Munimji Prem Chand ki Corporate Tazurba

A short story by Ekalavya

Author’s Preamble:

A relative of mine suggested a couple of days ago that I should attempt a change from the recurring themes of an “unsatisfied soul” kind of short stories to a more pleasing “completely happy soul” narratives. Though in jest I reacted saying that with experiences gained over six decades of unsuccessful attempts to derive either a modicum of true satisfaction or an empathetic resonance of recognition, this was obviously a very tall order.

On a more leisurely reflection, I wondered, that though late whether there can possibly be some merit in trying a course correction to the immensely well oiled, pickled, annealed, forged straightened and softened “mindset” which had been battle-- scarred with regular dosages of distilled decoctions of spiritual orthodoxy that words like recognition/satisfaction etc, are only manifestations of insurmountable barriers to life’s purpose of self-realization.

As if on cue, the thoughts immediately led me to find an apt pseudonym for attempting this; that which would be in sync /meriting recognition/ and even give some satisfaction!! There is this mythological character of an expert archer by name “Ekalavya” – a man who to my mind never got due recognition and probably not truly satisfied ever, though not only was he talented but extremely committed as well. He had also no teacher. The character albeit sans talent and commitment however illogically appeared to aptly fit my notions of a pseudonym for my short stories.

The well lubricated mindset however played spoilsport; it argued that contrary to the undercurrent of a facile assumption that “ekalavya” was in any way troubled by absence of recognition, like I was, it was indeed more likely that he was like a sage with that ultimate wisdom of one who felt that every bit of what one witnesses is a manifestation of His Grace, and hence was never in any kind of unease or demur when Drona asked for his thumb as Dakshina which was again God’s grace as far as he was concerned.

My blog writing though not in the same class of commitment, has no expectation of recognition either; so I decided that Ekalavya would be the pseudonym I would use hereafter for my pieces in the blog, which would commence with today’s story along with a poem and a prayer which goes like this:

“Am I really good or bad, whether happy or sad,

 Being recognized or ignored, content or dissatisfied

All these cease to have meaning as I reflect on this beginning

of the realization that everything is a manifestation of His Grace.”  

“O Lord, grant me the wherewithal to live up to that pseudonym Ekalavya who epitomizes such profound wisdom”. 

Here is my first offering – a long short story sans the “dukhi aatma” rumblings.

Munimji Prem Chand Ki Corporate Tazurba.

Book 1 : The  beginnings -Mid- 20^th century. 

Gandhi Nagar is a fairly large township having a population of around a million and about an hour’s drive from the capital New Delhi. The town was built brick-by-brick by  the forbears of business tycoon Todarmal Gandhi( TG to his friends) starting from his grandfather -a small entrepreneur- who catered to the British Defense establishment in those days when India was yet to be free. The Second World War had made his family rich and helped their acquiring huge pieces of land and naming it all under the family surname.  

TG was the first in the family lineage to show keenness in going to school. He even averaged well in his studies. His brother Kirorimal (KG) - elder to TG- was however inducted into family business early as he was not only not keen in studies but was quite a tough bully who came in handy controlling labor, which his father thought was well suited to run the family business, efficiently.

Fate however intervened; TG had to cut short his ambitions in further education. His father had suddenly fallen ill, and it was felt that while his further studies can be done thru private tuitions, the family business needed someone immediately who could be trusted with accounts etc and TG filled the bill more than adequately. Soon enough TG was so captivated, that going back to school was not an option, which crossed his mind. Business was good and progressing further slowly and by the time India gained Independence TG was a ripe young man who could see immense opportunities and forgot all about further education thru established institutions. He began consolidating in real estate, invested more and more on production bases such as Sugar mills, Agri implements etc.

Book 2: Consolidation : License/Permits Era 1950- 1990.

TG was getting a bit impatient with his brother KG who was turning out to be more and more soft and kind hearted, almost in direct proportion to the former becoming greedier, and wanting to cover him-self with all the glory. In deference to TGs acumen, and the fact that KG loved his younger brother, TG became the Chairman of the group. Almost as if to compensate for his lack of education, KG’s two sons Prahlad and Nikhil turned out to be excellent in studies, while surprisingly TG’s three sons Anil, Sunil and Lalit were just about mediocre who only threw their might around.    

TG’s motto during the license quota raj that soon followed was simple; “Wherever you  see a queue, stand in line; as there is money to be made there”. He quickly realized that to harness even part of that potential that was there for the taking, he needed a trustworthy man-Friday who would be steadfast in carrying out every demand without asking too many questions. He found one such “munim” in Prem Chand (PC) who hailed from the same village as his, and was the son of one of his father’s employees who was close to the family.

