagdogra, and being so well looked after by Shefali & Sanjeev, and renewing the bonds with Saanya & Sagari. At Cal, I stayed a while each with Bani, Rita & Deepa, but the bulk of the stay was with Shefalikakima. I attended Maghotsava at the Sammilan Samaj along with Tidu & Enid, and caught up with many others. The return trip to Bangalore was in great style with the upgraded Jetair flight, and being met by the Hyundai sales staff with my brand new Getz car at the airport itself on Jan 30th evening! I had before the trip decided to change my almost new Santro, with just over 13000 km on the odometer, with this car of the year. By and large, despite the extensive travel, this trip was a relaxed and comfortable, which brought this noteworthy possession on my return.

The immediate priority after getting back was the NIPM & Indian Institute of Science's planned "International HR Confluence 2006" that was held at the Indian Institute of Science campus from Feb 15 to 18th. I was on the organizing committee, and a lot of work had to be covered. I chaired two of the Tutorials, and interacted with several international speakers and participants. Our theme was "ENABLING EXECUTION EXCELLENCE - Global Agenda" and the emphasis to this vital somewhat neglected aspect of executing the strategy was very meaningful to the current emerging India scenario. It was a huge success with excellent feedbacks mostly - from more than 400 participants. Considerable attention to dental problems also kept me busy for a while.

I used my leisure very profitably developing a totally revised Home Page, using Geocities free facilities (from the earlier VSNL, and later Webspawner sites). It was great fun relearning and experimenting with the use of HTML tags for improving the website, mostly by trial and error, and adding many new items to the newly revised Home Page, including a link to this personal narrative on the Homepage! Soon afterwards, the Geocities site was blocked temporarily for over a month, so I created an alternative webpage (http://ashitsarkar.topcities.com) using Topcities.com. With available time and highly energized enthusiasm, I was able to learn many other tricks of HTML, and substantially improve the site.

2006: Weddings Galore - the first one!

The wedding of Mini on June 18th 2006 was certainly the central pivot of events during the year, which kept us all busy. Borun & Sumi returned to Bangalore from Jaipur after his retirement in May, and got their flat redecorated and modernized. Mini moved back to her parent's home after her long stay with me off & on during the last two years or so. It was lovely having her at home. The wedding went off so well, with a very large number of family members attending it. Vivek came especially for about ten days, during which period Anita too made her long impending Bangalore visit. Ipshita was here from early June on a two months internship assignment with IBM here, and Indrani & Amit came over to add to the festivities! Sanju, Gopa & Jitu, besides Protimaboudi, Babla & Babli, Buro & Sukanya, and Bhaiyya were also present, and also Anjali & Remo. Both Khuku, Pranab, Munmun & Joy, and Baby, Pranab & Subhra were also present, as were Borun's two Mamis & cousins, and also Sumi's cousin making up the family strength! I had been able to organize eight guest house rooms, and Borun had the use of two empty flats in their building, so accommodation was well managed, and we all had super three rollicking days!

Vivek & I made a days visit to Hyderabad before he returned to the US (only to continue with a trip to Australia & Japan within a few days)! However, soon afterwards, Rajeev's health took a turn for the worse, and he had to be hospitalized during July-August twice. Shefali flew down from Bagdogra to help Vinodini during the emergency, followed with Sanjeev, and then Ruchi & Ratna too, as the condition was serious enough to warrant it. I too went over for four days in mid August before Ratna returned to the US. There was some marginal improvement, but Ruchi had to extend her stay to organize the home care and medical support for the future, which Vinodini alone would not have been able to manage without support.

The next gala Weddings of 2006:

The next wedding (at Goa) - that of Vikram with Shaleila (Dalgado) on Sep 23rd was just grand, and was loads of fun! Gopa & Sanju had made super arrangements for the 'huge' number of "barati's" - from all over the country & abroad. 31 rooms were booked (courtesy: Bunny) at The International Center at Donna Paula - about 5-6 km from Panaji, and about a kilometer from Cidade de Goa, where too some were staying, besides in other private homes! Borun & Sumi had come from Jaipur, and Mini & Abhinav from Bangalore besides me, and of course, the entire Lal & Chanda family members! Robey & Rumu specially made my stay enjoyable and added to my great pleasure! Deepa had come with Ranojoy & Rita & Partho too were present to make our group so exciting, besides other friends and relatives.

