My life has been driven by innovation, fostering growth and helping the organisations I served, to contribute to the global economy. My forte was in inculcating a proactive culture and developing leaders to lead and manage well.
An unusual hobby - evaluating the merits of pedigree dogs around the world! Judging is a process of grading to ensure that healthy dogs are propagated according to the breed standard.
Acting seemed to come naturally to me from my childhood days but my time at St. Stephen's College was a turning point. In my early working life, I was a part of many stage productions featuring many English Plays. My wife's latent talent as a consummate stage actor breathed new life into my directing skills as well.
In 2004 after I had finished with Tea I got an unusual invitation to lead an IT company! This was from a US-based website designing company with operations in Chennai. My 'hands-on' involvement ceased in 2020 but I am still engaged with its performance in India and the MidWest, USA even today!
As I look back I am amazed at the situations I have been in and the number of significant people who have passed through my life!
I will therefore split the story into two silos – personal and professional.
Education:
Interests in College:
My experiences in life can be life lessons to many. I will be sharing the events in my life through words and pictures.
I sat down with my good friend T K Madhav earlier this year to talk about old times. He had come to Cochin in 1963 to join Carritt Moran & Co (Tea Brokers). He was a Ranji Trophy player representing both Kerala and Madras State (Tamilnadu), and Dick Luff, head of CM Cochin, a cricketing […]
I must apologize to my readers for my long absence from publishing new episodes of these stories.. Before I go on with our life at Icklesham I need to back up a few months to 1972. Our honeymoon in January 1970 was a brief one. We flew to Bangalore and stayed a week at the […]
I was amazed that several people reacted to my last post – Icklesham. This story also got a large number of Likes on Facebook. Many people remembered our Coonoor home fondly. Here are some of the comments: Rachel Varugis Chakola Where, many lasting impressions were made. The introduction to Jimi Hendrix & Lou Reed, memories […]
I had taken a long break from writing but now feel compelled to continue my narrative. My first two years in Coonoor (1971-73) was taken up in establishing the J.Thomas branch office and putting down some roots. It is one thing to rent a place and hang the company’s name board but getting a business […]
If I thought I was going to miss the Cochin social life I was in for a pleasant surprise. Sure, I would miss my friends but most of them were from the tea business in Cochin and I was sure to meet them from time to time. However, Coonoor, Ooty and the plantations in the […]
My wife and I were delighted with our move to Coonoor. She liked the cooler climes of Coonoor which had an amazing climate and vegetation. It was also just 10 miles away from Ootacamund (Ooty) where her mother and brothers lived. I was overjoyed by the opportunity to build a JT branch from scratch! It was […]
