Prospective Indian Car Manufacturers

Posted on March 4, 2010 by indra

India has just one passenger car manufacturer now with dying Hindustan Motors that manufactured Ambassadors for many decades and at one time monopolized Indian market and almost extinct Premier Automobiles that produced Padmini that were the only public taxis in Mumbai.

It is unfortunate that the third generation of the family owned Hindustan Motors that pioneered car manufacturing and helped building the infrastructure of auto components manufacturing messed it up. It still manufactures some Ambassadors in its parent plant near Kolkata. The management of Hindustan Motors never wanted its name associated with its manufacturing Mitsubishi cars at its Chennai plant. Hardly few in the country know that Mitsubishi Lancers are Hindustan Motors built cars. Many who were associated with the projects and the plants may feel bad about it but can hardly do anything. This is the way a family company runs and meets the end.

Tata Motors came from behind in car manufacturing but today it is at the third place behind Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai. It has a place of pride in the Indian manufacturing sector and is almost set to be a really global auto manufacturer with its range of products from Nano, Indica, Indigo and Sumo besides being the largest commercial vehicle manufacture of the country. Nano has all the potentials to be the world’s only ‘people car’ in real sense. Its forthcoming launches with higher end technologies, as well as the diesel and electric/hybrid version in the markets world over will be worth watching with increasing consciousness about the effect of passenger cars on climate.

In country as big as India, there would have been some more domestic players in car manufacturing, but somehow very few dare to enter this business because of its competition. India has few potential manufacturers who can enter the sector.

Mahindra is trying for many years to be a significant player. It started with Ford, and today manufactures just one model of Renault, Logan. It has all potential, but its intention to focus on car manufacturing is not very clear. It will have to decide about its collaborator and its own role in that collaboration.

Bajaj Auto has already gone ahead with its promised launch of an ultra low cost car that may compete with Tata’s Nano with some real differentiating technology. I don’t know if the Gen Next CEO will really get into it seriously and soon, though he still keeps a date in 2011. The project has the blessings of legendary Auto Czar Carlos Goshn who is very much sold about India’s superior frugal engineering.

But there are two more players whose names keep on coming for starting a project for car manufacturing: Hinduja’s Ashok Leyland and Munjal’s Hero Honda. Nissan recently showed interest in building its cars with Ashok Leyland. I don’t find the two players showing a real zeal to enter car manufacturing. But both have money power and potential to get into it, but as car manufacturing requires much more than money power, perhaps it is too early to make any guess.

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Innovating India: Hope in Air

Posted on March 3, 2010 by indra

Indians have started innovating. It’s not only Nano, the ultra cheap car; Ace, the mini-truck; or Swach, the cheapest water filter from Tatas. Indica is also not the same with which Tata Motors entered the car market years ago. One can see the innovation in the evolution of Tata’s Sumo over years. Mahindra’s Scorpio and then really smart and tough looking Xylo are visible Indian Innovations.

Go to nearby market and look at the consumer products in any shop, you can notice the exponentially increasing varieties, good enough to confuse the decision. India has joined the rat race of consumerism and innovators in all sectors are working hard.

I, for one, still will like to see India excelling in manufacturing. Some of the Ashoka Lemelson Fellows from India recently showcased their innovations that got good public attention.

1. Pradip Sharmah’s latest innovation about creating solar battery operated ricksaws. It got included even in Pranab babu’s union budget speech on February 26.

2. Dr Amitabha Sadangi, CEO of International Development Enterprises (India) or IDEI, has reached over 8.5 lakh marginal farmers with a low-cost manually operated pedal pump (costing around Rs 1,200-1,500) which allows farmers to manually pump out groundwater. ···About an hour’s pedaling on the pump is sufficient to take out water sufficient for the daily need of a one-acre vegetable farm. I wish it can get solar.

National Innovation Foundation (NIF) with Prof Anil Gupta as vice-chairman is going great job to scout for, document and sustain “grassroots green innovations”. One can see some media reports about its innovations from nook and corner of different states.

