From a successful career as an officer in the Mechanized Infantry of the Indian army to an even more illustrious one as an environmental entrepreneur, Lt. Col. Suresh Rege (Retd.) has traversed an assorted terrain with characteristic aplomb. And even as we speak of his many achievements the one thing that stands out is how this military man successfully transplanted years of training to a (then) relatively unexplored arena of waste management — namely the myriad possibilities of the biogas plant in making the best of liquid and solid waste. Sure, we may be talking of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan today, but 22 years ago, it was a story much different from what it is today: the awareness levels about biogas technology were lower and the corporate will to give it a shot even less so. With patience, perseverance and planning, Suresh Rege not only educated those around, but also converted the same into a successful and sustainable business with industrial clients from all walks of life. With over 350 plants in the country, his labour of love, Mailhem Ikos Environment Pvt. Ltd. continues to go from strength to strength. The philosophy is as sophisticated as it is simple: the disposal of waste at its source in a manner that is innovative, cost effective, efficient and through a solution that is a one-stop shop. His better half, the very gracious Vaiju Rege has ably seen him and their sons through thick and thin. This Dynamic Duo has so many stories and so many lessons to share...
"Making the best of waste and being eco-friendly is new age talk. These days everyone talks about the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to have cleanliness around us, but in the early 90s there was nothing as such"
-lt. col. suresh rege
Lt. Col. Suresh Rege: It has much to do with my family background. My father, Major Jaywant Rege was a Second World War veteran. He was from the Baroda State Forces and fought the Second World War in Burma. 2nd Baroda Battalion was then converted to 20 Maratha Light Infantry of the Indian Army. My growing up years were steeped in the memories of military life. You could pretty much say that I had blinkers on and saw little beyond the army. When I told my dad, he said, Suresh, you have to work hard if you wish to become an officer. NDA is best because you join very young. One day jokingly he asked me, “Suresh, what if you don’t become an officer?” I didn’t know what to say, I said, “So what, I will join as a Sepoy.” That was the level of determination that I had to join the army.
Today things have changed because academics are important. In our days, if you were a good sportsman everybody thought you had the makings of an excellent officer.
But today as the armed forces get technically advanced, the NDA is emphasizing technical education. In our time if you played well, no one said anything to you, and that included the professors: As long as you scored a winning goal or scored those extra runs, what more could you want? (Laughs). But there was logic to this belief. A sportsman typically embodies the fighting spirit so important in an officer. He has discipline, commitment and strength to command his men in every situation.
Besides, I got the blue and blazer in cricket early on, and everyone was appreciative.
Hardships are there; they’re always there probably because we came from an army background, we knew what to expect. My father was strict and disciplined; there was no question of not getting up early in the morning. As his sons, we had no choice but to get up at 6 am and train with him. Having been brought up that way it wasn’t tough for me. But things are tougher for those from a pure civilian background. The discipline, the punishments when you upset a senior, the relentless stress on physical fitness and mental strength-one has to go through an arc of development. But in the end, it’s completely worth it.
I was in the army for 20 years, from ‘69 to ‘90 and enjoyed a fantastic career in the army’s Mechanized Infantry.
I recall those years with great fondness, for they were the best of my life; I played cricket for the services, played hockey, did all the right courses under the guidance of seniors like General Nambiar who incidentally was a young officer when my father was Second in Command.
Naturally we shared a close bond. So when he said, Suresh, only sports won’t do, you have to be sent on the courses, I listened. I did well on the courses, had some very good postings, everything in the army was the best. I got my promotions on schedule. But when I was approved for next rank of Colonel, I decided to do something different. Twenty years is a long time. I said, let me try it out on the other side. I was confident of myself, because having done well in the army, I said why not.
No, nothing, that is the beauty of it. People do not believe it when I tell them so but the fact remains that I left with my head held high and on my own terms.
No, it was something that I had discussed, but both my parents and seniors were upset. General Nambiar, was then Colonel of the Regiment of Mechanized Infantry. Mrs Nambiar said, “Suresh, what are you talking about? You are calling it quits; you of all people cannot.” My father was upset for he felt I could have taken over the same battalion in due course.
I said, I have decided. What I was going to do next, I had no idea. But I had decided. Fortunately, I had a house, a pension and a working wife who was a teacher. So yes, I could take that chance.
"As long as you could make a convincing goal or score those extra runs, what more could you want? But there was logic to this belief. A sportsman typically embodies the fighting spirit so important in an officer. He has discipline, commitment and strength to command his men in every situation"
-lt. col. suresh rege
I was 40.
When I told them that I wanted to do something on my own, my father, as would be expected of the older generation was skeptical. He said to me, Why do you want to do business, it is not in our blood. That hit me hard, and after a week or so, I called my dad over to tell him something. Since I was going to start something new it was important to have him on my side.
