When Roshan called, asked me to speak,
All of a sudden I felt weak.
For writer’s block is such a shackle,
No matter that, I now can tackle
So many topics, all in verse.
Each new commission seems a curse,
For I must rack my brains and think
And find the rhymes and words that link
Disparate thoughts into one whole,
For surely that’s the writer’s role.
Adi to me is an elder brother,
For good advice, there was no other.
He always took the greatest care
And in all things was very fair.
At school he was extremely smart,
Excelled in all, except for art.
For fame he never seemed to hanker,
In SSC he was a ranker.
Then Xavier’s college up to Inter.
And then he must contend with winter.
For his next step was MIT,
Where when just twenty-one, you see,
He was both Bachelor and Master.
And few have ever done it faster!
Once back home he started work.
No matter what he’d never shirk,
Just two crore was then the size.
Adi set out to modernize-
MBA’s were soon recruited
And cars for managers were mooted.
The marketing was revamped,
And those who couldn’t change decamped.
He introduced cost accounting
And soon the sales started mounting.
But hair dye was his greatest coup
And over the years, it grew and grew.
The nineties then brought quite a change
The landscape now seemed very strange-
With multinationals at the door
We didn’t know what was in store.
Pepsi and Coke bought all in sight.
Should we give in or should we fight?
We chose the path that’s in between.
In hindsight now it can be seen
That Indian firms that learn to hone
Their skills, can easily hold their own.
But then we thought that we should seek
Strong partners or we would stay weak.
And so we formed the odd joint-venture,
Which proved to be quite an adventure,
We learnt a lot and that’s for sure.
It does help us now to endure.
But when we got our business back
We were rather off the track.
But he was ready for the fight.
And very soon he set things right.
Though Godrej Soaps began to soar
On market price we couldn’t score.
Then our advisors thought it fit
That Godrej Soaps should be split.
GCPL came in to being.
And Adi, very quickly seeing,
The trend for better governance,
Put in to place all at once,
With lots of help from CII,
Best practices that surely vie
With the very best in the world.
When our new stock was unfurled,
It very soon began to fly
And to this day it still stays high.
Is his success because of skill,
Or is it more his iron will?
For he was always organized
And punctuality was prized.
By dusk his desk is very neat,
His paperwork is all complete.
Not agonizing is the trick,
Decisions must be very quick.
Although it now seems like a steal
When Kotak offered him the deal,
At no low price, but eighty crore,
He had a week, no less no more.
There was no time for diligence.
With courage and intelligence
He very quickly clinched the deal,
Relying on his good gut feel.
Not that he threw away all caution.
He took the brilliant precaution
Of ensuring he bought good wares
By selling a small chunk of shares
To Kotak and the firm’s M.D.
Ah! What a clever strategy!
And with this move so swift and bold
The company came in our fold.
And over time this company
Well known as Godrej-Sara Lee
Became a star within the group.
For Adi this was such a scoop.
Adi can’t stand the status quo
All that’s new he wants to know.
And if he thinks that it is right
He puts all his will and might
Behind the new initiative
And with support that he can give
We quickly learn the latest ways,
Make sure the group sees better days.
But while he strives for the group
The industry is in the loop.
All who know him can surely bet
Whether it’s ISTMA or SCODET
He’s always ready to lend a hand,
Be President or take a stand
With government on policy
And he’ll persist till industry
Gets exactly what it needs.
Thus with conviction Adi leads.
All who see him are inspired.
For all he does, he’s never tired
Where does he get the energy?
It’s really not a mystery,
Adi, ofcourse, is very fit.
He doesn’t seem to want to sit.
There’s not a sport, he hasn’t tried
For he can even paraglide.
He really loves to water-ski,
Not on a lake but on the sea.
On a recent trip to ,
Although conditions were quite harsh,
The mount was circled in a day.
Most folks his age would say, “No way”.
Listening to praise can be quite tough,
I’m sure by now he’s had enough.
But all the same why don’t we stand
And give him a rousing hand?