1. Chintakindi Mallesham from Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh has created a machine that has mechanized the most tedious part of Pochampally or ikkat weaving – the tying of threads and dyeing them in selected colours, a process called asu. Weavers can now produce three times the number of saris and better design and finish.

2. Mushtaq Ahmed Dar from Anantnag. Kashmir has devised a walnut-cracking machine that can process 80 kg of the hard nut in an hour with minimum damage to the kernel against 10 kg per hour possible if manually done. The machine is being refined with help from Kashmir University. Dar has also created a pole-climbing contraption that he hopes to sell to electricity boards around the country.

3. Dharambir in Yamunanagar district, Haryana made a low-cost processing machine-cum-extractor that can crush and extract juice or oil from herbs and fruits like amla and mango.

There are others innovating some pioneering products. Ramesh Sojitra, 44, has come up with a mapping software described as “revolutionary” by none other than former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman R. Madhavan Nair. The software is not only a big help to the Indian armed forces but is also making the task of governance, by mapping India, easier and cheaper.

Many MNCs’ India divisions are innovating new products that will go into global market. GE India is also one experimenting with ‘reverse innovation’. GM Technical Centre in India employs 700 people who working on various fronts including petrol and diesel engines, manual and automatic transmission, besides hybrid and electric cars.

The Durgapur-based Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), a unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has developed and is all set to test its ”Autonomous Underwater Vehicle-150” off the Chennai coast next month.

A team of scientists at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research in New Delhi has developed a technique to create transgenic tomatoes that do not become squishy even one and a half months after being plucked. As reported, researchers at IIT, Mumbai, have developed

a handy kit that uses a drop of blood to detect heart ailments and predict a possible attack. Called ”iSense”, it is an outcome of research in nanotechnology by Institutes Center for Excellence in Nano Electronics.

An IIT-Delhi incubated startup called EnNatura developed a printing ink which emits no volatile compounds and is washable. And the overall cost of their solution will be significantly less than all present compounds when produced at scale.

The stories of many innovations originating in India inspire others and are answers to the skeptics about the local talents. However, India can compete globally in manufactured products only with innovations with message reaching to all who matter.

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Budget 2010:Kautilya Remembered, But Not Kosi

Posted on March 2, 2010 by indra

Kautilya still remains favourite with the Finance ministers. Pranab also did that:

“Thus, a wise collector general shall conduct the work of revenue collection… In a manner that production and consumption should not be injuriously affected… Financial prosperity depends on public prosperity, abundance of harvest and prosperity of commerce, among other things.”

Unfortunate, none of the finance minister or for that matter the prime ministers have seriously thought about overcoming the misery of the people of Bihar.

Everyone in India has heard of Kosi causing devastation with its flood every year without any forewarning for centuries. The problem and its solutions were known in pre-independence era. It’s known even after independence. Very recently in a conclave of scientists, the former president again detailed it. However, the problem keeps on skipping the attention of the bureaucrats and administrators of the country. It can only be a shame as well as a conspiracy to keep the region in stark poverty and misery for perpetuity.

Pranab Babu remembered his home district and home district:

I am happy to inform the Honourable Members that schemes on bank protection works along river Bhagirathi and river Ganga-Padma in parts of Murshidabad and Nadia district of West Bengal have been included in the Centrally Sponsored Flood Management Programme. I also propose to provide budgetary support for drainage scheme of Kaliaghai-Kapaleswari Baghai basin in the district of Purba and Paschim Midnapore, and Master Plan of Kandi sub-division in Murshidabad, West Bengal.

However, Pranab again forgot the need to do something about Kosi menace. It’s unfortunate that Kosi problem is not getting consideration as a national challenge to the capability of engineering talent of the country.

It has been happening only because Bihar could not produce a political or a social leader tall enough to attract the attention of those who matter. Nitish also has failed like all others till date.

And unfortunately the people of Bihar are either too good or too ignorant that they don’t rise for a massive protest against the injustices done to them for decades, that shakes the country and those who have been responsible for its neglect.

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Union Budget 2010: Promises and Outcome<

Posted on February 28, 2010 by indra

Why should the government make promises, if it can’t keep?