I said to him that I was all set to go on a dialysis to get a businessman’s blood, in order to be able to do business. He saw my point and gave me his blessings.
Making the best of waste and being eco -friendly is new age talk. These days everyone talks about the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to have cleanliness around us, but in the early 90s there was nothing as such.
I had a friend who had some ideas about putting waste to good use. But no one wanted to get into it, it was an unchartered territory. Everybody wants to take up a business that is tried and tested. What I was getting into was unheard of. I met a technical guy who promised to help if needed. He said, Suresh you will make a go of it. This is what you call decision making and army training.
I saw the potential and said, why not?
Then the question arose as to how much money I could put in. That was a bit of a concern, for one was not born with a silver spoon. It was my pension and I had an earning wife working with Muktanagan, so I took the plunge.
Initially, there was only talk of the gobar gas plant, with cow dung and all that. We didn’t want to do that, we wanted to do it from food waste. I was worried that someone would copy our design. So to make the biogas I got 12 people to do 12 different components and the 13th chap to assemble it. Nobody knew what it was.
Today, I do not bother because we are a brand name. But at that time we were worried about copy cats. We then approached Bajaj and told them we wanted their kitchen waste. They said, we are not here for your R&D, we want something tested and tried. I needed 20-25 kgs, but there was no way to get that kind of waste in-house.
So I thought of approaching the army. I went back to the Commandant and said that I needed help. I told him that I wanted the leftover food from the canteens and would pay for it. He asked me what I would do with it.
I said, ‘I have brought this for trial, gas will come out of this and then I will make tea from food waste.’ He promptly said, go ahead. That’s how we started doing it. We started at Mechanized Infantry, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. There have been ups and downs in the business, but we have never looked back.
"When I told them that I wanted to do something on my own, my father, as would be expected of the older generation was sceptical. He said to me, Why do you want to do business, it is not in our blood. That hit me hard, and after a week or so, I called my dad over to tell him something. I sai d to him that I was all set to go on a dialysis to get a businessman’s blood in order to be able to do business. He saw my point and gave me his blessings"
-lt. col. suresh rege
Around that time, I came across a magazine from the Mechanized centre named Sarath. I liked the name, it meant drive. So I said: I have enough of it all right, and it is fitting to call my first company Sarath Enterprises. Everything else moved from there. In 1995, when I started getting the orders, the big guns didn’t like proprietary companies, so we founded a private limited company. So we were wondering what to name a private limited company. It was interesting that someone gave us the word MAILHEM.
In Sanskrit ‘MAIL’ Means WASTE and ‘HEM’ Means GOLD. Thus we got into the Business of converting WASTE TO GOLD.
The advantage was that such a different sounding name would generate much curiosity. Besides, Mailhem sounds a bit German. Germany was the best in renewable energy those days, now I can proudly say that Germany is looking at us for innovative solutions.
For industries and for everyone else, including housing complexes too where you have a minimum of 100 kg of waste per day. We started like that. All the industries, used to give their waste to the piggery. If the piggery chap did not pick it up, it used to stink. This is how I started and today I have all the big clients and there is competition amongst them to have best model from us.
The strategy was always to target the top people, as anything to do with the environment has to come top down in order to succeed. And so with patience and fortitude, we went from strength to strength. Two decades on, we are the only company that has band width to treat 100 kg to hundreds of tons of waste per day. This is unique.
As an army man some experiences were difficult, because you have certain values, certain ethics that matter to you. But gradually one learns that when in Rome do as the Romans do.
Without changing or hurting the ethics I held dear, I learnt to adapt. These people had no value for time. This is the saddest thing I felt when I came out of uniform. When people call you at 2 pm and then ask you to wait…that means they have no value for your time. It used to upset me and I would leave. But when I left, I used to leave a chit, saying, I waited for you and left. That didn’t make any difference to them, they were pretty thick-skinned. This is what used to hurt me, I used to keep telling people, what for, why? And so on. But I learnt my lessons early.
Yes, I adapted. But it wasn’t easy. I still remember one instance where despite working for two huge companies, we were living from hand to mouth. Nevertheless, we made sure that our people got their payments. The army taught us to take care of the junior-most employees, even if there is shortage. We have stuck to that ethos.
But not everyone thought like us, not even our regular clients. They used to tell me, Colonel you have done a wonderful job, finishing work before Diwali, and all that. I thought we would get a cheque, so I could keep my boys happy. But they would come up with an excuse saying, ‘Our SAP system is not working.’ What can you do, you cannot yell at them.
Thus one of my first lessons was that if you wanted to be an entrepreneur, you needed to have a dog in the house. Now one may ask: what is the relation between keeping a dog and wanting to be an entrepreneur? When the big guys don’t give you money and you are irritated and angry, you can neither yell at them nor your spouse at home, because it’s not fair on her.
