With the passing of Pradipto Mohapatra of RPG-Spencer’s, India’s world of Retail has lost a father-figure, if not its father. But, we’ve lost more; we’ve lost a true polymath. There wasn’t anything that Pradipto was not interested in — and became knowledgeable about.
Apart from retailing — which he learnt on the fly — Pradipto was a marketing and management guru, a mentor and a hands-on teacher, both of which gave him ample scope for storytelling — but with always a lesson in the tail. That was the least of it. He was an expert in all his hobbies — horology, scripophily, medal-collecting, art, music, and even stray cats and dogs. He devoured books, wrote several himself, was passionate about history and heritage. A raconteur par excellence, he enjoyed speaking — always entertainingly — as much as he did listening — to learn. Towards the end, he even became an entrepreneur — but to improve others.
He was one of the first degreed (IIT, IIM) recruits to the boxwallah world. But, when he and I worked on a book on that tribe and the planters — those first Indians to work in British firms — he candidly expressed the view that those earliest Indian recruits — from good families, well-spoken and interacting well with others, products of good schools, and able team-sport players — laid the solid foundation for today’s high-flying managers. Equally clearly, he assessed the vital role the Anglo-Indian women secretaries of those days played.
Pradipto Mohapatra, the Veteran Lines signboard, N Kannayiram and Warren Hastings with his Maid Marian in their Alipur garden
To talk about Pradipto in memoriam depends on the interest you shared with him. But the one thing everyone could say about him was that nothing got him down — even in those early days when retail, at least its Western concept, was the goal and there was no one from the West willing to share their knowhow. A colleague of those early days, Dilip, recently recalled how after refusals from several major international retailers, Walmart unexpectedly invited them to make a presentation at its headquarters in Arkansas. Gung-ho, hours were spent on preparing the presentation. On arrival, they were thrilled at being whisked off to the Chairman’s ranch house; it boded well. But midway through their presentation, he stopped them:” We are not interested in India. There’s no future there. Let’s have lunch.”
Lunch over, hobbies discussed — Pradipto at his best — the Chairman invited them to see his hobby — breeding prize bulls on his 200-acre ranch. A bored Dilip watched as Pradipto proved an enthusiastic learner, animatedly carrying on a conversation about breeding superior bulls with the Chairman. An hour later, driving to the airport, Dilip rued, “What a waste of time!” Pradipto, with that trademark laugh, responded, “You win some, lose some, but can always learn from bull!”
Indian cricketer N. Kannayiram gets some batting practice ahead of the Indian cricket team's tour of West Indies (1952-53 series). (circa 1952) PHOTO: THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Shortly after this, while I was writing up the Spencer legend, Spencer’s teamed with a Hong Kong company and the first FoodWorld was born. A Spencer loyalist from childhood, I regretted the lack of Spencer in the name. Pradipto prophetically replied, “FoodWorld was the name it had to be. You cannot make a mistake about its business with a word like ‘food’ in its name. Other retail chains Spencer’s plans to start will for now also forego the ancient name. But one day… India is ripe for the huge super stores with 20-25% discounted prices, offering a half day outing in the country with everything, including entertainment, under one roof and serving an area fifty miles around. That’s when we’ll be back with Spencer’s…” And then, he softly spelt out RPG-Spencer’s dream: “We want to be with the Spencer name the cutting edge of retailing in this country.”
RPG-Spencer’s may not be the biggest in the country today — but every other major conglomerate has followed the trail Pradipto blazed. That’s saying something.
When the postman knocked….
* Where are Veteran Lines, asks GS Murugesan. They’re in Pallavaram, in the Cantonment area, just south of the Airport. Once a flourishing Anglo-Indian colony — to serve the military, not as usual the railways — with numerous quaint houses and a rollicking social life, it still has a few Anglo-Indian families but fewer of those houses. It got its name from the homes built for the European Artillery Veterans — British NCOs who retired there, many of them having married Anglo-Indian girls.
* You forgot another MCCian who played for India, N Kannayiram, who was in the 1952-53 team to the West Indies, writes RN Ratnam. CD Gopinath, not happy with the way Indian cricket was going, said ‘No’ to the trip. A medium-pacer and the first Indian to captain the Madras Cricket Club, Kannayiram, from Madurai, learnt his cricket, like RB Alaganan, in Ceylon.
* I understand there were two ménages a trois (households of three) in Fort St George of olden days; some light on them, please, asks Rasathy Sinniah. The first (1680s) was Governor Elihu Yale who took up with Mrs. Catherine Nicks after his wife returned to England. Hieronima de Paivia, widow of the leading Jewish diamond merchant in the city, joined them after her husband died. The fortunes their husbands left both widows helped swell Yale’s. The other instance was of Warren Hastings, Maria Imhoff and her impoverished painter-husband Baron Karl von Imhoff living together in Madras. Years later (1770s), when he was Governor-General, Hastings married his Maid Marian in Calcutta.
The chronicler of Madras that is Chennai tells stories of people, places and events from the years gone by and, sometimes, from today
