Tata Founders Day 1985

March 3, 2015 Sitting at a table in an unreasonably crowded pf changs at the mall of emirates. Remembering tata founders day- to make it really interesting, I was trying to remember one particular instance from exactly 30 years ago-was prodding and probing the deepest recesses of my brain to see if I could find anything. ... The md of my dad's company was a tall, imposing punjabi people person by the name of Ramesh Bhasin. He lived in a massive bungalow with an incredibly manicured garden. Never thought id have a chance at a sneak peak, as it happened, i was in 5 th grade when mrs Bhasin ( a portly mademoiselle often seen walking the inner roads in her gym clothes trying to get into some semblance of shape),by a capricious announcement via a particular section of her army of domestic help, summoned all kids between certain age groups to her mansion for tea. Scared the bejesus out of me at the time.. You mean i had to walk up to the iron gated entrance at 5 pm all by myself? The guard would never let me in.and what if he did? I had to cover the drive way to the front door. What if there were dogs parading in the compound? There were bound to be a few st bernards. And finally if i were able to muster enough bravado to reach the front door, imagine the opprobrium associated with being accosted by the lady of the house, and being led to an area inhabited by other kids similarly summoned- mostly posh members of the opposite sex. I couldnt run and couldnt hide and all i felt was a sharp pang of low self esteem. Harangued i wasnt except in my imagination, but that was real estate i occupied frequently back then and seem to do even more today, although reality tries hard to keep me honest. Nevertheless, i realized upon entering the mansion that kids were needed to adorn what was to be a carnival float from the tinplate company. For the reader unaware of the rituals of the 3rd of march, it was a day when all the different tata companies would participate in a float ceremony across one of the main thoroughfares within the works of the tata steel plant. Not unlike the carnival in rio or the various disneyland theme parks. As it happened, the tinplate company was thematically tracing the Mahabharata- which I now know is a theme not that unique, clearly, but at the time I thought it rather creative- particularly the treatment. We had a train with five "Tin" carriages each with one member of the Pandavas. THe Pandavas were played by eminent young engineers from the tinplate company- while there were lackeys thrown in each tin carriage (which was us kids) for purposes purely ornamental. The carriages were all emblazoned with a painted sign that said "Hastinapur", which was the town in the mahabharat from where they hailed. Has"TIN"apur, get it? All in all, it was a 4 hour long affair as we paraded in front of an audience, that sat on mskeshift bleachers in a makeshift tent, or more precisely a "shamiana". During this time, I recall making conversation with Kavita Agarwal, a bonnie lass who was also in my tin carriage - a year junior to me. That was the last I spoke with her, although I did see her around quite a bit. About 5 years hence, I learnt that she was going steady with a chap called Abhijoy Gandhi- but that's a whole different story. It was a successful day as the overall potency of the mix of wit, wordplay and over-the-topness of costumes was too much for the other contestants. Tinplate was one of the smallest of the TATA divisions, and yet it beat all bigger competitors including Tata steel, Tubes Company, Tata Robins Fraser, Tata Yodogawa and so on. I had returned home a rather happy egg, and in some strange way had conquered some demons along the way-though I could not be precise in my articulation of what these were.