My mind was very innovative. I designed a slotting machine which could cut sixteen slots at a time in strainers used in boring tube wells. We were then supplying pumps and spares to the tube well Department of the Govt. of U.P. I had to travel a lot throughout the length and breadth of the state in order to secure orders from various divisions of the Tube Well Department and came in contact with many officials posted in various divisions. We extended our reach to far off places like Patna & Gaya of Bihar, Where, too, tube well borings were being carried on by Bihar Govt.

During my travels, I used to carry books of Urdu and English literature as well as technical treatises which used to keep me occupied on my long journeys by trains & buses and at my places of stay during the long nights, which I spent alone, whichever city I visited for the first time. I took time off to see places of historical importance, Scenic beauty, zoological gardens museums and other famous public places. Generally, people used to constant travelling, complain of getting homesick or bored but I did not feel like that because of my preoccupation with reading, writing and sightseeing, apart from my official work.

It will be worthwhile to mention here, for the benefit of our present generation, that the means of communications in those days were very poor. We had to rest content with telegraphic communication which was only a one way traffic. To get reply by wire was a one full day’s job. As for telephones, the less said, the better. Sometimes I had to take my bedding to the verandahs of the Head Post Office in that city in the night, booked the calls and asked the operator to call me when my call matures and book again at Zero hour. Even after staying at the G.P.O. overnight, it was not necessary that the call matured. Then I had to resort to send a telegram and wait for telegraphic reply.

But postal facilities were quite reasonable. At every railway station there used to be a notice board at a very prominent place on which the post care of the post master were properly displayed. I used to rush to the notice board at every intermediate or terminal stations to receive my post and in this way, remained in constant touch with my home and office. That was the only source of communications which may look very odd to the present youth, who have mobile phones tucked in their ears while walking, cycling, riding or driving two wheelers and cars who remain in constant touch with their addressees. Who could imagine, then, that an era of such a

fast means of communications was waiting in the wings for our country.

Anyway, to resume the thread of my story this business continued for some years till I came in close touch with another reputed business family of Meerut through my old partner, who had very intimate relations with them. They were three brothers very well educated and well connected in the society, having a very good reputation in business and official circles. The eldest brother had a very high regard for me and was deeply impressed with my experience, knowledge, technical skills and honesty and integrity. He made a plan to alienate me from my relative partner and started creating a wedge between the two by misleading both of us, in a very suttle manner, which brought the desired result. One day, on some very petty issue, we exchanged hot words I being a very sentimental person, left him, to his utter disappointment.

After one or two days, the gentleman invited me to his house. We sat in their spacious drawing room, when he, using his excellent power of persuasion, offered me to join his family as his fourth brother and a partner. I was really overwhelmed with his sincerity and humility and, my self being in need of support at that critical juncture, I said ‘Yes’ and a new chapter started

in my life - New friends, new partners in business and a  completely  new environment. How to enter into the new partnership business, without introducing capital of my own, was my problem and how to tell the new partners that they would have to take me in, with Zero capital, was another question. But, sometimes, the solution comes of its own. They themselves realized my problem and offered me a loan to serve as my part of the capital.

Initially, we planned that I undertake a tour of the north & north eastern region of the country to find out a suitable centre for putting up a cloth finishing plant where there may be a large population of weavers but no facility of cloth finishing. The process was called calendering of cloth. This business was flourishing in Meerut but, lately, several such plants had been established resulting in tough competition. The idea was to select such a centre where we could have a monopoly business for some years and reap a good harvest of profit.

I proceeded on tour, taking it as a mission of life and visited many cities and even small towns in search of such a place in the north eastern region. I went as far as the border of Bangla Desh, studying and short listing the centers. Ultimately, I selected a small town named ‘Khairabad’ in Distt. Azamgarh,

where there was a largs population of muslim weavers whose exclusive job was to weave ‘Cotton Sarees’. There were thousands of such weavers and they used to turnout hundreds of thousands of sarees every month. But there was no finishing plant there. They used to send their produce to another town ‘Mau’ for finishing and bringing it back, causing transport expenses and unusual delays. The installation of local calending facility was the burning need of the hour. All the weavers welcomed my proposal and I came back in great spirits.

The next step was to procure the equipment, which was not available. The price of the new machine was prohibitive. Generally second hand machines from the textile mills were purchased. But no economical bargain could be made at that time. I being well versed in the fabrication work and engineering decided to fabricate the machine locally with indigenous parts. Luckily one imported machine served as a sample and I was successful in manufacturing one machine within a period of three months and took its trial successfully. Then I rushed back to ‘Khairabad’ purchased a piece of land and constructed a small shed to accommodate the machinery and covered working space. Then the machinery was transported at site and installed there.

But, as ill beck would have it, I could not permanently settle at ‘Khairabad’ to attend to the teething troubles of successfully running the plant. Although business was good but some technical snags developed in the plant which could not be tackled by the person which was appointed as in charge. He used to send adverse reports every day to Meerut which frustrated my partners. I then stayed at ‘Khairabad’ for quite some time, removed those snags and made the running of the plant quite successful. But my partners became completely dissatisfied and decided to sell the plant behind my back, assuring me that they would start a new venture of a bigger size as they did not want to waste my technical expertise on such a small project. Willy, Nilly, I had to agree - and who was the purchaser of the project, my readers would be utterly surprised to know - the same old partner with whom I had parted company earlier. He was, all the time, nursing a grudge against me and he took the first opportunity to avenge his ire. At the same time, he was convinced that the project undertaken by me could not fail. It was all my bad luck, he said to the intermediaries. And he was true. From the same project he earned a lot year after year, without any change of guards and without ever visiting that place.  

I, alongwith my partners were on the look out for a more lucrative and profitable engineering project to be started at
Meerut. By sheer chance, we stumbled on a new item for manufacturing. It was expanded metal. On preliminary enquiries, it was found that it was being manufactured only at two or three places in the country viz. Bombay, Calcutta & Madras. The machine was imported and its cost was prohibitive. Having an innovative mind, I thought of designing and manufacturing the machine indigenously.

As a first step, I consulted the encyclopedia for locating the manufacturers of the plants in different countries. I short listed England and Japan and started making enquiries asking for detailed literature from both the countries. I had an eye on the design part of the machine and after receiving their full literature, I raised several enquiries asking for details, with the result that I grasped the complete design of the machine and started manufacturing the same locally. It took about three months to complete the same. When its trial was taken, all concerned looked at it with bated breath. But if proved quite successful, but for a new snags , which were removed in a short time. We started commercial production with quite a good success, though it took some time in promoting sales and establishing dealer’s net work in the country.

Simultaneously, there came a proposal from M/S Voltas Ltd. to manufacture overhead cranes which they would under take to sell throughout the country, as sole selling agents. This was a very nice proposal from such a reputed company. We took no time in making a decision and plunged deep into it. For this purpose, we purchased a large size plot in the suburban  area and constructed a spacious building. I made a trip to Bombay and signed trade agreement with the company.

They started procuring orders from clients through their various branches in the country and passed on the same to us for manufacturing. This business proved to be very profitable and we gained a good reputation as a manufacturer of all types of cranes. But after about three years of working, there came another set back. M/S Voltas Ltd, finding good prospects in this business, decided to start their own manufacturing facilities at their Thane Plant and sought collaboration with an English company who were manufacturing cranes.

This was a big project and our ties with M/S Voltas Ltd. were snapped. We, therefore, had to end for ourselves. But we did not loose heart and started selling cranes on our own on a small scale. That, too, proved to be quite profitable. By and by, we built a good reputation in the market and the flow of orders