How I landed in
Dubai was definitely a quirk of fate ,having had a reasonably good career in
the the office automation industry in India ( HCL/ Modi Xerox )and later Mudra.
This after a six year stint as a Gunner Officer in Indian Army
But then if it
said that if it has been written that jis ghat ka paani peena likha hai , wus
ghat ka paani zaroor pioghe.
The quirk of fate
was that one of the very senior persons whom we had recruited as Vice President
in Mudra , one of the largest Indian Advertising agencies, was the ex Vice
President of Brooke Bond.I was on the recruiting panel with the Chairman &
MD. being the CMD’s Executive Assistant
with the title of Corporate Manager.During his company tenure, he took a liking
to me.
Later when he left
the company, he had joined a Dubai based company as the CEO , to launch ITC
products in Dubai. One day out of the blue he called me in India and asked me
to join him and to make money he said!
I had no
experience in the retail food industry, but he had great faith in me and
insisted I join him to head sales and launch the now famous ITC oil brand – Sun
Drop.
Now starts the
Dubai story. From the time of the offer to the time of my receiving a letter of
offer, things changed rapidly. Something had happened to the deal with ITC ,and
it fell through, and because he had given his word to me he fixed me up with
the sister company which had the distribution of Brooke Bond tea.But the terms
of offer had changed, but the dice had been cast and I landed in Dubai.
I remember that I
was picked up at the airport by one Kersi
who happened to be a fairly senior person with a title of Sales
Executive,( which was the first shock) but later on came to know that he was a
close friend of the company owners, and had run his own business in Bahrain,
but presently with this company.I probably have jumped the gun.He put me in
Hotel Astoria and asked me to rest and he would pick me up the next day.
The next day he
picked me up and took me to the office
in Karama where I met a typical Punjabi Dubai crocodile ( impressions gathered
later) who was heading the tea division. The next few days passed in a haze
with visa processing and the associated rigmarole.I stayed with Kersi who was
single – his family lived in Mumbai, had a business in Bahrain,which he closed
& had big Chickoo gardens in Daman. He just had a visa to maintain NRI
status. He was kind enough to accommodate me till I found a flat of my own.The
distinct first impression I had the first few days in the flat , was the
quietness and only the swishing noise of cars going on the road.
Yes I did find a
flat,took a few months to get a licence ( another story my itself) my wife
joining me, and me re learning my sales
,along with the van sales team in the retail market, but then Brooke Bond was
the leader in the Sada Chai market while Lipton was the leader in dip tea . Our
tea was there in every store /supermarket /grocery & of course the 1800 tea
shops at that time.As market leaders we had no problem. The going was good. But
in all this my mentor would never once speak to me ,because he was involved in
one hush hush project based out of Jebel ali I would know much later what it
was to be.
The Unilever
company, of which Brooke bond was a part of, suddenly decided to pull the rug
out of the company I worked by revoking the distribution rights. The secret
project was to compensate this. I was in
a quandary.My mentor too passed away suddenly.
Just as I was
wondering about my next step, there came an offer from a company which was owned
by one of the prominent NRI ‘s Abdul Wahab from Kerala. They had managed a tie
up with Manu Chabaria’s company Jumbo
Global which wanted a distributor for a new brand of tea & rice , they
wanted to launch in Dubai.So there I was again leading a sales team, this time
to take on the might of Red Label. It was truly a formidable task.For almost we
two years we battled it out, but were at the loosing end and on top trouble was
brewing in India about the companies
owned by Chabaria – Shaw Wallace/Dunlop etc. Soon the distribution fizzled out
and there I was between the devil & the deep sea.
Meanwhile the
company had started a Commodity trading division with a few senior guys from
ITC Commodity trading division which had closed down. I was transferred to this
division without the faintest idea about commodity trading, when out of the
blue the Head of the division because of his previous association in ITC
Bhadrachalam which is based in Hyderabad, tied up with a Hyderabad based
company called NCL to market their cement boards. He promptly handed over the
responsibility of establishing the market to me.
