Beyond the Last Blue Mountains PDF
Preview Beyond the Last Blue Mountains
R.M. Lala BEYOND THE LAST BLUE MOUNTAIN A Life of J.R.D. Tata GAPPAA.ORG Contents GAPPAA.ORG About the Author By the Same Author Dedication A Note on the Illustrations Preface to the Revised and Updated Edition Preface to the First Edition Part I: Years of Preparation Chapter I: The Heritage Chapter II: Childhood 1904-1915 Chapter III: Taj Mahal and Cherry Blossoms Chapter IV: Sooni Chapter V: British School and the French Army Chapter VI: R.D. Chapter VII: Train to Jamshedpur Chapter VIII: Years of Endurance Chapter IX: Meeting Thelly Chapter X: Sir Dorab And Sir Nowroji Part II: Eyes on the Stars Chapter I: When The Skies Were Less Crowded Chapter II: Getting Airborne Chapter III: Song Of The Clouds Chapter IV: Tata Air Lines 1933-1946 Chapter V: The Magic Carpet Chapter VI: Setting Standards Chapter VII: Night Air Mail Chapter VIII: Nationalization Of Airlines Chapter IX: To Be Or Not To Be Chapter X: Triumph And Tragedy Air-India 1948-1964 Chapter XI: President Of IATA Chapter XII: The Jet Age Chapter XIII: The Emperors Arrive Chapter XIV: Dismissed Part III: Captain Of Industry Chapter I: Chairman Chapter II: The Making Of A Family Chapter III: The War And The British Chapter IV: The Bombay Plan Chapter V: Mission To The West Chapter VI: The Two Top Captains Chapter VII: Cultivating Trust Chapter VIII: The Birth Of A Giant Chapter IX: An Empire Expands Chapter X: The Decade Of The 1950s Chapter XI: From Empire To Commonwealth Chapter XII: The Indira Gandhi Era Chapter XIII: A Dream Fades And Reappears Part IV: The Patriarch Chapter I: The Professional Chapter II: The Philanthropist Chapter III: The Citizen Chapter IV: Celebrities Chapter V: A Friendship Chapter VI: The Family Chapter VII: Vignettes Chapter VIII: Eventide Epilogue Appendix A: J.R.D. Tata’s Journey Logbook Appendix B: On Nationalization Of Airlines Appendix C: Dismissed From Air-India Appendix D: Jamsetji Tata Notes Acknowledgements Follow Penguin Copyright About the Author GAPPAA.ORG Editor, publisher and author, Russi M. Lala began his career as a journalist in 1948, at the age of nineteen. Shortly after this, he became an executive in a book publishing house. In 1959, he became the manager of the first Indian book publishing house in London. In 1964, he founded (with Rajmohan Gandhi) the newsweekly, Himmat, which he edited for a decade. He published his first book, The Creation of Wealth: A Tata Story to critical and commercial acclaim in 1981. This was followed by Encounters with the Eminent (1981), The Heartbeat of a Trust (1984) and In Search of Leadership (1986). He has also edited, with S.A. Sabavala, a book of J.R.D. Tata’s speeches, Keynote (1986). By the Same Author GAP PAA.ORG The Creation of Wealth: A Tata Story (1981) Encounters with the Eminent (1981) The Heartbeat of a Trust (1984) In Search of Leadership (1986) Keynote (edited with S.A. Sabavala, 1986) To Four People Ever Precious my father, my mother, my mother-in-law and my wife, Freny GAPPAA.OR G We are the Pilgrims, master; we should go Always a little further: it may be Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow Across that angry or that glimmering sea . . . . We travel not for trafficking alone; By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned; For lust of knowing what should not be known, We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. —James Elroy Flecker A Note on the Illustrations GA P PAA.ORG The illustrations on the interleaving pages preceding Parts I and II are by the British artist Henry Morshead. Illustration 1 shows the twin heritage of J.R.D. Tata: The stairway at Persepolis representing his father’s heritage from ancient Persia and the Eiffel Tower, the French heritage from his mother’s side. Illustration 2 is a sketch of the Boeing 707 and the Puss Moth drawn to scale. Illustration 3 shows the Tata crest as designed by the founder, Jamsetji Tata. The words Humata, Hukhta and Hvarshta in the ancient Avesta language mean ‘Good Thoughts’, ‘Good Words’, and ‘Good Deeds’. J.R.D. Tata later redesigned the wings. Illustration 4 is an artist’s impression of the young J.R.D. Tata. Preface to the Revised and Updated Edition After the release of the first edition of this book in January 1992, two events of note took place. The first was the award of the Bharat Ratna to J.R.D. Tata on Republic Day 1992, and the second was the bestowing of the United Nations Population Award, 1992, on him for his pioneering and sustained efforts for family planning