Steel Man Russi Mody dies at 96
KOLKATA: The grand old man of Indian steel Russi Mody, who spent over 50 years perfecting steel production for an emerging nation, died at 96 on Friday night.
At five feet nothing, Mody was a giant whose image, to many, was more luminous than Tata Iron & Steel Company (TISCO — later christened Tata Steel) where he began as an office assistant in 1939 and eventually became its chairman in 1982.
In his early years at Tata Steel, Mody endeared himself to the workers and when he was made director of personnel in 1953 he became its ‘human face’.
His standards for managerstaff relationship became benchmarks for the Indian industry and rumours had it he knew every one of Tata Steel’s 80,000 workers by name.
His good relationship with Tata Steel, however, came to an end in 1993 when he left the company after a bitter row with Ratan Tata. Mody then went on to become the chairman of both Air India and Indian Airlines.
The Steel Man eventually settled down in Kolkata where anecdotes of his colourful character, including his addiction to 16-egg omelets, did the rounds. “His favourite dish was prawn palia which he could cook to perfection and liked to treat others,” said Jimmy Mody, his nephew. He lived in a two-storied bungalow in Alipore that had a piano on the ground floor on which Mody played for hours. “In England, he also had the opportunity to play the piano with Albert Einstein who played the violin,” said Jimmy. A Padma Bhushan awardee, Mody was born to Parsi family in Mumbai on January 17, 1918.
He studied in London’s Harrow School and Christ Church College, Oxford.
He married his cousin Siloo Mugaseth (the daughter of his mother’s sister), but they had a barren marriage.
Though a Parsi, Mody will be cremated at the Keoratala crematorium Sunday.