Refusing jobs offered by HMT and Godrej at the campus placement, both of which were not of interest to me, I joined my old employer, Best & Crompton Engineering, Chennai as Marketing Manager of Pumps & Castings Division. Set up a state of the art foundry in Ambattur Chennai.

 

After six and a half years at B&C joined Sanmar Engineering Chennai, starting as the Marketing Manager Durametallic and moving up to the position of Group VP of Marketing, managing a large sales force and responsible for marketing of products of all the group companies. Subsequently assumed responsibility as SBU Head of Fisher- Xomox, one of the group companies. Moved out after 14 years.

 

Joined Harita Seating Systems (a TVS group company), in the Auto Industry as the CEO and steered the company from a turnover of Rs. 20 Crs to Rs. 250 Crs. Transformed the company from a domestic supplier to a global player through a combination of strategic transactions and organic growth strategies. Successfully implemented good TQM methods for ensuring quality, productivity improvements and waste reduction practices. These efforts helped Harita win a number of awards like CII - Exim Business Excellence, Govt. of India Energy Conservation, ACMA Award for Manufacturing Excellence etc.

 

Served on the Quality and Productivity sub-committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry, South India, as also the CII Committee for MSMEs. Chaired the Auto Component Manufacturers' Association (Karnataka/ Hosur chapter), in addition to being a member of its National Executive Committee.

 

Furthered the learning process through a Senior Executive Management program conducted jointly by Stanford University and the National University of Singapore and a program on Quality Management conducted by the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship in Japan.

 

On the physical front continued with badminton, tennis and took to rowing as well. Of late learning to play golf in addition. Post retirement, taken to organic farming as a hobby.

 

For Jaya and me, this is literally a second life, having met near death, travelling in a motorized cycle rickshaw through an unmanned railway crossing in April 1976. Blessed with two children (both married) and a grandson.

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My daughter - Archana is presently Director, User Experience Design at Adobe in Salt Lake City, UT. Amit, her husband, works for Provocraft making Cricut Machines, in User Experience Design as well. Both had done their PG at Texas A&M. Our grandson Dhruv is six years old and is an avid car lover. 

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Karthik Ashwin, our son, graduated from National Law School of India University, Bangalore with a Gold for the "Best All Round Student"  and completed his masters at Harvard Law School. After a stint as the law clerk to a Judge of the Supreme Court of India, he then moved to Singapore. He presently works for as a corporate lawyer with an American law firm. 

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Our daughter-in-law, Vyshnavi, is a post graduate in mass communication. After a stint with various advertising firms, she is now an independent jewellery designer. Her designs have been featured in various fashion magazines as well as in the New York Times.