As usual, in this budget speech too, the finance minister made some promises:

Government has targeted construction of national highways (NHs) at the pace of 20 km per day. I wish Pranab Mukharji would have given the number of working days that would have been used to calculate the total road length that the government will build in its tenure.

Interestingly, the government had earlier promised a slum free India in five years. However, the finance minister intelligently replaced years by a phrase ‘at the earliest’ while allocating fund for the purpose in the budget. No one can now pin down the government for failure. (The Government’s efforts in the implementation of RAY would be to encourage the States to create a slum free India at the earliest.

Further, along with the RBI, the finance minister promised and pronounced the government’s decision to provide appropriate banking facilities to habitations having population in excess of 2000 by March, 2012. If it happens that will be a great achievement. It sounds like the targets of Bharat Nirmaan that had a time frame for each of the infrastructure given by the prime minister himself. Where is the commitment to meet the promises?

And now let us note the biggest of the promises. “To provide timely delivery of justice to all, the Government has approved the setting up of the National Mission for Delivery of Justice and Legal Reforms. The objective of the mission is to help reduce legal backlog in courts from an average of 15 years at present to 3 years by 2012.” I wish the Missions, Councils, and Taskforces start performing.

Normally, the government never provides the outcome in the budget, it allocates the money for all project. For example, it never says so many kilometers of roads will be built in a particular period. Perhaps, it is intentional to avoid accountability for outcome.

Why has the government not given a target date of the completion of the dedicated freight corridor, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project that has been taken up for integrated regional development?

Many a times, all these exercises including budget preparation and presentation appear to be getting carried out mechanically with no accountability factors built in them.

I don’t understand why a time frame has been given for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission where an ambitious target of 20,000 MW of solar power by the year 2022 has been set under the mission. Is it because of the global pressure coming from Copenhagen Summit?

Will the government start acting on implementation now?

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Union Budget 2010: Inclusion of An Unique Innovation

Posted on February 27, 2010 by indra

With in-between power outages, I kept on watching Pranab making his budget speech. I am doing this for many years. Perhaps it started in 90s when I was working for the corporate project planning in Hindustan Motors, as I was expected to know the budget’s impact on the project costs.

Pranab Mukherji impressed me with his reference to an innovation and his support of that:

The humble cycle rickshaw is now being acclaimed as an environment-friendly means of transport. CSIR has developed an innovative product called ‘soleckshaw‘ to replace manually-operated rickshaws. It runs on batteries which are charged by solar power. I propose to provide a concessional excise duty of 4 per cent to this product. Its key parts and components are also being exempted from customs duty.


I wish he would have named the hero, behind the innovation, Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah from Guwahati, the real brain behind this project. I don’t know how and why Mr. Mukherji selected to refer to this sole innovation. Was he impressed by the innovation or CSIR approached him for excise relief?

I came to know about Dr. Sarmah’s innovative ventures recently through media.

Ashoka Lemelson Fellows from India along with over 100 entrepreneurs from across the globe, converged at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, recently to showcase their innovations that affected social change under the aegis of Tech4Society.
One of the innovations was that by 47-year-old veterinarian, Pradip Kumar Sarmah of the NOIDA-based Centre for Rural Development, who has innovated Deep Bahan – a lightweight cycle rickshaw priced at around Rs 10,500.

Pradip Sharmah collaborated with IIT Guwahati to design this rickshaw called Deep Bahan. Sarmah’s rickshaw is 20 per cent lighter than the traditional 100 kg one, but sturdier. The same Sharmah is currently collaborating with Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute in Durgapur, to create solar battery operated rickshaws.

But more unique is the business model of Mr. Sharmah. The rickshaw comes gift-wrapped with a loan from Sarmah’s Rickshaw Bank as well as vehicle insurance, licences and uniforms and even Hawaii chappals for the pullers. The ‘pullers’ become the owners of his vehicle in just 18 months at a nominal repayment of Rs 25 per day. As claimed, the owners earn up to Rs 500 per day, after paying the daily loan installment. Deep Bhahan has improved the lot of nearly 5,500 rickshaw pullers in 12 cities including Guwahati, Varanasi, Allahabad and Lucknow.

