Seven Wonders of Print

KIRAN PRAYAGI'S SEVEN PRINT PERSONALITIES

 

Noshir Cama, managing director of Bombay Samachar, was a versatile personality. His room had a wide collection of Reader’s Digest publication (not a single issue was ever discarded) and his own handwritten diaries for years. His habit of writing his diary every single day helped him recollect an incident that happened years ago.

 

A quick reference of his diary and the visitor could go back into time and recall the discussion. He would affectionately offer sandwiches and spend long hours discussing technology of printing to the minutest detail.

 

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Another print great was T P Pithavala, business director at The Times of India. Pithavala had a tremendous working capacity and was always enthusiastic to learn print technology besides the huge work pressure in the office. It was a pleasure to spend many Sunday mornings at his house to talk new technologies.

 

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G Kasturi, managing director of The Hindu, Chennai, possess technical knowledge that was far superior to most in the industry. He could operate every machine in his press and would work with the engineers to install any new machine bought by the company. Today's success at The Hindu is the outcome of the strong foundations laid by senior Kasturi.

 

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R Chockalingam, chairman of Srinivas Fine Arts, Sivakasi, is a self-made man. He started with outsourcing printing services and slowly building up his own identity with ultra modern printing and publishing facilities with one of the finest binderies in South Asia. His attention to the details in business as well as personal relationship (a glass of coconut water is mandatory) is astounding.

 

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Pranav Parikh, chairman and managing director of TechNova, is a fantastic person who built up a brand for TechNova as a global player. I admire him as he masters any product that he takes up, be it printed products at Printwell or plates and consumables at Taloja, Navi Mumbai. Plus his 24x7 working capacity for years together is something that I have not seen in the industry.

 

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Sanat Shah, chairman of Manugraph Industries, is a very enterprising personality. At Manugraph whatever be the project, he aims for the best and does the best. When I visited Maschinenfabrik Polygraph in Leipzig, Germany, I was told they only have two manufacturing sites, one in Leipzig and other in Kolhapur, thus proving their mettle to manufacture machines to German perfection.

 

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Dr Arved Hubler, director, pmTUC at Chemnitz University, Chemnitz, Germany is an accomplished research scientist involved in futuristic printed products as printed electronics. He holds a few patents in this area and has invented many firsts. He is a great fan of Indian culture and philosophy and there are always a few extra days every time he visits India to see temples, churches, caves, museums, and other things of historical interest.