NO SHOW AT THE LIPTON FACTORY IN ETAH

NO SHOW AT THE LIPTON  FACTORY IN ETAH

Readers may no doubt be aware that Brooke Bond India Ltd., acquired Lipton India Ltd. to be called Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd. ( BBLIL) before BBLIL itself was sold out to Hindustan Lever somewhere in the mid nineties.

This story is of the Lipton Factory in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, or more specifically of a Manager in that plant, who would not keep an appointment -  a cardinal sin according to the Kodavasal code of ethical conduct.

I take after my father : I am stickler for time, keep my commitments, keep my word.  My father would chide himself for being late, if he was not on the Station platform before the train was shunted in from the cleaning yards.  He would happily spend the next half hour or so at the Higginbothams stall getting himself the latest James Hadley Chase for the trip : As a consequence I am well up on my Chase stories.

Having famously succeeded in licking into shape the Coffee Factory treatment plant in Whitefield, I was in the good books of the powers that be at BBLIL for their other works.  Samiran Das, who for sometime was the manager in the Instant Coffee factory was transferred to the Lipton Instant Tea factory in Etah, Uttar Pradesh.  He invited me to visit Etah to help solve some of the problems there in treatment.  I readily agreed, and laid meticulous travel plans to include a visit also to my other clients in the North : A cigarette factory of ITC in Saharanpur,  a Silk mill of Woolworth in Nagpur and then on to Etah.  Those were the days before  internet and cellphone were invented :  my plans were duly communicated to the various players by STD/ trunk calls and confirmations were obtained.

I was to reach Aligarh, the railhead for Etah at 1700 Hrs. by train from Delhi on the 25^th of May, 1992, where the vehicle from Lipton would transport me to their Guest House in Etah, a distance of about 80 km along NH 91.

Right on the dot at 1700 Hrs., I detrained at Aligarh Junction, exited the station, and went in search of the vehicle with the Lipton Placard.  A couple of rounds in the parking lot proving futile, I decided to wait for some more time for transport to arrive : One does not get unduly worried about punctuality in the Boondocks of India.  After half an hour or so, I got a little edgy.  The now ubiquitous STD/ISD booths were unheard of in those days – there was no easy way to call up the factory to inquire.  I had not come all the way up from Bangalore to be turned back by this little irritant : I took matters into my own hands.

I crammed myself and my suitcase into an overcrowded, dilapidated UP state bus heading towards Etah, and traveled the entire distance standing for nearly three hours.  I set foot in Etah, in the dark of the night, looking for help to guide me to the Lipton factory, where I had been previously assured by Samiran Das that accommodation had been booked.  A creaky Cycle Rickshaw transported me to the gates of the factory, where I was accosted by the security guards, suspiciously eyeing the decrepit looking late night visitor.  Nobody picked the phone at Samiran’s residence : The Guest house had no booking for Dr. Ananth Kodavasal.  I retraced my way back to town near the Bus Stand, where I had earlier spied a number of dimly lit “Guest Houses”.  Without further ado, I plonked into the bed at the first Guest House I was shown by the kindly rickshaw man.

The next morning, I presented myself again at the gates of the Lipton factory, looking more respectable.  Samiran Das was not in the factory.  Indeed, the blighter was not in India at all, having been deputed to  England on training the week before !  I then met his Assistant, an engineer himself, who had no clue whatsoever of the reason or purpose of my visit to Etah.  The absurdity of the situation brought upon by the utter callousness of Samiran Das infuriated me no end.  I gave up on my mission to Etah as a lost cause, and headed back to my Lodgings.

This time around, I did find a better outfitted Express Bus from Etah to Delhi : more importantly, it ran empty for the most part all the way to Delhi.  This circumstance afforded me an opportunity to get greater insight into the life and times of a bus conductor in far off Uttar Pradesh, as he discoursed at length with me throughout the long journey.  The bus traced the same route back to Delhi on NH 91, a distance of about 240 km, via Aligarh, Khurja ( famous for its glazed pottery), Bulandshahr ( a town made famous by innumerable song requests from its citizenry on the Vividh Bharthi Geetmala program), Ghaziabad and then on to Delhi, reaching the Capital around 9 PM that day.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                                          July 02, 2011

Footnote :

I still treasure the small, brightly painted multihued Khurja flower vase at my home, as being the only worthwhile takeaway from that ill fated trip to Etah.  It is a constant reminder to me also, never to disregard and disrespect the sanctity of other people’s time – The  Kodavasal code of ethical conduct.