Viji Iyengar- a legend in his life time

 I first met  A.V.Iyengar  popularly known as Viji , at my first ever RTI AGM in Delhi in 1969. I was a rookie Tabler having joined Bombay West Round Table No. 6 a few months earlier. Desikan from my Club had been proposed for President ship  of RTI against  the redoubtable Indu Chandhok . There was intense campaigning in which Viji was on our side though Indu was his good friend.  For the first time I witnessed Viji as a passionate speaker with a fighting spirit. I kept bumping into him in more AGMs in the following years. I found that not only was he excellent in debates but was also a fun guy with a great sense of humour. The fights between Viji and Deepak Banker ( a past Woco President) on the floors of the RTI AGMs , arguing on some issue or the other,  were  legendary. However during the Fellowship times  they were the  best of friends.

Viji  was as much a Fellowship man  as he was in his deep involvement with any service projects.  His close association with Mother Theresa  was  well known. He enjoyed people and parties, many of which he would host at his spacious home  in Calcutta. Viji & Shibani, the made for each other couple, were excellent hosts. I had the pleasure of staying with them on a couple of occasions thoroughly  enjoying their home hospitality. More than anything else he was a great friend,  ever ready to help any one  in need of any kind of help.

In any meetings or  get togethers  he was well known for his spontaneous responses, delivered with his customary zeal and force. With his boisterous nature, inimitable laughter  and friendly disposition  Viji  won the hearts of every one he came in contact with.  A very popular Tabler he was undoubtedly a pillar of the Round table movement in India in its initial years.

I got to know Viji closely when I became the National Extension Officer when he was the President of RTI in 1977. Viji  was a flamboyant tabler,  a bit disorganized but always very ambitious in his thinking. At a board meeting when I was questioning him about some seemingly impossible targets his response was `Let us aim for the sky. We will at least reach the top of the tree`. That was Viji for you. He was a great leader and motivator

I remember a Board meeting  we had in the train  travelling to attend  the charter of a new Table in some city in Gujarat  ( I forget the name of the city) . Viji conducted the meeting with aplomb.  We not only had a good meeting but also thoroughly enjoyed the trip with `Fellowsip` flowing right through the journey. Another incident that comes to my mind happened during the RTI  AGM he was presiding in Chennai. Based on my successful stint as the National Extension Officer, my club ( Madras West Round Table no 10) had proposed my name for the position of National Secretary of RTI. Standing against me was Ashok Dasgupta  of Alipore Club in Calcutta to which Viji belonged. Though I was a hot favourite, I had refused to campaign for votes. So  when the votes were counted there was a tie and Viji had to give his casting vote . He had no choice but to vote for  Ashok, his own Club member. Ashok who had already left for the airport thinking that he would not win had to be called back and made the National Secretary.  Viji was all apologies but I took it in good spirit and continued to do my bit as the Chairman of the National Secretariat of RTI located in my office.

Even after I ceased to be a tabler my association with Viji continued  as the Secretary of Round Table Foundation, a brain child of Bob Chandran. As one of the  trustees of the Foundation he would regularly attend the annual  board meetings and offer useful suggestions. Simultaneously he was also active as a 41er.

Viji Iyengar was one of the founder members of 41 Club No. 8 in Calcutta consisting of ex-

Tablers from Alipore Round Table. On a visit to Chennai in 1984, he went to attend a meeting

of Ex-Tablers in Madras Gymkhana.He found the ‘King & King Maker’ Indu Chandhok of 41 Club No. 1 in the process of persuading a reluctant S Raja of Bangalore to become the President of the Association, for the year 1984-85. The moment he saw Viji  walking in, he announced, ‘Here comes the next Vice President of the Association.’ And that was it. No election. No consultation. Since Viji was used to Indu’s style of functioning from his Round Table days, he agreed. Viji became

the President of the Association  only  in 1986 since Raja continued for a second term.

 

When I interviewed him at his home in Calcutta for the book  titled `44years of 41 Clubs In India`which I was editing, he claimed that during his term, he  had initiated the drafting of a more formal Constitution and Bylaws by Prakash Apte of Calcutta though it  would take another couple of years before the new constitution was formally adopted by the Association. It  paved  the way for the Ex-Tablers’ Association to become the National Association of 41 Clubs of India.

