I was sitting in the lounge at Mumbai Airport waiting for an Air India flight when I see a familiar face from thirty years ago sitting quietly and alone in the corner.
Wasn’t this Noel Tata – the new head of the Tata empire. Or was I mistaken. There were no guards and no fuss. Could I be mistaken. I walked up to him to say hello.
He was warm and cordial. There were no airs and certainly no pretences. It reminded me of my working days with both his predecessors – JRD Tata and Ratan Tata. As well as my friend and well wisher – the Late Cyrus Mistry. I have known all three professionally. But my paths rarely crossed with Noel though I most certainly recall interacting with him in the mid nineties. I was then working on setting up TRAI for the Govt of India. And Noel was in Trent or Voltas. He was always the quiet cousin.
We spoke of my mandate to sell VSNL for the govt of India – where Tatas ended up buying the company. And then Tatas ended up buying Air India – the airline we were both waiting to board. I mentioned our distinguished fellow from the iit alumni cloud P Balaji – and old TAS professional or iit Roorkee and iim Ahmedabad was back in the Tata cloud. He did flash a small smile, happy to hear that Tatas were attracting iit alumni back.
I mentioned that there are a lot of companies that Tata should take over. His facial expression changed to one of concern but knowing the utter diplomat that he is, he didn’t say a word. I hear the facial expression to mean that turning around Air India is way more than a handful to deal with. The Air India flight we were booked on was late by over an hour.
There is something about Parsis which makes them different – in a superior kind of way. Is it their modesty and humility. Or is it there brilliance and detachment.
But everything else apart – I can sense the emergence of a new statesman. As JRD would once told me when he became the first to invest in a private startup called HDFC, “we are not businessmen, we see our role as way beyond just doing business. I see HDFC becoming an institution, not just a business. It needs to be supported.” Few realise that had it not been for the Tatas, HDFC would not have been created and Air India would have died.
And now to experience the Neo Airbus 350 with full bed seats. I don’t see Noel around – who seems to have taken the earlier flight – preferring to save time over taking a better aircraft.
But not all is bad with Air India. For example I am posting this message from 35,000 feet above sea level using the onboard WiFi. I can even make calls. And the VSNL takeover wasn’t all disaster either. Eventually the Tatas will fix the Maharaja of the skies. The liveried attendant with white gloves surely reminds me of the Chambers at Taj Palace where I spend many late nights with JRD in the late eighties helplessly discussing the world where India was a non entity.
India is now a new reality.