Seeing is Believing!

C. R. Bondre 

My grandfather, Mr. C. R. Bondre alias Bapusaheb was a man of great vision, and that led him to take Indian engineering exports to an unprecedented level. As a student and teacher of Economics and Business Management, I am extremely fascinated to read about his travels to 42 countries, trying to create a market for Kisloskar engines and thereby creating a niche for the exports of engineering goods out of India, even to the developed world. This was the time, when India was a poor developing agrarian economy and neither people here nor abroad could even imagine that India could ever manufacture engineering equipment, which would be as efficient was its western counterpart. At such a time, business legend Mr. S. L. Kirloskar took this great step forward, with the able support and complete dedication of his close aide, Mr. C. R. Bondre. As I have said in the introductory post of this blog, "C. R. Bondre: Memoirs", that I am hereby writing, translating and presenting his experiences, most of which have been inked by him during his lifetime. I am sure these will be greatly inspiring to anyone dealing with manufacturing, marketing, exports, sales and in general, business management. Having said this, I am sure they will be equally interesting to any common reader, as they are real life-time experiences of a man who worked up his way to reach where few others would dare to tread!

I will start this piece with an interesting anecdote quoted by Bapusaheb himself in his much famed article series published in MCCIA's Sampada in the early 90s. In this narrative, Bapusaheb shares his first international flying experience, a travelogue of his first visit to Indonesia and his experience of showcasing Kirloskar products at various exhibitions there. Born on 19th May, 1916 in Jalgaon in British India, this small-town boy had big dreams and aspirations, foreign travel being one of them! In those days, foreign travel was reserved for a select few affluent people and even air travel was the privilege only of the super rich! There were not so many frequent flights either. Ironically, some fortune-teller had told him in his early struggling years, that he would get everything in life, except the opportunity of travelling abroad! As a sharp contrast, travel became his middle name after taking over as the Head of the newly set up Export Department of Kirloskar Oil Engines in 1956 to finally retiring as Vice President, Marketing, Inland and Foreign Sales in 1976. Bapusaheb's pioneering efforts have been synonymous not just with the exports of Kirloskar engines, but also with Indian engineering exports. Naturally, he was a frequent flyer and the first international flying experience in his career did bring back some gripping memories!

C. R. Bondre (standing) officiating as Rotary
President in 1987

It was 25th July 1955 when on one dark night, when Mumbai city was engulfed by thunderstorms, unstoppable torrential rains and lightening, Bapusaheb set out on his first foreign trip. It was his first international flight (having flown to New Delhi earlier), and naturally in that scary dark atmosphere, he was feeling a little anxious. He waited for some hours at his friend, the then Rector of Mumbai University, Govardhan Parikh's Matunga residence. The two then set out for the then 'Santacruz Airport' and on their way in the taxi, there was no visibility on the streets. "Govardhan, air travel has now become quite safe, hasn't it?" He asked Parikh who was to drop him to the airport. "Yes! Provided you reach the airport safely by taxi!" quipped his friend.

On finally reaching the airport, Bapusaheb could not immediately complete the formalities of check-in, as there were two of his assistants who were to accompany him on his maiden journey to Indonesia. He waited for a long time, but the two of them were nowhere in sight. Finally, he decided to wait for 10-15  minutes more and if they still did not come, he would go ahead with the procedure, as now it was just one hour left for the flight to take off. Just as these thoughts were crossing his mind, he saw the two assistants entering the departure area. Bapusaheb breathed a sigh of relief! The two seemed visibly nervous of the foreign travel and rather uncomfortable in their newly stitched modern outfits specially for the voyage!

"The two assistants were complete opposites of each other", reminisces Bapusaheb. "The first one was the elderly Ramdin, a former chief mechanic at a factory in Bhivandi and the other one was the young John, who was a mechanic at Kirloskar Oil Engines. While Ramdin was reserved and reticent, John was gregarious and loved to talk; while Ramdin was of a serious nature, John was extremely boisterous; while Ramdin was a strict vegetarian, John, a strict non-vegetarian; Ramdin never touched any alcoholic drink; John, as far as possible, did not touch any other drink, except alcohol!" writes Bapusaheb in his impeccably humourous style. "I had to spend six weeks in Indonesia with these two queer individuals, so different from each other!"

"Soon it was announced that all passengers should go to the Immigration and Customs Section, and I asked both of them to follow me tither. After walking a few steps, I happened to turn around and was surprised to find that the two were again nowhere to be seen! I walked back and saw that they were surrounded by a sea of relatives, who purportedly had come to see them off; men, women, and children, who were hugging them tightly, one by one! I had to literally pull them out of these hugs and drag them towards the Immigration counter!", narrates Bapusaheb in this article written almost 33 years after the incident of his first flight from Mumbai to Indonesia, via Chennai and Singapore.

C. R. Bondre with an Egyptian Delegation
circa 1958-59

The announcement that the Air India flight to Singapore is ready for take off gave goosebumps to the the three first-time flyers in that intimidating Mumbai rain. Nevertheless, the journey uptil the first stopover, Madras, now Chennai, was quite comfortable.  However, the first journey had to be eventful and after taking off from Chennai, in a few minutes, the aircraft started swinging mightily from left to right, before it went down a few feet in a jiffy and again came up. "Even as John was fast asleep, Ramdin panicked, removed his seat-belt and started running towards the door, saying, "Sahab, mujhe age nahi jana! Mujhe chhod do! Mujhe ghar jana hai!!" (Sir, I don't want to go further. Please leave me! I want to go home!). The steward held him and got him back to the seat. I tried to pacify him, but in vain", relates Bapusaheb, "Finally, I told him, 'you cannot go home now after coming this far! Now this aircraft will land at Singapore, or in the sea!' I felt my ordeal in managing these two gentlemen was over, but on landing at Singapore, Ramdin was asked by the authorities to open his luggage and what came out of it was a 2 kg bag of some flour! 'What is this?' asked the Officer with suspicion, 'Sattu!', was Ramdin's innocent reply! 'What??' asked the Officer with more suspicion! Somehow I managed to convince him that it was nothing but some wheat and gram flour!"