On arrival on 20th, the few of the family present were invited to meet the Dalgado family over drinks & dinner at the five-star Marriot Hotel next to their home, followed the next night with a huge late night party at Mambo's at Baga Beach! We were caught in the rain as we were getting there, but soon the external wetness was overcome with internal liquidity levels surpassing it along with the very high decibel level, and lots of snacks & eats. While we got back by respectable 1.30 am, the hardcore continued till almost 3.30 am, we were told next day!

The wedding on 23rd at the fabulously well-lit Mae de Deus Church at Saligaon (alas, with a power failure, we had to stew in our suits inside the church for about half an hour during the service), followed with a grand reception at 'Emerald Lawns' not too far away. Terrific food, band & music - very enjoyable finale indeed!

During the free periods, I managed to do a fair bit of sightseeing etc with one group or the other. Went to Old Goa Churches (saw the St Xavier's body), and an architectural Museum of Goa Homes - very well explained by the architect himself. The sightseeing brought back memories of my earlier visits about ten years ago, when I was with IFB Industries, and often stayed with Manju, Bhasker, Lilly and Milly at their Zuarinagar bungalow.

Oh well, after the very enjoyable parties and the gathering of the clan at Goa, it was to back home to Bangalore, but only for a short period, before embarking on more travel from Dec 15th again. Rina had come from Toronto, and it was fun having her around before I left for Delhi - she was to join us later for Christmas.

The final family wedding of 2006:

The winter of Delhi was warmly enjoyable during Shantanu's (Puchkun) wedding on December 21/22 with a Brahmo ceremony being conducted by his mama Sanju on the 21st evening, and a Vedic ceremony the next morning - both the functions being held at The Grand, which prompted Vivek to book a room at this five star hotel for the night for the stay of both of us, just to avoid the need for the late night long drive back to Palam Vihar, with the requirement of a car & driver, and the possibilities of fog en route, but why should I complain about the luxury of the hotel so thoughtfully organized by Vivek!

However, the ceremonies had got going a few days earlier - starting with an enjoyable family lunch gathering at the Chirag Enclave residence sunny rooftop, within a few days of my arrival. The tempo built up fast, and the added bonus of Vivek having come specially to be present for the ceremony, since Shantanu was his "neet-bar" (page) for his own wedding exactly 24 years earlier! Aparna was expected to come with him, but due to clash with some other plans it was not possible, and therefore Vivek left early, back to the US on 23rd night. However, both Rina & Anita had also reached Delhi for the festive season, so that all three sisters could be together, and the multiple Christmas parties by Shirin & Baba, Dilip & Tutti, Vicky & Malati & finally by Rekha & Viney kept us going strong and very enjoyably busy till the year end.

However, Enid had become very ill at Kolkata, and had to be hospitalized from mid October. Both Shona & Sujoy came down urgently from the US to be with her. Tidu decided to get the needed open heart by-pass surgery in the meanwhile during their visit. Most unfortunately, Enid's condition deteriorated, and we lost her on Nov 22nd after almost a month of being in coma. In retrospection, she had visited most relatives and friends in her recent extensive travels thankfully (see snap) - as if to bid them final Good-Bye in time ostensibly!

The hectic year of 2007:

I was anyway intending to make my usual annual trip to Kolkata, which I did from Delhi in early January 2007, with the intention of being of help to Tidu during his post-operative recovery, and be of some solace to him after his great loss. I stayed for three weeks with Shefalikakima. However, Tidu went away on some urgent work, and needed no looking after! As always, I managed to visit a large number of people, and attended to many invitations for lunches & dinners, resulting in my antacid consumption going up substantially! Finally, just after attending the Maghotsava prayer meet on Jan 25th at the Sammilan Samaj, I was back on the Rajdhani Express to be in Delhi for three days just to be the "surprise guest" for the "Sweet n' Savoury Seventy" party for Viney's seventieth birthday so lovingly organized by Aarati, Ranjit & Damini, assisted by Akash, as a very special treat for him. My totally unexpected presence at the family birthday lunch caught Viney gaping! Anita too arrived from Mumbai, as did other family members to his great surprise, and to our enjoyment!