in India. The Bharat Ratna was mentioned in the second edition, but I felt a completely revised preface was necessary for the paperback edition, the first to be printed after his death on 29 November 1993. His passing away received press coverage worthy of a prime minister. Weeks after his death, articles, letters, advertisements and hoardings continued to appear; the message of his former company, Air India, would have made him rejoice: He touched the sky and it smiled. He stretched out his arms and they encircled the globe. His vision made giants out of men and organisations. A couple of years before he passed away he told me more than once that he wanted to die abroad. ‘All chairmen of Tata Sons have died abroad,’ he would say. I did question J.R.D., ‘Even if they happened to die abroad, why do you want to do so?’ ‘If I die abroad,’ he said gently, ‘I will be no bother to people here.’ The well-known journalist, M.V. Kamath, wrote after J.R.D.’s death, ‘In his life what J.R.D. did was what any pilgrim might have wished to do: go always a little further beyond the last blue mountain, wishing to know what lay there.’ One of J.R.D.’s traits was that he questioned every major concept, not because he was averse to it but because his logical mind wanted a clarification. In that process he often clarified the other person’s thinking. During our last conversation shortly before he left for Europe on his last visit he questioned me at length about the concepts we were discussing; that meeting he questioned me at length about the concepts we were discussing; that meeting (described at some length in the Epilogue) revealed that J.R.D. wished to know what lay beyond the last blue mountain. One of the major topics of that dialogue was the hymn, “Abide With Me”, the last words of which are: Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies: Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me! * When J.R.D. was living I concluded this biography with the words: And as the evening mellows and the shadows lengthen, somewhere above in the sky, in an invisible Puss Moth, is a voyager still pressing ahead to cross beyond the last blue mountain where a glorious sunset awaits him. I hope I was mistaken and that beyond that last blue mountain heaven’s radiant morning embraced him. R.M. Lala Bombay 16 December 1993 Preface to the First Edition The year is 1930. A tiny Puss Moth with a single engine is droning over the arid expanse of Iraq at about ninety miles per hour. The pilot is a young man of twenty-six, who is flying without a radio, without landing aids, without instruments except an altimeter and a speedometer. In the distance rise the large mountains and the land beyond the Euphrates and the Tigris. He presses forward in that little plane to reach “beyond that last blue mountain”. The year is 1990. The same man at eighty-six is seated comfortably in his well-appointed office with a physical map of the world behind him, also portraying the elevation of the mountains of Iraq he once flew over. This time he is talking of the twenty-first century. ‘You know I would like to live to see the 21st century because by that time you will be able to travel from London to New York within 1% hours. Planes will climb into space, fly at three times the speed of sound without friction before re-entering the atmosphere and landing in New York.’ Forever young, this man approaching ninety still seems eager to go beyond the distant blue mountain. J.R.D. Tata was born when the twentieth century opened its eyes. The year was 1904, when the Russo-Japanese war broke out, when work on the Panama Canal began and when Sir Francis Younghusband led the expedition that opened up Tibet to the world. It was a time when Edward VII reigned as the King- Emperor of India, when Mahatma Gandhi was trying his early experiments with truth in South Africa and a rather well-featured young man called Jawaharlal Nehru was being groomed in Allahabad to enter Harrow. The world was still young. There were many mountains to climb and rivers to cross. Amundsen had yet to reach the South Pole and the peak of Mount Everest had to wait half-a-century before its snow experienced the first footprint of man. The century to unfold was to result in amazing-discoveries and inventions. The aeroplane, radio and television were to make the earth a much smaller planet to live in. It was a century that was to experience two world wars and see the rise and decline of Fascism and Communism. It was a century that would witness the
The list of books you might like