"Garuda, the national airline of Indonesia took us to our destination, Jakarta. While on the flight, the Captain informed us that exactly at 11 hours and 22 minutes, we would be crossing the equator, and that those passengers crossing the equator for the first time in their lives, would be given a certificate, 'Crossing the Equator'! It was special at that time and by God's grace, after that, many times and at many places in the world, I had the opportunity of crossing the equator. Soon, we landed at Jakarta: the Amsterdam of the East!"

"A green country with 13367 islands welcomed us, and our associate Mr. Ram Daryanani took us to our abode for the next 6 weeks. He was a great help in working towards the penetration of Kirloskar engines in Indonesia. He was a well-educated, well-travelled person. He was aware of the possible surge in the demand for engines, pumps, electric motors in Indonesia after its independence from the Dutch rulers. He was also confident that the cordial relations between India and Indonesia would lead to good trade relations as well. He had come to Pune and met me personally for discussing possible business relations."

"Indonesia came across as a beautiful island country with bright sunshine. I got an opportunity to see dense forests, volcanoes, fruits of different shapes and sizes, like a 2 feet long banana and a bright orange coloured papaya, a speciality of East Asia. The cycle-rickshaws there were a little strange, with the driver sitting at the back, and the passenger in the front! The streets were full of traffic of various types of vehicles: bicycles, cycle-rickshaws, old jeeps, motorbikes, cars; and people did not seem accustomed to following any traffic rules!" Bapusaheb describes after more than three decades, Indonesia as he experienced in 1955. "Since it has canals like in Amsterdam, it was called the Amsterdam of the East", he explains.

C. R. Bondre (extreme left) with Mr. C. S. Kirloskar
in the factory

"It was in this sui generis country, that we got our first overseas distributor and the exports of Kirloskar engines to the entire South East Asian market started from Jakarta! The distribution of Kirloskar engines there, was taken up by the Dutch Bombay Trading Company. However, the fact that Indians could make engineering equipment as good as anyone else in the world, was something that foreigners could never believe, way back in the 1950s!" To get people over this notion, it was extremely necessary to show them the Kirloskar engines hands-on and give them demonstrations of how well they worked. This was possible only through industrial exhibitions, and such an opportunity presented itself in the winter of 1954", elaborates Bapusaheb.

The Federation of Indian Industries and Commerce, New Delhi took the initiative to organise an International Industrial Exhibition in the national capital. Kirloskar group companies participated actively in this exhibition and the responsibility of managing the entire show of diesel engines, pumps, electric motors  and machine tools in the Kirloskar Pavilion, from beginning to end was on Mr. Bondre, one of the most trusted associates of Mr. S. L. Kirloskar. "This event was very successful and the Pavilion was visited by the then President of India,  Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other Union Cabinet Ministers", recollects Bapusaheb in this article, "Similarly  foreign leaders like Nikita Krushchev and Nikolai Bulganin of Russia also saw our display, in addition to businessmen and industrialists from Europe. "

"Now, Indonesia was the right choice for this next exhibition, as their President Sukarno and our Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru had extremely good relations and Indonesia looked up to India for improving their agriculture and to develop their industrial sector. This exhibition was arranged on a big ground near Jakarta. There was enough space to keep big equipment on display and also to start the equipment or machinery whenever required. All Kirloskar engineering products were on display inside the hall, but we had kept a pump with the Kirloskar diesel engine pulling up water in a small pond near the ground, so that people could actually see for themselves, its efficacy. There was a mini-fountain from which this water went back into the pond with great force. The exhibition was inaugurated by President Sukarno and he paid a special visit to our Pavilion and took keen interest in knowing about our various engineering products."

C. R. Bondre after his successful trip to Jakarta, Indonesia
July 1955

"Delegations of Government and Business representatives from England, France, Gemany, America, Japan and the neighbouring South East Asian countries had specially gathered at Jakarta to see this exhibition. People also poured in from various places in Indonesia specially for witnessing this event. Thanks to this exhibition, our Kirloskar engines got good publicity in the other South East Asian countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Vietnam and Cambodia." Bapusaheb recounts, "Due to this publicity and the demonstrations, I could manage to get the first orders for our diesel engines on trial basis from these countries. Our engines had earned a reputation for themselves and after some years, there was a great increase in the demand from these countries."

"Participating in exhibitions is the only way of making people aware of your products and make them see with their own eyes the quality of your produce. After 1955, Kirloskar Oil Engines participated in many exhibitions across the world. Due to this, people all over the world got to know of Kirloskar engines. These exhibitions typically showcased engines from countries like England, Germany and Japan, and it was indeed interesting for them to see that Indian made engines were as efficient as those manufactured by these giants. Our distributors could also easily convince the buyer of the quality of our engines, thanks to the demos shown at such exhibitions. People realised that the engines were much more appealing in reality and practice as compared to simply the photographs printed on the pamphlets.  Truly, seeing is believing!"