I remained occupied with the Britannia pensioner's issue, and had to follow up our complaint against the Fund Auditor during formal Hearings by the Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) held at Mumbai, and with preparation for court cases against Britannia & the Fund Trustees. The final hearing took place on May 7th - just before my planned seven weeks US trip to visit the family.

Vivek's move to Academic World: Vivek had been designated an ACM Distinguished Scientist in 2006, and was persuaded to accept the very prestigious E.D. Butcher Chair for Computer Science at Rice University at Houston, Texas from mid July 2007, after his twenty years with IBM. Shilpa too managed to get her admission for under graduate studies at Stanford University from September 2007 - to follow the footsteps of her alumni parents. Therefore, my 2007 US visit became possibly the last one to their lovely Den Road home at Stamford in Connecticut.

I certainly had a very varied and interesting time from mid May so thoughtfully fitted in or organized by Ratna & Vivek, who were themselves so very busy with the forthcoming job change & relocation, and involving frequent trips to select their new home at Houston, besides other tasks. With Shilpa's graduation from the High School, there were piles of parties - mostly for her - but we too benefited! Besides, with the forthcoming departure ahead, V & R were also having many farewells - so I was really busy! A lovely graduation-cum-farewell lunch party was held at home lawn mainly for Shilpa's & Aparna's friends (and their parents), and some others - with Shilpa's very talented classmates providing a live band, and super food from a very favourite local eatery!

One of the major unique highlights organized by Vivek & Ratna was a Hot Air Balloon ride over the South Hudson Valley (CLICK TO SEE the SLIDE-SHOW!) on Fathers Day (June 17th 2007), to also commemorate their twenty-fifth year of married life - which was truly a great experience for all of us! I made trips to Boston (stayed with Bhanu), and to DC, Maryland & Virginia to meet relatives and friends - enjoyed their affectionate hospitality and interaction. An overnight stay at Sonali & Joy's Woodbridge home was very timely to attend Trisha's graduation function, and an evening with the newly wed Kavita & Puchkun at their DC flat, besides meeting Kavita's parents for a delightful dinner, were memorable. The couple of days stay with Jojo & family at their new Potomac MD residence was very relaxing. I also managed to spend two days with Shaila (Shalini & Balaji's daughter) at nearby Richmond Virginia, and later a weekend with Amit & Gauri at their New Jersey home. The weather was mostly great, except for initial few cold and rainy days.

Back to Bangalore (very soon to be officially renamed as: Bengaluru...)

On my return from the US to Bangalore in July 2007 I was aghast to see that the Corporation had demolished the car parking area in front of our building covering the earlier drain asserting it to be unauthorized (quite incorrectly, and high handedly), resulting in the exposed open unhygienic drainage flowing right in front of our building, with its strong odours, & making it quite unsafe - besides creating congestion on the road in front with parked vehicles. They may relent and again grant permission for covering the drain, but at a massive cost to borne again by the residents, who may have to also pay for the demolishing costs! Anyway, the concerned BMP official had got his glory for " having fearlessly demolished unauthorized structures" - by simply ignoring the earlier formal approvals granted, claiming that the then concerned officials had no authority to grant such permission, and that they have since retired! Such is the bureaucratic logic and reasoning! This called for a huge unnecessary expense by us all once again and follow up with the Corporation to get fresh approval for covering the storm water drain again. Having no choice, we did so, and I was asked by the Committee to oversee this project, which I carried out with help from others. Following this, I was persuaded by the Palmtree Place residents to once again take charge as the Association's president from July 2008.

I was delighted to have Bubu & Tapu's daughter, Radhika (Goolly) - on her appointment as Creative Director of McCann Erikson here in Bangalore, come and stay with me for six weeks during July/August 2007 before she found and moved to a nearby convenient flat.

