You have to be very cautious in life and politics if you behave in a gentlemanly manner. During my earlier days of career, I did a huge favour to a friend and he came out with a reasonably good proposal of quid-pro-quo. I laughed at him and bluntly told him, let us not pollute our beautiful relationship of mutual admiration and affection. My friend instantly quipped, love and fresh air, is not everything in life and if life is allowed to be run without practical wisdom and pragmatism, you end up as a looser. He further elaborated that his conscience was clean after his proposal which was refused by me on moral grounds but as far as he was concerned he frankly told me that profit which he wanted to share with me was going to be extra financial gain in his favour and it was my personal decision to behave like a looser in the entire proposition in spite of his best endeavor to compensate me.

I was personally very close to late Dhirubhai Ambani and it was at my instance that JD(S) leader and former Prime Minister Mr. Deve Gowda visited SEAWIND to have his first introductory dinner with him .Of course, Mr. Gowda was not Prime Minister then but subsequently he became. There were certain legitimate corporate hassles and I honestly intervened with Mr. Gowda to take care of those hassles if they were constitutionally and legally feasible in favour of Ambanis. Needful required was accomplished and Ambanis were very happy. Once, I was holidaying with Shyam Bhartia, Shobhana Bhartia and Scindias in London which used to be my regular annual social ritual of that particular decade. Someone called and that particular call was immediately followed by my erstwhile friend Mr. Mukesh Ambani. Mukesh told me, brother you have taken pain for us and you must gain from us now. I refused and told late Dhirubhai I have simply done what I thought legal, moral and correct and that was my duty as a friend and as a public person. Duty is not at all pain to be substantiated by financial gain. To be fair to Late Dhirubhai, he genuinely appreciated my gesture and promised that this “one way traffic” of mine will be always cherished for lifetime and true to his word, he maintained it throughout his life. His death came at around 3:30 on July 6th 2002 and that day itself around 2:30 in the afternoon he spoke with me on a conference call in presence of his both sons.

Recently, I choose to remain consistent, on my “one way traffic” principle, when a sugar baron from a very prestigious Maharashtra family, presently close to Shri Sharad Pawar and Sri Murli Deora offered me the same old Mukesh Ambani theory of materialism “some gain for your pain please”. I have rendered my active participation in Samajwadi Party as “one way traffic” only. I have worked hard over the years and have shouldered lot of responsibilities but was not fortunate enough to be reciprocated by the party. Trust me, it sounds like Hindu united family where “kartas with karmas” are always lesser in numbers, but ultimate fruit of success is shared with one and all and at times the real doer, particularly when a crisis erupts is lambasted and lampooned. Never mind, success has got many fathers and failure is always a bastard

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