Interestingly, as reported, the IIT Guwahati-designed and CSIR-supported Deep Bahan is now all set for a world class makeover, with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) design team working on it to make it even stronger, lighter and more user-friendly.
It is the same Sarmah who is carrying out a pilot project on solar battery-operated rickshaws branded as Soleckshaws. Nine such rickshaws already ply in Delhi’s bustling Chandni Chowk and get their charge from solar panels installed atop the Delhi Metro railway station. If they run successfully over a period of time, more Soleckshaws will hit the road.

This social entrepreneur’s voice has finally reached the government.

Pranab Mukharji has tried to further encourage R&D across all sectors of the economy. He has proposed to enhance the weighted deduction on (1) expenditure incurred on in-house R&D from 150 per cent to 200 per cent; and on (2) payments made to National Laboratories, research associations, colleges, universities and other institutions, for scientific research from 125 per cent to 175 per cent.

Currently, any payment made to an approved scientific research association is eligible for weighted deduction. The income of the approved scientific research association is exempt from tax. Pranab Mukherji has expanded the scope of the benefits. The ‘payments made to the approved associations engaged in research in social sciences or statistical research would be allowed a weighted deduction of 125 per cent. The income of such approved research associations shall be exempt from tax.’

Will the provisions motivate Indian companies to invest significantly more in R&D in the India’s ‘Decade of Innovation’?

I don’t know if it’s mandatory to report on the R&D work in the annual balance sheet of the company. I wish it is made. However, the companies do get the tax benefits. Unfortunately, the private sectors except for some have hardly focused and contributed on R&D and product development as much as it is desired by the competition because of globalization encompassing all the sectors.

Will the government report the impact and outcome of the incentive and provisions of the budget to the companies, institutions, and associations for accelerating R&D?

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The Economic Survey 2010 Reveals Good, Bad, and Ugly

Posted on February 26, 2010 by indra

Good

The Economic Survey 2009-10 sees India growing the fastest by 2013-14, provided it is able to overcome infrastructure and bureaucratic constraints. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/india-to-grow-fastest-at-85-in-2013-14/386904/ Will those running the government overcome ‘if’?

India would bounce back to a high nine per cent growth in 2011-12.

Gold Reserve: The nation that pledged its bullion two decades ago to pay for imports, in 2009-10 became the world’s 10th largest gold-holding country. The government’s purchase of 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund took its total reserves to 557.7 tonnes. Some claim that the gold purchase provided a healing touch to the nation’s pride. If the survey could provide the data on the total gold in the country, the world would have known that India is the richest country in the world.

Education: Around 96% children in the age group of 6-14 are now enrolled in schools. A total of 10.11 lakh teachers were appointed under SSA and another 21.79 lakh were provided in-service training. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) now aims at the objective of achieving 75% enrolment for classes IX-X. The ultimate aim of RMSA is to achieve universalisation of secondary education by 2017.

Saving and investment: The 32.5% savings and 34.9% investment (of GDP in 2008-09) put India in league of world’s fastest growing nations.
Gas output is up 52.8 per cent to 50.2 billion cubic meters with RIL starting production.

Telecom: India is the world’s 2nd largest wireless network with 525.1 million mobile users. Virtually every second Indian has access to phone

Good or Bad

Farming: According to government estimates, small and marginal farmers, which owns less than five hectares of land each, are about 80 per cent of the about 60 crore farming population in the country. The MSP of paddy (rice) has been increased to Rs 1,000 a quintal (including Rs 50 bonus) for 2009-10 from Rs 560 a quintal in 2004-05. Similarly, there has been about 72 per cent hike in wheat MSP in last five years and currently stands at Rs 1,100 a quintal. However, India’s yield is poor. The farmers are getting disenchanted to carry on with the profession. Can further fragmentation of land be stopped?

Exports in April-December 2009 are down by 20.3 per cent, and imports are down by 23.6 per cent.

Doing Business in India: India ranks 133rd in the world as against Singapore that ranks 1st, Malaysia 23rd, and China 89th. It takes1,420 days in India to enforce a contract as against 150 days for the same in Singapore, 300 days in the US and 406 days in China. Even for closing a business, the time taken is nine months in Singapore, 18 months in the US, 20 months in China and seven years in India.