I had truly fallen
from the frying pan into the fire, having no idea of building materials or
selling them. So my army training came into the fore – when the going gets
tough, the tough get going – and I got going.After doing a market research we
zeroed upon the pre- fab manufacturers with the aim of getting them to use the
cement boards instead of plywood.Armed with a test certificate of a local lab
about the fire resistance I made a list of all the prefab manufacturers in the
city and started visiting them day in and day out.
Al Qouz was one
area in Dubai other then Sharjah,where there were a few prefab manufacturers located , so I made a beeline for that place
and Dufab was probably among the first I visited. There was a Nair & a Chowdhury
running it and Nair was quite encouraging and would take the time out and listen patiently to
what I had to say. He also started to use the material.
The next I visited was Space maker. I still remember
there was a youngster named Raju a typical Palghat Brahmin. He gave a long
winded introduction to the company & British ownership.I requested him to
arrange a meeting with a to a senior
Indian person in the company where I could talk about my product. He made a call and
then took me to a Senior manager and introduced me to Mr. Michael Noronha.
That was my first
meeting with Michael. He was friendly and
after a good cup of tea & getting to know each other he heard me out
patiently and said he would definitely give it a try.
The rest as they
say was history.Business aside , we developed a good friendship & got along famously. He would invite me & my wife, for many a
weekend & all important occasions ,like Christmas /Easter ,with great
warmth and love lubricated with lots & lots of whiskey and some excellent
food , cooked by Michael himself.His fish curry was legendary . Lorretta his
wife was equally a wonderful person & friendly , who would make us feel so
much at home .We would have endless discussion on many things of the world .He
also introduced us to a lot of his friends whom he would invite along with us
to his home
There were picnics
with barbeques and outings. I still
remember the wonderful cup of tea on wonderful morning on a trip to Hatta to a
farm house of his friend., which he had made with absolutely fresh milk. The
taste lingers in my mind.
On a another trip
to a park, we had an accident and a dent
in our cars, while backing out of parking,if I remember rightly. There were no
cops around, and I remember days later we enacted the accident and called the cops
to get the papers made for the insurance.
Another get
together vividly comes to my mind. We were invited to one of Michaels friend’s
Fernandes house in Sharjah. After any party at Michaels house, I would always
drive back to our home in Dubai, even after having drinks, which of course was
a crime in Dubai as is elsewhere.But I called it the Russian roulette. On that
particular party I did not drink, as just a few days back I was diagonised with
high sugar, and had stopped drinking.
After that party we were driving home and a
cop stopped my car and checked my alcohol level which was nil and I drove off. Talk about Russian
roulette!!
On a New year’s
eve Michael arranged ,an overnight stay
at well known resort named Barracuda
in Ajman , where he introduced
me to his longtime pal Padmanabhan ( Paddy) & his wife Vasantha. We had a
barbeque with copius amounts of good whiskey.At about midnight they received a
call from their daughter Seema in
Bangalore, to wish them a Happy New year! Little did we know at that time that Seema would
become our daughter –in law and they would become our relatives.Such are the quirks
of fate.
The times spent
with Michael & his good spouse Lorretta were some of the best times always
fondly remembered ,during my entire stay
in Dubai .
it was Michael who
gave a major filip to the product I was handling by using it in a major project
he was doing Since he worked for a British company, this was noticed by others and
culminated in a major order for the Dubai airport.
But unfortunately
the boss who I was reporting in typical Gulf infection syndrome, hogged all the
glory& the probably the incentives that came along with it .I was
tremendrously disappointed ,This set the tone for my leaving Dubai, which is is
a different tale by itself.But it was Michael who was the key person who had
influenced a major construction company to use the product.
The best part of
my nearly 10 year stay in Dubai was easily the friendship of Michael which I
cherish till this day.My heart felt thanks to Michael & Lorreta for being a
part of my life.
Thank you Sir.