Tidu had planned a lovely trip for Simanti & the boys, Nikhil & Niloy to Madhumalai Forest & Wellington/Ooty & Coonoor from Aug 29th, during their India visit. I was delighted to be invited to join them, and besides rebuilding bonds with them, we had a super time together. The first night was spent at "the Tree House" at Forest Hills - a resort at the edge of the forest. We were fortunate to have a huge wild tusker in our yard in the morning that we could observe comfortably from the top of the Tree House, besides seeing a wild boar and some deer etc. The stay at Wellington Club thereafter was most comfortable, and we all attended the opening ceremony of Nina & Shanker (Rao)'s new home on Sep 1st followed with a fab party - with the entire Rao family, & a host of friends being present. Next day, we collected Deepa's daughter Nikita from her boarding school for the day, and she was happy to get to know her new cousins! We drove back to Bangalore on Sep 3rd, and the next moring I left for Secunderabad for a four day visit to Rajeev & Vinodini. Ruchi was visiting, and so were Ranjana & Vinay (Adukia's), so it was a nice get-together.

However, the year 2007's glorious close came later with the news of Amit & Mithu's daughter Arundhati's birth on December 5th - a triple birthdate with her mother and Mausi, followed with my joining Rajeev & Vinodini at Secunderabad for their Golden Anniversary on December 14th! This was superbly & faultlessly organized by Ruchi with considerable planning and decorative items (specially brought by her from the US), and created so much joy for all of us present. Vivek - despite a six hours delayed flight, joined all us well wishers in good time for a late lunch to celebrate with all of us! Sanjeev had managed to make it as well, but we had to miss Ratna, who had been with her parents for Diwali just a few weeks earlier, and could not come again, having to stay at home with Raja and Aparna - who still had school.

Vivek could thereafter just spend three days with me at Bangalore, before rushing back to Houston in good time to be home - in order for Ratna & him celebrate their own Silver Anniversary on Dec 22nd - for which they both went to New York for a week, along with Shilpa & Aparna - who used the opportunity to visit friends in nearby Stamford in Connecticut. As Ratna & Vivek returned after seeing a Broadway show, they were delightfully surprised to find their 'borrowed NYC flat' so tastefully decorated by Shilpa & Aparna (with the help from Junie & Ash, who had all come down from Stamford CT) during their absence, and made ready for a grand party! It was actually Ruchi, who had masterminded this conspiracy with them from the distance....
These two Golden & Silver Anniversaries - just eight days apart - were surely so specially significant at the year-end of 2007 for the Gupta & Sarkar families!

As per the established routine (almost!), I went off on my winter stay at Kolkata for three weeks during January 2008 - breaking journey at Secunderabad at year-end, then to Raipur - to visit Anjali & Mishtu, and finally about a week at Jamshedpur with Bhaiyya and family, en-route. Kolkata became my "cultural extravaganza" and "gourmet's delight" with so many new experiences during this year! Very enjoyable....

Wilie & Peter had decided on a South India visit this year, and I took over the role of their informal local travel agent helping them plan their trip here, from March 7th. It was great having them over for a fortnight, before they returned home to the UK. We re-lived through so many happy past memories, and the gentle ribbing with Peter made us all have a great time! I accompanied them to visit Karnataka's pride ruins at Hampi, and despite the strenuous long walks in the sun on both the days, thoroughly enjoyed the excursion, which I had been hoping to do one day, and had not been able to so far.

Brian had unfortunately been very unwell since last one year, and had improved a bit as Wilie & Peter came over, but his condion became worse, and soon after their return home, he died mercifully without further suffering. I was sad losing such a good friend of half a century, but we all realized the inevitable.

I had some health problem soon after Wilie & Peter's departure, which needed a fair amount of visits to doctors, specialists, lab tests and medicines to nudge the health back to normal. With age, the recovery process does take longer now, and one is not able to bounce back to vigour as one did earlier - but a two-week visit from Vivek (and Anita too, for a week) at that time (with an ulterior motive, as you may note!) did wonders, and was certainly far more satisfying than the effects of all the medicines towards getting well! Vivek organized a very friendly group of relatives, ex-colleagues and friends to celebrate my 75th birthday at the Bangalore Club! with a grand lunch on Sunday, May 18th! (A slide show of the party may be seen by those interested by clicking the above link). It was indeed a very delightful and comfortable gathering, and was enjoyed by all the 27 participants, including me! I was very pleasantly inundated with messages, cards, gifts and good wishes throughout the day making it ever so memorable.