Projects Overruns: The percentage of projects with time overruns goes from 60.7% in power and petroleum sector, 95% in shipping and ports and 98% in railways, to a well-rounded 100% in health and family welfare. http://content.magicbricks.com/construction-project-delays-keep-adding-to-costs

Undrawn Sanctioned loan: India’s undrawn external loan from multilateral agencies for many of the infrastructure and other projects amounted to Rs 95,487 crore till March 2009.

Ugly

Inflation: Retail prices are rising at a rate 10 times faster than that for wholesale prices. Food inflation has refused to climb down from levels in excess of 17% for over a month now after testing almost 18% in the week ended January 30, the highest in 11 years.

Human Development Indexes: Life expectancy at birth in India was 63.4 years in 2007 against 80.5 years in Norway, 81.4 years in Australia, 74 years in Sri Lanka and 72.9 years in China. On literacy rates, too, China and Indonesia fare much better. The adult literacy rate in 1999-2007 was 66 per cent in India against near-100 per cent in most developed nations, 93.3 per cent in China and 92 per cent in Indonesia.

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Recall Reaches India

Posted on February 25, 2010 by indra

Indians hardly had any experience of recalling. Maruti Suzuki has broken the record by announcing recall of 1, 00,000 of its A-Star cars manufactured before August 22, 2009 to replace faulty components that could cause fuel leakages. I knew about it yesterday from TV news channels.It seems India has joined global recall season.

Rakesh sent a mail today: “hmm..Not very good news for those of us interested in seeing India as a higher-end manufacturing hub.” Rakesh knew it through- ‘Maruti Suzuki Recalling 100,000 India-Made Cars’ in Product.

Media had talked loudly about A-stars at its launch, as it was the first car designed and developed by Maruti in India. And all the printed media has flashed the news of recalls too. I shall like to recall and remind that it is the same Japanese company, that didn’t think India fit enough to manufacture even transmission gears in India. However, today Maruti Suzuki has changed its strategy. Its revenue is more than the parent unit in Japan. It’s a huge R&D expansion plan for India.

As reported, the car manufacturer has replaced a faulty fuel pump gasket and an O ring in about half the 100,000 units. The two components cost about Rs 400 to Rs 500. It may not cause much financial burden on the company, but it raises questions about the quality level of its production. And the worrying part of recalls is going to be the doubt about India’s capability to produce worldclass cars. The recalls may include around 30,000 to 35,000 units of the A-Star sent to Nissan in Europe. Maruti contract manufactures the A-Star for Nissan, which is sold as the Pixo in Europe.

A friend of mine asked smilingly if the components were not imported ones from China for the reason of cheaper price. Media reports don’t reveal the identity of the vendor/s.

The other manufacturers of India must take lessons from Maruti Suzuki’s recalls and look back in the quality management system.

India’s auto sector, both OEMs and component manufacturers, have claimed itself better in quality than the Chinese counterparts. But the recalls are public admission of management failures and unfortunately the customers these days are in no mood of tolerating it.

Toyota, famous for its quality and unique management tools and TPS, Toyota Production System eulogized world over in manufacturing has got its image badly affected. It happened with Honda and VW too.

Even the winners of Deming Prizes and practitioners of Six Sigma can’t get excused, if they fail. Customers are ready to tolerate any failure anymore, and losses will be immense.

No complacence

Check, recheck, and ensure the quality system works.

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Finally, a Gadget that I Dreamt

Posted on February 24, 2010 by indra

I had been discussing and writing about my wished expectations from the e-books getting commercially introduced by many manufacturers. Perhaps the others also felt its need, and a gadget has come with the provision for changing the text, noting down the views and naturally highlighting the interesting portion. The news appeared in New York Times.

Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes.

Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.

While reading many books in last years on the contemporary subjects such as NR Narayana Murthy’s ‘A Better India, A Better World’, or Nandan Nilekani’s ‘Imagining India’, I felt the need of getting such books in e-versions but on a gadget with provision of editing and upgrading, so that I can change the data in the text of the books by the latest available or add my views at some point.