But when you have a dog, it does not know or care what mood you are in and is simply glad to see you and greets and licks you with its customary unconditional love and enthusiasm. Thus your mood improves, and your near and dear ones are saved from your wrath.
First thing, discipline. It is a very critical thing and one must expect it of oneself as well as one’s subordinates and colleagues. Stick to your word and keep time. Respect others’ time, and when they don’t respect yours, don’t tolerate it.
Second is the need for quick decision making. Because today in the corporate, what we want is a decision. The Army taught us, if we didn’t take a decision, we would all be dead in war. Left or right, decide where to go and follow it through.
The third thing, as we say in the army: no matter what, never give up. Never say die.
The fourth thing that I find unrealistic and amusing is that they seem to dislike difficulties in business. But try as you might, difficulties do come up and the best thing you can do is face them with your chin up. For example, we had an accident in one of our plants with a high speed rotating blade where the lid just flew off.
When I got the call: my first reaction was: did anybody get hurt? When informed in the negative, I said good. Keeping calm and staying positive are what we are taught as young officers. Besides, if my team has a problem they are free to call at any hour; that’s the kind of confidence they have.
The old saying goes: Behind every successful man, there is a woman. If Vaijju Rege, in a manner unique to fauji wives, were to tweak the truism, it would read: Next to and in sync with every successful man, there is a strong woman who keeps the faith in him as well as the values they hold dear as a couple. Not only has she played multiple roles in his life as a wife, mother and life partner, but she has also seen him through two radically different careers: as a military man and an entrepreneur. In short, she has been both, a wife and the wind beneath his wings. In fact, the very fact that she was a working woman gave him the confidence to take on the ups and downs of entrepreneurship even with a young family. In a world of impatience, arrogance and intolerance, hers is a message of certain old-world values that are classic and timeless in their relevance. It takes a lot to keep a marriage - patience being the starting point. This is her journey and this is how she narrates it. What’s more, her husband clearly admires her...
"She has been a great support which has been a blessing throughout. Even when I was away, the kids were looked after, and the way she has brought them up is admirable. And not only that, when my parents were here, they considered her closer to them than my sisters, which speaks volumes about her"
-lt. col. suresh rege
Lt. Col. Suresh Rege: I knew her for close to four and a half years before we got married. She was in Fergusson Hostel. I was a Second Lieutenant, a young officer commissioned just before the war. A friend of mine had a niece in the hostel and that was an excuse to visit the hostel. That’s when I saw her and that’s how it all happened. I don’t know who took whose wickets but we ended up together. (Smiles.)
Vaiju Rege: We met at the famous Hotel Vaishali. My friend’s uncle had come to see her; so we took permission to go out and see him and that’s how we met. He was on a short leave but had to leave in some time. He came back after the war. I didn’t know anything about him.
Vaiju Rege: Not for me.
Vaiju Rege: We first met in January 1971. We started corresponding, and we told our parents we liked each other. Both sets of parents wanted us to wait till I finished my graduation. We waited and then we got married in 1975.
Suresh Rege: She has been great. When I got married, we were in Pathankot and from ’82 onwards, when my kids were growing up, I realized that I wanted them to have better schooling. So she came to my parents to Pune and from the first standard to the last year of school they have been there. She lived separately for eight years; it was a sacrifice for both of us, but it was worth it, for the children did well.
Suresh Rege: She has been a great support which has been a blessing throughout. Even when I was away, the kids were looked after, and the way she has brought them up is admirable. And not only that, when my parents were here, they considered her closer to them than my sisters, which speaks volumes about her. She has looked after my parents in their old age and it hasn’t been easy. We have three sons. The elder one is 42, and then there are the two who are identical twins. Sameer, Gautam and Abhijeet. Sameer is the eldest one. Gautam and Abhijeet are the twins. Sameer was born in Delhi, because her dad was doing an NDC course as a Brigadier and the younger ones were born in Kolkata where her father was posted. In the house, she had no support, no daughter and four male brats, namely three sons and me. She still managed!
Vaiju Rege: What I admire about him is that he has a logical thought process. The way he can convince you of the importance of doing something is really nice.
When I came and settled down here, my in-laws were very supportive of me and my small kids. But my father-in-law said, while you and your children are most welcome in the house, I don’t want your luggage. So my husband used to carry his luggage wherever he was posted. I stayed in Model Colony with them. In 1990, we constructed our present home and shifted there. They didn’t keep well, so it made sense for them to live with us. Besides, Suresh had just started his business and he was passionate about it. So I said to myself, I can look after this side, while he can take care of the other. My in-laws were also happy with us. We were very compatible. I got along very well with them. My children also got a good moral grounding. I also learnt many things from my in-laws, especially, from my father- in-law.