 

I  was touched when  he came  personally to receive me at the airport and take me to his home though he could have just sent his driver to pick me up. That was Viji for you.

 

The credit for starting the Fellowship magazine of the Association also goes to him. It was  started in 1987 with Alban Scolt of Calcutta as the first editor.( I was to be the editor of Fellowship for six terms in later years.) Viji was also responsible for taking the initiatives to extend the 41 Clubs to newer cities.

 

I continued to meet Viji in all the 41 Club AGMs. I remember  as a `Sergeant at Arms` at both the Round Table and 41Club AGMs he was in his elements making the audience roar with laughter with his  witty comments.

 

Though he had been suffering from cardiac issues for the last few years, he continued to be active. Attending meetings when required. However, after his wife Shibani was diagnosed with the dreaded Alzheimer disease, he was devastated. I  was told that he was lapsing into depression very often though his son and daughter were doing their best to look after their parents. I was surprised when I received a call from him a few weeks ago asking for some contacts in Vellore to help some friend. Amazing that he was service minded till his last breath.

 

Viji passed away of cardiac arrest  on the night of 28^th July,22 after suffering with septic shock at a hospital in Calcutta where he was admitted two days earlier. A legend not only in the world of Tablers & Ex Tablers but also in the social circles of Calcutta decided to go back to his maker.

 

I feel bad that I will never again hear his voice affectionately  calling me `Dei Iyengare` ( as I am also an Iyengar) or `Dei Raja`.

 

 I pray god to make his soul attain Satgathi. Om Shanthi!

S.Jayaraman- A game changer in my life!

I always tell young parents  to take extra care when  their children  enter their teens. It is at this stage that children are troublesome and vulnerable. They get deeply influenced by their peers.  Their future depends on the kind of friends they get at this stage. I know of many very bright children getting into bad company in their teens and ruining their lives. There are others, not so bright ones,  getting influenced by good friends in their teens  resulting in their turning a new leaf  and becoming successful in life. I belonged to the second category.

I was an average student in school . My home was just two minutes away from my school that I always used to rush back home to play with my chawl friends in Matunga, Bombay. I did not make any new friends in my class. All that changed when my school moved to Wadala from  Matunga when I was in my 8^th standard ( I was thirteen then ). A few friends in my area had to walk for 30 minutes every day to reach the school. In the process I made new friends. One of them was Jayaraman, who was a topper in my  class. He was very intelligent with a  phenomenal memory and was involved in spiritualism right from his school days. Thanks to Jayaraman I  became a part of a motley group of bright and talented  students in my class.

Jayaraman became a game changer in my life. He became my bosom pal and I looked forward to spending a lot of time with him talking about our plans for the future among  many other things we talked about. Our  friendship continued in college as both of us joined the R.A.Podar College of Commerce to acquire a degree in Commerce. I can never forget the several  nights we spent lying on our backs on the cricket pitches in Matunga Gymkhana  opposite the college , staring at the stars and discussing our future plans.  In the absence of  phones in our homes  we would meet every day - even on school holidays. Either he would visit my home or I would visit his home.

It is during my college days that I blossomed into a boy with multi tasking abilities and also with potential leadership qualities. Though I continued to be an average student academically  my active involvement in many non-sports activities in the college brought me to the notice of not only the college Principal but also other professors. It was at this stage that I started dreaming about a career in advertising  and how I pursued my dream relentlessly to become a successful adman at a young  age  is well documented in my autobiography titled  `Courage My Companion`.

While I was doing well in life Jayaraman had major setbacks during his college days. Due to some problems at home his studies were affected  and he did not do well in the final exam.  His first job was with Bank of Baroda while he was also pursuing a course in Cost Accountancy. After finishing his course he worked in a couple of companies in their Finance department in senior positions. His last job was with the Reliance group. He got married  to a girl of his parents`s choice and the couple were blessed with two lovely daughters and a bright boy, all of whom have done well  and settled abroad.

Meanwhile I was so busy with my dream job in advertising that I had no time for my school and college friends including my dear friend Jayaraman. My leaving  Bombay for good in 1971 meant that I met Jayaraman only occasionally  during my  flying visits to Bombay on official work. In the absence of mobile phones those days there was hardly any other communication between us. I  found that his attitude toward me also had changed over a period of time.