Fortunately, the manufacturers of the gadget can now integrate software as done by Macmillan. However, the customized inputs can come only from a service provider with commercial agreements with the publishers. With the hope of Indian Kindle and iPad appearing in the market, I wish some service providers do also appear.

One day very soon, a school child will go to school with just one simple, cheap, light weight, book size gadget that will have all the text books as well as blank exercise books on which he can take notes or solves the questions sent by the teachers for practicing the topic taught. And the device will reduce the load on the child carry every day. And the student will not have to pack the books while accompanying the parents going for a vacation. He will just carry his digital device.

Will the Indian techies innovate and develop the product of my dream and get into this lucrative business for the education sector with huge commercial potentials? Are the innovators of Pi and Adam listening?

The most important in the game will be the targeted price of the gadget. It must be based on Nano philosophy but for the large population needing it.

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Power: A Unique Solution from a PIO

Posted on February 23, 2010 by indra

Here is the news report that made me really happy and brings hope. Without power, one can’t think of the development of any country. Source may be any. But it must be cheap and clean, particularly in India.

As I came on my laptop today, I got the news on K R Sridhar’s “Bloom Box” first from Anand’s mail.

The Bloom Box claims to be a game-changing fuel cell device consisting of a stack of ceramic disks coated with secret green and black ‘‘inks’’. The disks are separated by cheap metal plates. Stacking the disks into a bread loafsized unit, can produce 1 kilowatt electricity, enough to power an American home or four Indian homes.

As reported, a Bloom Box for the residential market could be out in five to 10 years for as little as $3,000 to produce electricity round the clock, round the year.

I am sure that most of the Indian middle class can afford a $3000 device very soon. But perhaps the time to be taken for the commercialization of the domestic units takes away my excitement. Can’t Dr. K R Sridhar get the assistance of the scientists and governments to expedite if it is a proven technology? Will not President Obama provide his patronage to get this clean device commercialized fast?

Dr K.R. Sridhar, 49, who founded Bloom Energy, was a professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering as well as Director of the Space Technologies Laboratory (STL) at the University of Arizona. He is also, literally, a rocket scientist, having served as an advisor to NASA in the areas of nanotechnology and planetary missions. Sridhar initially developed the idea behind the Bloom Box while working with NASA, as a means of producing oxygen for astronauts landing on Mars.

Dr. Sridhar is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras. He moved to in the 1980s to the U.S, where he earned an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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Album and Autobiography-3

Posted on February 21, 2010 by indra

After his schooling in Arrah and then Sasaram government schools, my grandfather left the village to explore the world outside and find means of earning away from the village. As the eldest son, he could have remained in the village and lived on the farming, but perhaps he wished to find the worth of his education. He left his younger brother to help his father in the management of landed property or zamindari as it was called in those days. As he used to tell me it was really difficult even in those days to find a job.

After unsuccessfully trying with some so-called ‘kings’ in Bihar such as Tekari and Hathua, he came to West Bengal where some close relatives were working. I had met some of them in Calcutta where he took me in my school days. After working at different places for different assignments including one for an orphanage near Batanagar, he came to Birlapur, where Birlas had set up the first Indian jute mills.

My grandfather was the pioneer in starting formal schooling in the industrial town of Birlapur. He started the primary school in labour quarters on the bank of Hooghly that we knew as ‘magazine line’. Later on the company, Birla Jute Mills built the high school inside the company boundary.

My grandfather, Lakshmi Prasad Ray was very popular among all classes of people from general manager to the sweepers in Birlapur. To many he was Ray Babu or Ray Saheb or more formally as LP Ray. He belonged to the era when a teacher was really respected in society. He had helped many senior executives in mills from Rajasthan or marwaris as we knew them to get privately educated, and even pass matriculation examination. Later on he taught their kids at home. But I saw his interest in educating some from the community of sweepers who had come from all the way from Rajasthan for that task that was considered very low in those days, and no local persons were available for that work. I remember one very smart person among them whose name was Babulal. He had taken the help of my grandfather to be literate. My grandfather did also believe and kept on talking of ‘simple living and high thinking’. He loved white and wore only white. And with his moustaches he looked really smart and impressive. He reminded many of Asutosh Mukherji, the great educationist of Bengal me.

