JOURNALISTS have ‘encounters’ with people belonging to all walks of life. But few of them are able to develop their acquaintances into friendships. RM Lala is an exception. Most people know him for his association with the house of Tatas that spans several decades and as the author of The Creation of Wealth: The Tata Story, one of the first in that genre.
Together with Rajmohan Gandhi, he founded the newsweekly Himmat and edited it for a decade. It was during this period that he interviewed most of the 27 people whose pen-portraits he has provided in this anthology. While each chapter is named after a person, he calls the last chapter ‘Epilogue’and it is about a person who is “eminent though unknown” – his own father Manekshaiv P Lala.
Senior Lala might not have been all that “successful”, but he instilled in the author’s mind an abiding love for literature. At the age of 80, he suffered a stroke that affected his brain. To test whether he had lost his memory, the author asked him about Shelley’s Indian Serenade. To his surprise, he recited the lines one by one. Small wonder he exults, “my father left no material possessions of consequence, but he left me treasures untold”.
Everybody knows Azim Premji as one of India’s richest men but few know that his father declined Jinnah’s offer to become Pakistan’s first Finance Minister, because he wanted to remain and die an Indian. Premji may not be overtly religious but he lays great store by certain ethical values. His wealth may be “inflated”, but not his ego.
Lala does not subscribe to the theology of prosperity. Some of his subjects might not have been rich or great but like Dr Banoobai Coyaji, who won the Magsaysay Award for public service in 1993, they all sought “to leave the world just a little better than they found it”. Today’s younger generation may not have heard about Assam’s first Chief Minister BP Chaliha, who played a major role in keeping Assam safe from the covetous eyes of Jinnah.
When C Rajagopalachari went to jail, he took with him five books – the Mahabharata, the Bible, Robinson Crusoe, the plays of Shakespeare and the writings of Plato. They were representative of his thoughts and beliefs. He held many posts from Governor to Governor-General but leadership to him “was the pursuit of causes, not of chairs”.
If a teacher is measured by the greatness of his students, few could rival CN Vakil, whose pupils included such top-notch economists as Dr VKRV Rao and Dr DT Lakdavala but he would be remembered as the founder of the first-ever school of economics in Mumbai University. No one defies description better than the Dalai Lama and this makes him a difficult subject for any biographer. But the author succeeds in bringing to the fore a leader, who is at peace with himself and who would like to be remembered “as a human being who laughed often”.
When Fr Henry Heras went to St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, to join as history teacher, the Principal asked him what Indian history he knew. He answered, “None”. But he went on to study the Indus Valley Civilization and decipher its script. In the meantime, he also set up a school of historical research.
Today HDFC and ICICI are well known. But how many know that they took shape first as HT Parekh’s dreams? Lala knew Jayaprakash Narayan so well that he became his admirer. JP believed “not in the capture of power but in the control of power by the people”. For him, “democracy was not a political dogma but a way of life”.
JB Kripalani and Sucheta Kripalani figure in the book not as a married couple but as leaders in their own right. Gandhi opposed their marriage but they “defied” him and in the process complemented each other. They were the brightest couple on the Indian political firmament, though they were often in different camps.
One common thread that links most of the “eminent” in this book is their association with JRD Tata, whose motto was “to aim for perfection so that you attain excellence”. He didn’t want India to become an “economic superpower”. Instead, he wanted it to become a “happy country”. Congress stalwart K Kamaraj’s mastery of the English language was limited to such utterances as “regionalism is going up, nationalism is going down” but he knew the value of mid-day meal to introduce it when he was the Chief Minister of Madras, now Tamil Nadu. He practiced rather than preached socialism.
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan founder KM Munshi’s life story can be summed up as the evolution of a “man of intellect” into a “man of faith”. A Brahmin, he married a Jain widow and set a personal example. Lala describes Lal Bahadur Shastri as “the most human personality” he ever came across. Today those who swear by market may not even know that when everybody swore by socialism, there was one Minoo Masani who had the courage of conviction to say that socialism was evil.
When Foreign Minister SM Krishna is caught staying in a luxury hotel in London at government expense to watch Wimbledon games, one cannot but be thrilled to know that Lala had caught Morarji Desai spinning on his charkha at London’s Claridge’s Hotel. Unlike many others who saw Mother Teresa as a great social worker, Lala knows that when she picked up a beggar from the street, she found in him her saviour and when she nursed him, she nursed Jesus Christ.
The author knew MS Subbulakshmi and her husband Sadasivam so well that he is able to weave into the narration many anecdotes that lead to the inevitable conclusion that she was music personified. If the Food Corporation warehouses are today overflowing with grain, it is mainly because of the pioneering research work done by MS Swaminathan, who sought to attain “freedom from want”.
Nani Palkhivala’s espousal of the citizen’s fundamental rights that came under attack during the Emergency is still etched in the memory of a generation that includes this writer. By narrating the story of NR Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Lala has shown that honesty is not a handicap but an aid to excellence. When Sam Manekshaw shook hands with a Pakistani prisoner of war, he told him, “I have been 25 years in the Pakistan Army but no general has ever shaken my hand”. He was truly a “people’s General”.
For Cricket enthusiasts who grew up on Sachin Tendulkar, Vijay Merchant may remain an enigma. His cricket philosophy can be described in these words: “the better batsman takes care of the weaker one if your side is to win”. Vinoba Bhave and Dr Zakir Hussain were poles apart but they tried to practise Gandhism, the former by continuing his ashram tradition and the latter by trying to implement his concept of basic education.
At a time when we lament over corruption, violence and parochialism, A Touch of Greatness is an inspiring read. Lala’s style is at once direct and conversational. Sketches of the subjects by Manjula Padmanabhan, Gautam Roy and Mario Miranda add lustre to the eminently readable book.
(Rupa Publications India Pvt Ltd, 7/16 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002; www.rupapublications.com)
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