PC adored Todarmal, and though he was not well educated he had that rare combination of rusticity and an uncanny grasp of what any situations demanded and could go about doing his job without much fuss. In other words he was the quintessential leg-man of TG’s potential queues of opportunities.

PC was therefore very crucial in TG’s scheme of things. He stayed in a small house provided by the company, and his family of his young wife and a son lived in the village. His routine started at around 8 in the morning when a neighborhood lady provided him with breakfast and tea. After this, PC’s first call would be his boss TG, who at this particular time had his oil massage prior to his bath: a perfect time and venue to discuss discreet matters in a very informal atmosphere. PC would recount to the boss in local dialect the events of the previous day and go thru the day’s schedule.

After the oil bath meeting with TG, he would visit others such as KG, and later down the years, the sons, and get to know all that is to be done for the day before departing to Delhi. No notes/ memos/ scheduled meetings et al. Just plain old fashioned one-to-one with the ultimate boss and his family.

PC’s brief was clear, he would visit the corridors of power in Delhi almost daily as a routine, meet every power that be, assess their needs and meet them adequately besides keeping his ears and eyes open for any new opportunities that may be there for the taking. He would be in the corridors of power by 10 in the morning and would leave back by around seven. And whenever a new project/license was required, this routine became even more strenuous; he would be in Delhi by an hour earlier and would leave Delhi much later in the evening depending on the need. And prior to the submission of such applications PC would obtain copies of a similar application submitted by others, along with file- noting etc to help prepare a pucca case.

By late seventies the sons had grown and so had the business; they had diversified into fields like Steel, Vanaspati/oil, Detergents, in addition to Sugar, Agri investments and Real estates. With 5 of the next gen growing up and getting impatient, it was natural that a plan of succession was to be put in place. TG had become greedy; finding his own sons less educated but more savvy in PR than their cousins which gave him a convenient excuse that they would be an asset to expand business, and being fully aware of the fact that his elder brother loved him, he decided that his own two sons would get a better share of the family business in the distribution stakes.  

While KG was not too happy, he went along with the decision as he loved the family and wanted it to stay together. His sons who were well educated and technically qualified were quite miffed up. Slowly things began to go awry; KG’s offspring found it difficult to continue and were only holding up in deference to their father’s wish.

Both TG and KG had a daughter each ( Aruna and Nivedita); both were married and were settled with nice business families in Australia and the US respectively. They were however very close to each other and were in constant touch and were not fully aware of the tensions back home amongst the male cousins…….

Book 3 : The decade of liberalization: 1990-2000.

The liberalized economy commencing from early nineties, was a bit of a disaster for the Gandhis. Having been used to manipulating everything during the license raj to suit their vested interests, they were quite unprepared for the liberal regime that followed after 1991. Competition soared, many entrepreneurial talents sprung up, many of the ventures which manipulated environs and supported mere opportunistic start-ups without proper wherewithal in terms of either technology, or respect for quality or diligent nurturing of Industry were slowly beginning to wither. Gandhi enterprises were no exception to this universal rule.

Even before the decade started,  KG ‘s sons took a call, emigrated to the US, and by end of the decade had established themselves well, were a happy and contented lot, especially so to be with their sister Nivedita who was married and settled there much earlier. Her husband was a software expert and having sold his product to a MNC giant for a huge sum, was also indeed very well off.

Nivedita had a daughter by name Shubha who was studying in the US in a management school of repute where she met Gulab Chand (GC) a fellow student who had an excellent track record. Love blossomed, and with the blessing of all, they got married.  Being exposed to software, GC joined his father- in-law and life in general for the offspring of KG was at last blissful, though there was this undercurrent of bitterness brought about by his cousins and their father who had an absolute blind faith in his wayward sons. Both Prahlad and Nikhil had two sons each.

Our Gulab Chand was none other than the only son of Prem Chand (PC) the “munimji” of Gandhinagar. Though PC was attached to TG, he was also close to the brother and his sons as well. Prahlad and Nikhil had great respect for PC who they knew as the man who ceaselessly worked for the company. Both TG and KG had passed away, and PC himself was an old man now.

In the interest of the group, PC  wrote to his son that Prahlad and Nikhil should come back or at least make efforts to revive the once well-known group, which was going thru very difficult times and unless something was done soon there would be nothing left of the fairly large empire built by the Gandhis. 