"Parents are trying to impose their incomplete ambitions on the child, which is strictly avoidable. When I see a face-off between my son and my grandchild, I tell my son, let him play. Every chap cannot be a Tendulkar. We may want it that way, but it won’t necessarily happen that way. Just let him enjoy the game and the process of growing up"
-lt. col. suresh rege
A Happy Family: (L-R back row) Sons - Sameer, Abhijit, Suresh (Lt. Col.- father) and Gautam. (Second row) Daughters-in-law, Yogita, Zlata, (Vaiju - mother-in-law) and Vaibhavi. Grandkids, Vijay, Sahil and Swara
Vaiju Rege: I had to be. (smiles.)
Vaiju Rege: Lots of understanding and lot of tolerance. You cannot say that I am always right - you must listen to the other person’s point of view as well. What’s more, no matter what the cost, there should be peace in the house. My only prayer to God was to be united as a family. Besides, I believe in being fair and not choosing one member over the other.
Today for instance, I have five grandchildren. When they come, they say, who do you like the best? I say, you cannot ask me to say that I like him more or I like her more. It is like a hand, all five fingers are attached to my hand. All the five fingers are precious to me!
Vaiju Rege: I was teaching since 1985, and I retired in 1997. When the children were young I needed to look after them; so for the first ten years of my married life, from 1975-1985, I didn’t do anything except look after them. When they started to go to school, I had the whole day to myself. That’s when I did my B. Ed., and then I got my first job.
Vaiju Rege: As a mother, bringing up a child is very difficult, it is even tougher than the pangs of child birth. Nurturing them, bringing them up with the right moral values is critical.
Vaiju Rege: When required, yes. When my elder son was in junior college, he wanted to go to an overnight picnic with his friends, a group that included both boys and girls. I asked him: where are you going to stay? He had no answer. All he knew was they were going to Mahabaleshwar. Apparently all his friends - the girls had convinced their parents to let them go as Sameer was going. I didn’t much care for the arrangement, it seemed problematic. If something went wrong there they would blame my son Sameer. I didn’t let him go and he was very angry with me.
I had to take certain decisions that felt right at that point in time. Maybe I was wrong, I don’t know. But today, now that the boys have kids themselves, I guess they understand why mother did the things she did.
"When I came and settled down here, my in-laws were very supportive of me and my small kids. But my father-in-law said, while you and your children are most welcome in the house, I don’t want your luggage. So my husband used to carry his luggage wherever he was posted. I stayed in Model Colony with them"
-Vaiju Rege
Vaiju Rege: I admit parents don’t have it easy these days. Luckily we had it easier.
Suresh Rege: I think parents are trying to impose their incomplete ambitions on the child, which is strictly avoidable. When I see a face-off between my son and my grandchild, I tell my son, let him play. Every chap cannot be a Tendulkar. We may want it that way, but it won’t necessarily happen that way. Just let him enjoy the game and the process of growing up. These kids play a lot. Winning and losing happen all the time.
The other day, just before a competition I told my granddaughter, If you win it it’s fine; if you lose you have to go up to the winner and say congratulations. As parents, don’t upbraid the kid for not having won; it’s not possible to win everything in life. This is not the way, it’s unrealistic; by measuring everything through the lens of victory or failure, you are finishing the kid there and there. There is life beyond both. If you must compete, you have to learn to lose. Accepting defeat with grace is an important part of growing up too. These young generation parents, they seem to want the impossible: how can each child be a topper?
Vaiju Rege: You should not compare your children with someone else’s because all are unique. Never put them down. Their self-esteem should be left intact no matter what the parent expects and believes in.
Suresh Rege: Well, I have always felt strongly about the environment and waste management is an important aspect of that. To that end, my philosophy of waste management is very simple. Disposal of waste must happen at its source of generation. If my house is creating waste, it should be disposed of there itself; if not there itself, at least in the society, or in the ward. For example, why should the entire ward of Aundh carry the waste over 30 kilometers to Urli Devachi? It does not make sense.
What’s more, seeing is believing. Today, we confidently tell people, go and see the plant. In Nashik, every second and fourth Saturday, any local or visitor can go and visit the plant.
Suresh Rege: Enjoy life. Once back from work I watch TV for sports and news. It helps me unwind. I don’t brood over things when they go wrong: over-thinking does not help; what are you going to achieve anyway? If something has happened, I may take a decision for better or for worse, but carrying on thinking about it is not going to make any difference. It will simply prolong the misery.
My father also said, Suresh, life is meant to be enjoyed one way or the other. Everybody’s enjoyment is different, but togetherness as a family at the end of the day matters greatly.
Vaiju Rege: I believe simply in being happy at the moment.
By Vinita Deshmukh and Kalyani Sardesai
