DOUBLE OR QUITS IN A COFFEE FACTORY

Having got myself a scooter (VIJAI super because there was a long waiting period for the Bajaj Vespa) within a few months of shifting to Bangalore in mid 1986, I traveled far and wide with the objective of developing my business. Tumkur, Doddaballapur, Ramanagaram, Chennapatna, Hosur, Mysore and similar satellite conglomerations around Bangalore were visited several times over. Whitefield, about 20 Km out of Bangalore was a frequent target. Situated on the Whitefield Main road was the instant coffee factory of Brooke Bond India Ltd., (BBIL) making the famous BRU instant coffee.

The road to Brooke Bond was a lonely deserted stretch of indifferent tarmac beyond the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) campus on the outskirts of Bangalore.  Miles and miles of rural road, with nary a soul in sight.  Woe betide the person with a broken down vehicle on this Godforsaken country road. With heart in my mouth, I made several forays to this factory, seeking to sell my services. On one such occasion I met the General Manager of BBIL in charge of all their coffee factories,  a stern looking Bengali gentleman by name R K Sen. BBIL had recently shifted their Head quarters lock, stock and barrel from Calcutta to Bangalore, in view of the none too favourable Industrial climate in West Bengal due to the Marxist Communist dispensation in that state.

R K Sen had had enough of Plumbing consultants masquerading as Environmental specialists. The pathetic state of affairs in the Wastewater treatment plant was evidence enough of the trials and tribulations suffered by the good man at the hands of these quacks and charlatans:  Dark brown wastewater, the colour of coffee went in, came out of the plant unaltered by any semblance of treatment. He now had no patience with consultants of any description.

Dogged persistence paid off however : R K Sen finally relented, but with a challenge. He would let me do all the trials and treatability studies on the wastewater in their laboratory. He would even implement them on a pilot scale : and, if successful, BBIL would pay me double the consultancy fee I had quoted. If I failed, I had to tuck my tail between my legs, and disappear from his sight. The classic double or quits stakes, dear to the heart of an inveterate gambler. Never a gambling man, but cocksure of my abilities, I picked up the gauntlet.

I spent many a day in their dingy little lab, trying out various permutations, concentrations and sequence of coagulant and chemicals, at various pH conditions until one day hit upon the right combination. As a Graduate student at Vanderbilt, I had undergone a course in precisely this kind of exercise : A scientific methodology of experimentation, comprising Experiment- Design-Analysis followed by statistical inference techniques to logically, progressively take me to the ultimate solution.

I won the day, and the heart of R K Sen : The rest, as they say is history. I became the preferred consultant to BBIL, and its successor Hindustan Lever, when they bought up both BBIL and Lipton India (The Lipton Factory in Etah – Uttar Pradesh deserves another story). The coffee factory is no more in Whitefield. In that campus now stands the impressive Unilever Research Centre. To this day, we are servicing the Wastewater treatment plant at this site.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                   First Published : June 25, 2011

Footnote : As I write this piece today, our Company, Ecotech, celebrated its Silver Jubilee year at a small function, fittingly enough at a venue right opposite where the coffee factory once stood. Forty of our senior staff and supervisors met on this joyous occasion. A more committed team of employees cannot be seen. I confess to fighting a losing battle to control the tears in my eyes seeing their devotion and dedication to the Company and pride they take in the honourable work that they do in the service of society at large. The unashamed display of fealty and fierce loyalty by the team towards me as a person was touching.