However, my 'annual year-end greetings circular' perhaps summarises the year fairly well - and is reproduced below:

Bangalore � December 2008
Hi Folks,
Inevitably, this very eventful year is coming to an end, and we will soon be celebrating the festive season, and will be welcoming 2009 � with optimistic hopes for peaceful and joyous future for all - without the pain and suffering that we had to sadly witness recently, the uncertainty and downturn of the economy the world over.
I had an enjoyable and varied year, with mostly good health and fair amount of travel. The year began with my annual Kolkata trip � as usual, with a host of cultural bonanza and many parties. The significant event of the year was Vivek's Bangalore visit, which he had timed to organize a memorable and lovely 75th birthday party for me at the Bangalore Club! The gathering of so many affectionate friends and relatives (27) was most endearing.
Earlier, Wilie & Peter had come for a three week's visit from England, and I was their tour operator cum travel agent! All of us had a lovely enjoyable time together, and visited Hampi, a destination that I had been waiting to see for ages. Sadly Brian was ailing, and soon after their return, my dear friend of fifty years passed away.
My annual US visit was made later than usual, as Vivek had moved to warmer Texas last year, and both Ratna & he had joined the Rice University faculty. My journey started with Goa to attend a lovely wedding, and then five delightful and hospitable days each with Anne & Hans at Holland, and then with Beate and her husband Rainer in Germany. Then to the US, and after five days stay at Houston TX, I was off on my three weeks travels to Massachusets, New Jersey, DC/MD & Indiana to bask in the warm hospitality (despite the low temperatures) of Bhanu & Aparna, Amit & Gauri, Jojo & Bhaswer & finally with Debu & Meher. I managed to meet so many old friends and relatives, including Dilip & Nutan, Sonali/Joy and family whilst in the DC region. The final month was then spent in Houston with Ratna, Vivek, Aparna & Raja, with a four day quick trip to be with Gutli & Joy at Dallas. The highlight was the Thanksgiving gathering just before my return, when Shilpa was home from Stanford. Ruchi, Ranjit/Miho, Sayo & Aiki too were with us, and finally with 21 for dinner and 30 for dessert, the party was a great success. We were delighted that Abir & family could also join us. (Sorry - to some the names may not be meaningful or recognizable! They are good friends or relations - as you are sure to guess...)
During my 'relaxed' Houston stay I still managed to see four plays, one magic show, two movies, a trip to NASA space center and multiple visits to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences (specially the 'fab' exhibition - Body Worlds 2, and another on Butterflies) - besides very many eating outs from Sandwiches & Dim-Sum to French or Japanese cuisines! We attended the Houston Fall Concert, in which Aparna was a Guitarist in their Philharmonia group - which went off extremely well, and made us proud of her achievement. Another interesting item was attending a very absorbing and witty lecture at the Rice University by the famous Dr Andrew Wiles, who was successful in finally proving the "Fermat's Last Theorem" a few years ago - that had eluded mathematicians for the last three centuries!" The US Presidential campaign kept us fully absorbed, and we were delighted to see the historic win by Barack Obama.
Finally, soon after my return, I upgraded my PC to a terrific 24" Apple iMac � a New Year gift to myself � and look forward to getting used to the different operating system quickly to make the most of this new high-tech desktop!
Looking back, I can sincerely claim being active and content with my relaxed life during the year. I remain involved with the Britannia pensioner's case to get justice; to get their entitled pensions released, which very sadly the Company has withheld for almost six years � and am now optimistic about the court case that I am involved with on behalf of the Pensioners Welfare Association, which I filed in Bangalore.
I am so grateful for the affection, care and concern from a large number of friends and relatives that makes my life so worthwhile. Finally, my greetings, good wishes and God bless to you and your families�.
Sincerely,
Ashit

The 2008 year-end (on return to Bangalore) was a very busy period, mainly with the Court Hearings on the Britannia Pensioners case, as mentioned above. The New Year brought out a very welcome order on January 1st from the Court; for Britannia to immediately start paying part Interim Pensions to those retiring pensioners who had been denied their dues for the last six years - awaiting the final judgment on the Claim Statements filed with the Court by PWA - a very satisfying start after years of waiting!