Prahlad and Nikhil were not too keen to start with, but were persuaded by their sister and br-in-law. The pair however insisted on one condition namely that that GC should help them in their collective exercise in putting something in place for a revival, before shifting to India. In their minds, sub-consciously, there was this anticipation of a sweet chance of getting even with their cousins.

An elaborate exercise was thus begun. With PC’s help and with right contacts with the Govt., and together with proxies, they slowly bought into company’s stakes, hived off bad companies, sold off real estate before moving in. The cousins sensing trouble had moved base to Singapore, Dubai, London and other places. Prahlad/Nikhil team also invested in sectors like auto-components, Telecom services, BPOs etc and slowly the two sons-in-law, from US and Australia had also moved in.

Book 4 :Decade 2001-2011 -  Re-organisation /Expansion/Growth   

Business was in the upswing again. They had drawn up huge plans for Specialty hospitals, Engineering colleges, and needed professionals to head various new plans. Premchand was in his final days. He was immensely overwhelmed to see the Gandhi clan coming and wishing him well. He had one final wish to all those whom he had known since their childhood. This was: to make peace with Late TG‘s sons and re-unite the family. Being very fine persons, Nikhil and Prahlad could not refuse this old man’s final wish, their earlier unpleasant feelings towards the cousins, notwithstanding.  They promised to do their best before the old man breathed his last.

GC was the chosen man to give shape to the family re-union part. Ruminating on this whilst he was driving home one day, on a stop signal, he saw a little beggar-girl getting a piece of cake from a good man, only to be pounced upon by a smaller boy trying to snatch this away from her. The girl lost more than half of her piece when on an impulse GC got down from the car – asking his driver to park it nearby. He took the girl to a nearby shop and bought her a piece of cake.

The girl asked for one more piece of the cake for the boy who had just fought with her a few minutes ago. GC was surprised and asked her as to why she wanted to give it to this boy who obviously did not deserve it. The girl’s reply was moving; she said it was her own younger brother and both of them had been hungry for the last two days. Though she wanted to share her earlier cake, his sudden onslaught made her resist for a few moments before she pretended to lose and let him have a major share.

If she gave a half of her present cake, his ego would hurt him and not allow him to take what she had offered. If however the “seth” offered him 2 pieces he would know who had given it and would gladly take it from her. He bought another piece as requested, feeling uneasy having to witness such abject poverty. But more poignant was the little girl’s unassuming candor and wisdom both of which made for a greatly humbling experience.

While getting back home in his car, he could not help marveling at the similarity between what he just witnessed and the job of reconciliation between Gandhi cousins. If the little boy who was starving could still have his ego coming in the way of accepting charity from his own sister, who loved him, he could imagine the vanity of the three sons of TG coming in the way of any amicable settlement, and eventual working together. He would have to probably therefore find a third party whose standing is comparatively higher for truce to have a chance to succeed.

He involuntarily wondered aloud as to whether even for receiving God’s grace one can set his/her own terms. This was something which startled him for a moment but by the time he reached home he was already mulling over in his mind about the person who could be the perfect choice for the reconciliation -his father wanted- to happen….. He went to bed in a happy mood, and his wife Shubha wisely did not disturb him much and let him savor this mood…..

Circa 2012 - Epilogue :

Prahlad was now 70. A grand birthday celebration was held on makhar Sankraanthi day –Jan 14^th preceded by a week of festivities which included a “bhagawat Katha” by poojya Krishna Kant Ojha and on the final day the family Guru Sri Shraddanand Saraswati ji came to bless the family in person. The entire clan including TG’s sons was there who were easily persuaded to be present when informed of Guruji’s likely darshan at the family home.

Swamiji was very clear; the cousins had to end their differences. He would wish the family well and bless them all but he would be happy only if they decided to unite. A compromise formula was hammered out and it was announced that by Baisakhi the plan would come into effect.

GC’s son had studied law, and was inducted into the family business. The next generation of grandchildren of both TG and KG who were about 10 in number, were given important businesses to handle with Nikhil being inducted as Chairman, and his cousins as VC and MDs till such time that the youngsters were ready to be on their own.  

GC and his wife Nivedita decided to join Gurujis ashram and follow a different way of life. He was careful enough not to be tempted into using the phrase a “spiritual life” as he felt in as much as all paths lead to Him at the end, he was merely choosing a different path…..             

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Folks : Hope you like this: Love Ekalavya alias Vichu