After a gap of a couple of decades, thanks to an  Alumni get-together of our schoolmates in Bombay I got reconnected with him. By now both of us had retired and had time on our hands. He had become a great devotee of  Chandrasekara Swami of Kanchi Sankara Mutt popularly known as `Periava`. At the first alumni  meeting of our group  Jayaraman read out a special poem in Tamil  he had composed for the occasion. I found a creative spark in it. Encouraged by me and other friends & family he  started composing  songs  on a wide variety of topics always ending the poem by invoking `Periava`s` name. He took to this hobby with all the passion that he could muster so much so that he had composed nearly 1000 poems in ten years.  During my occasional trips to Mumbai I  began visiting him in his flat in Navi Mumbai  where he was living with his wife.  However, because of his wife`s health issues he stopped  joining any group get togethers giving his wife`s problems as an excuse for not attending . He began to isolate himself  from  others.  So when his wife passed away  two years ago he found it difficult to reconcile to a life without the life partner. His children being away in foreign lands did not help either, however much they tried to make him feel wanted. The pandemic and the forced isolation at home without any connect with friends  made him go into depression.  He fell seriously ill a few weeks ago and passed away at a hospital yesterday evening in spite of the best medical attention. Fortunately all his three children had reached Mumbai in time to be with their ailing father in his last moments. 

Thanks to restrictions imposed by the Pandemic  I am sad that I could not visit him to offer my condolences personally when his wife passed away   nor could I see him when he was ailing. But he was constantly  on my mind. He is leaving behind three affectionate and caring children who will, I am sure, carry their father`s legacy. My heartfelt condolences to them.

Jayarama! I can never forget that getting you as my close friend in my teens was a turning point in my  life. Yes, I have no hesitation in saying that you were a game changer in my life.

I pray to god to make the noble soul of Jayaraman attain Sadgathi!

 

Courage My Companion

An example of how a biography should be conceived and placed in the public domain

It has been 13 years since the publication of my autobiography titled `Courage my Companion` So when Kannan Chakravarthy ( brother of the celebrity actor Hema Malini), whom I got to know through Madras Book Club asked me for a copy of my book , I obliged by sending him the PDF version of the book as I have run out of copies. I was delighted to receive the following feedback from him within a week of sending the book to him ( If his feedback makes you want to read my autobiography I will be happy to share the PDF version free with you if you can send your request to my email id: rvrajan42@gmail.com)

A feedback from Kannan Chakravarthy

I would describe Rajan as a rare individual who has bridged the gap between his small beginnings and relative affluence of later years with astounding ease. Where he acquired this resilience is difficult to fathom from his narrative, 'Courage-My Companion" which moves from event to event and episode to episode in rapid succession.

Gleaning lessons from his life, therefore, becomes that much more difficult.

His familiarity with the icons of business and industry at that time, his observations of life in high society raises important questions as to how he remained unaffected by the glamorous backdrop of his profession. He puts it down vaguely to his simple roots and belief in destiny. If that be so, he is a true 'Karma Yogi' devoid of attachment to material objects — but still he will have explanations to offer for the extraordinary life he has led!

His riveting observations about the Advertising Industry and how it functions can just be a Bible to others in the Industry. The names, positions and responsibilities of each individual he had come across in his colourful career and their functioning points to his keen sense of 'being in the moment' and absorbing events as they occurred. It's a rare quality.

Rajan is devastatingly candid about his personal life. Shows that he has the innocence of a boy and the wisdom of an evolved individual.As a man born to be in the limelight in all circumstances and conditions, he has proved his immense worth in Social Organizations such as the Round Table and Rotary. He has adduced reasons for his unflinching faith in the Almighty quoting various instances in his life. God has been with him in trying circumstances. Of this there is no doubt.

The photograph gallery is eye catching and captures every moment of his meteoric rise. RK Laxman's signature cartoon on the cover portraying Mr Rajan's confident gait is amazingly true to his character.

My heartiest congratulations to the creator of this Magnum Opus. It should adorn every bookshelf in the country as `an example of how a biography should be conceived and placed in the public domain`.

Chakravarti

Chennai

July 15 2022