One day, in March 1991, I was at the train station in Frankfurt with Vinay and Seema when their briefcase holding all their travel documents was stolen. Seema was supposed to be watching it while Vinay and I went to buy tickets, but she, being a friendly woman, caught the eye of two young men who approached her. While one distracted her, the other ran off with the briefcase. Luckily, I carried mine with me, or I also would have been stuck in Frankfort.
My main role was to help the couple establish business in Germany, and now that my time with them was over, I was glad to leave. The couple had been quarrelsome and not pleasant to work with.
I took a flight to Boston, Massachusetts, and after spending several enjoyable days with the Cheemas, I traveled to New York with Yusef, the Cheemas’ eldest son, to attend the biggest annual exhibition on marketing leather garments. While there, I attended a fashion show of the latest jacket styles and designs. As I sat in the audience watching young girls modeling the jackets, pants, and skirts, I shook my head, thinking to myself, I have a master’s in industrial engineering and have healthcare administration experience, and now, here I am watching a fashion show. I know nothing about fashion. I couldn’t help feeling a little ridiculous, but at the same time, I could only laugh about it. Yusef sat next to me, wide-eyed and enjoying the fashion show as beautiful young girls paraded in front of him, flashing smiles as they showed off the leather jackets, purses, and pants.
The exhibition was overwhelming due to my lack of experience, yet I kept moving forward. After Yusef left, I stayed for three more days, approaching many wholesalers and showing them my leather jacket samples. From New York, my travels took me to Washington, DC, back to Boston, and again to New York to see more exhibits and connect with more wholesale buyers. I was not having much luck. Since no one knew about our company or our product, it was difficult to get an initial order. Two months passed, and in May, I boarded the plane back to India, my brain bursting with knowledge I hoped would be useful in marketing the business. I couldn’t wait to get back to my family, pack our things, and board a flight back to America by June or early July before the school starts.
“Life won’t be as easy as before we came to India,” I told Raj when I returned to India. Once we’re in the States, you may need to get a job to help with expenses. I’m not sure what is going to happen with my career. Are you sure you don’t want to stay in India with the kids until I can get reestablished in the healthcare field?”
“I can work,” Raj said quickly. “I don’t want to stay behind.”
Christopher and Rajan didn’t want to stay behind either. Subhash, in his third year of Engineering College at Manipal Institute of Technology, needed to finish his degree and was the only one remaining in India.
Excited that the time was ripe for us to go to America, I contacted Satish to inform him we would be leaving soon.
“Oh, but you can’t move to America yet,” Satish said. “Things went terribly wrong in Germany while you were gone. The leather company is nearly dead.”
“What happened?” I demanded.
Satish explained that while Vinay and Seema were in Germany, they spent the company’s money lavishly. Because they lost their visa documents, they were forced to leave Germany abruptly and return to India, and since they could not continue the business in Germany, they siphoned 40,000 DM ($25,000) into Vinay’s father’s bank account in Hong Kong.
“Bedi Sahib, only you can resuscitate the business,” my brother-in-law pleaded. “If you do not, we will simply bury the company because it is on its last breaths. We need you to spend six more weeks in Germany to revive contacts with wholesale buyers. Bedi Sahib, if you can receive one large order, you will be able to bring the company back to life.”
I sighed. America would have to wait.
“Yes, I will do my best,” I replied.
“I know you will, Bedi Sahib. I know you will.”
I spent one month in Germany, and at the end of my trip, I received an order for one thousand jackets. Satish met me there just in time to seal the deal.
“Bedi Sahib, you have brought the company back to life!”
Satish praised me endlessly, and while I was grateful to have helped Satish with his company, I felt more than ready to return to America.
My wife and sons were staying in Nabha with Raj’s parents, and one sweltering mid-afternoon, the car driven by Satish’s chauffeur pulled up in front of their house. Raj had done all the packing on her own, and to this day, I think back to the stress she faced making sure our affairs were in order, all our belongings packed into boxes and shipped from Indore, and every loose end tied up while I was away in Germany. All the decision-making about what to keep and what to sell rested on her shoulders, and she made sure we kept the basic necessities while selling other items such as the two televisions, the refrigerator, washer and dryer, and any other large items too expensive to ship. However, we did keep the large sectional sofa we bought in America, as well as the wooden bed frame custom made in India. All this she arranged, and not once did I hear her complain. My kids did not complain about moving to the States either. They readily accepted my decision, willing to move on to the next adventure.
The day I boarded the plane with my wife and two of my sons was the day that all the rivers of emotions flowing through