However, the greater and most satisfying news a week later was that the Association of Computing Machinery had recognized Vivek as a 2008 ACM Fellow with their highest award. The Citation stated: "For contributions to technologies for parallel computing".
(ACM website: "The ACM Fellows Program was established by Council in 1993 to recognize and honor outstanding ACM members for their achievements in computer science and information technology, and for their significant contributions to the mission of the ACM. The ACM Fellows serve as distinguished colleagues to whom the ACM and its members look for guidance and leadership as the world of information technology evolves").

Early January 2009 saw me on my usual trip to Kolkata for about three weeks and a weekend in between with Bhaiyya and family at Jamshedpur, followed with an enjoyable week in February with Robey & Rumu at Delhi. The entire month at all these locations was full of non-stop 'wining and dining', attending theater, dance-drama, movies, birthday bashes and other functions including Maghotsava at the Sammilan Samaj, and meeting a very large number of friends and relatives! Even the return journey from Delhi became exciting as I had to suddenly change travel plans at the last minute because of the AP Express (on which I was booked) being delayed by over 11 hours, and therefore had to miss my Secunderabad stop-over enroute! However, I was able to make it up later with a visit in March, when Ruchi had come. I was thus able to discuss my routine annual medical results with her, and also get some additional tests done at her suggestion for treatment to my recurring aneamia problem.

Mid-year started with two weddings - Khuku's daughter Munmun (Sonali) had her wedding on July 1st at Hyderabad - which I attended, followed with Bubu & Tapu's daughter Goolly's (Radhika) marriage at the Tolly in Kolkata on July 12th. Both being thoroughly enjoyable, and giving me the opportunity to meet large number of friends and relatives, besides the series of inevitable feasts! I avoided all the rich food, and was happy with just a few simpler dishes, and concentrated on the 'gup-shup'. However, the mood changed suddenly, when Monica called on July 15th evening to inform us that our beloved Granny had just died. It was not unexpected, with her being well over 105. I took the first flight out from Kolkata and reached Bangalore the next morning in time to carry out her last rites, as she had wished me to do. The following morning, I, along with Renuka, carried out the immersion of the ashes at the confluence of Cauvery, Hemavati & Lokpavni rivers at Srirangapatnam (near Mysore). While on our 280 km round trip, I got a call from Vivek (from the US) to be informed that Rajeev's condition was critical - even though earlier in the morning the news was that his condition was improving (few hours later he called again to inform me that he had passed away). He informed that Ratna & Ruchi were on their way to Hyderabad already. I had been at Secunderabad with them only twelve days earlier, and while he had been very unwell for almost four years, this drastic change was a shock to me. I flew out to join the family at Secunderabad for the funeral on Sunday 19th morning - Ratna, Ruchi, Sanjeev and Shefali having also arrived. Vivek too reached late on 20th night and the havan was held on the 21st. The double-whammy of two deaths of people I cared for was very sad, and my body possibly reacted with sudden ill-health symptoms at Secunderabad, and later on return to Bangalore, that required emergency care and attention. With Ruchi around, the corrective action was prompt, especially with the care from Ratna & her at Secunderabad, followed with Borun, Sumi & Mini at Bangalore after my return to Bangalore. This put a shadow on my impending travel plans to the US due after a fortnight, but after my fitness was confirmed by the doctors, the US visit from mid August became a reality!

As expected, the trip was an excellent change - quite relaxed and very enjoyable despite having to give up most of my travel plans within the US, and just limiting it to a week in Washington DC region at Jojo's home in Potomac MD, all of the rest of the five weeks being in Houston TX. Shilpa was able to come for a week from California, so the entire family was together for a while. I was looked after very well, and my walks with Raja most evenings brought back the necessary limited exercise that I had been avoiding in the past! I occupied my spare time usefully for guiding the Britannia pensioner's case through e-mails despite the distance, and in developing the alternative Homepage at Webs.com since the Yahoo Geocities were closing down the Homepage provision in October 2009.

A SLIDESHOW OF THE ABOVE LINKED IMAGES FOR A QUICK REVIEW:
You may control Slide movement from the bar at the bottom of the slide

to see The SARKAR Family Tree (my paternal side)

or, for my MATERNAL SIDE - The ROY FAMILY TREE

1938 1956 1957 1990 1991 1999 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009