I was the darling of my grandfather and I remember many sweet things of those days. I remember I used to lock the front door so that my grandfather would not leave the home without helping me in solving the home tasks from school. I do also remember how I used to go with him to some houses where he used to take tuition. I would fall asleep and he would carry me on his back in late night from the distant place. I used to sleep with him and even in sleep I kept on touching him to find if he was there. In case I didn’t find him, I used to make a lot of hue and cry even at late night. I do also remember how I went to bed very early. And then I would get up in late night and demand food, and my grandmother would give something.

My grandfather shared with me personal information about himself. In early years of the school, he was expected to teach even mathematics in higher classes. He was not proficient enough for that. On every Saturday he would go to Calcutta, sit with some teachers whom he knew and learn to solve the tough questions of mathematics to come back teach it to his students. Gradually, the school grew and became full- fledged up to class X during my days. He remained in the school but only as teacher in upper primary sections.

My grandfather always accompanied me be it the admission in Presidency College or IIT Kharagpur. He would regularly visit me in my hostel and keep on inspiring me. Many a times he helped me in taking right decision too. I have a group photograph for which my grandfather took us to a studio in Dharamtalla Street in my Presidency college days. My maternal uncle, Chandramani Tiwari and youngest uncle, Nand Kishore Rai are there in that.

Photo:Standing Nand Kishore Uncle on left and myself on the right
Sitting my grandfather on left and maternal uncle Chandramani Tiwari on right

He could not accompany me when I went to Hind Motor for an interview for getting in as Executive Trainee Engineer. Unfortunately, he got an attack of paralysis on the same day. On my return from Hind Motor, I found him on bed. He couldn’t speak. His right side had been affected. I remained at his bedside and nursed him for a month before I joined Hind Motor. His will power helped him to recover fast. I remember him asking me if it would help taking eggs for faster recovery. Actually, Durga Babu, the aged doctor of Budge Budge General Hospital had joked with him knowing that he had been a total vegetarian all his life.

In late 50s, my grandfather took retirement, perhaps so that Nand Kishore could get an honourable appointment as teacher in his place. But he continued teaching. He got started a school in another jute mill complex in nearby Kalipur whose General Manager was acquainted and happened to respect him.

Before retirement the school authority of Birlapur Vidyalaya wanted one big portrait of his to be placed in its prayer hall. I don’t know when and why that portrait was returned to the family. It is still on the wall of the residence of Pradip, my cousin who still works for one unit of Birla Jute Mills (presently Birla Corporation) at Birlapur. The photograph above is a copy of that.

My grandfather always wanted to see his sons in business and prosper. He tried many times. He started a milk business and bought two good buffaloes in Birlapur. He brought his second son, late Raj Kishore Chacha and Maloo, a helping hand from my village. But my uncle couldn’t work hard enough to make it a success. I remember when my grandfather wound up the business selling one buffalo and sending the other one to my village home by train. I saw tears in his eyes. My father used to narrate how he brought that buffalo from a distant railway station near Arrah to our village and the trouble he faced.

My grandfather didn’t get bogged down with the failure. He again invested in opening a hotel in Sasaram. But Raj Kishore Chacha again failed him. As the last attempt, my grandfather after retirement got started a rice and wheat grinding facility for my youngest uncle. I had also contributed the money that my mother had given me and was lying in the saving account at Sasaram for emergency. The uncle started well and it appeared that finally my grandfather would see at least one of his sons succeed. But some envious villagers created problems and the family had to go in long costly litigation, and the attempt failed again for the third time. My grandfather who went to live in the village had to go to Dalmianagar. He again started working in the high school of Shahu Jain Industries there. He was pretty popular there too. I had visited him there once. Yamuna too lived with him and my grandmother for some time. He lived there till last when he had a heart attack while he was going to the railway station with my mother to see her off.

And this was the end of the most important man in my life. I was at that time in Hind Motor.

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