Prof. Pillai was one of the exceptionally rare human beings...

Two decades ago when I became an educational entrepreneur with a firm belief that education, by definition, was based on ethics; little did I realize that it would be full of unending bottlenecks, hardships, sacrifices and struggles. Wondering whether this systemic onslaught was being faced by me only or there were others also who were known to be ethical, I went about meeting such people and exploring others in their network. This extensive interface-based empirical work lead me to the conclusion that in reality many who claimed to be ethical were actually piggy-riding on some alibi such as the following to justify their hidden compromising approach:

• What they were asking from the authorities was their legitimate right and not beyond their right. Hence there were no issues in making the compromise.
• Purpose was not of self-interest but of societal or national interest. Therefore, it was alright to compromise.
• Some Guruji (eminent saint) advised that they should not compromise but it was okay if someone else made the compromise for their purpose.
• No compromise done directly with the concerned authorities but the payment for the work done made by cheque to some consultant who “managed” the work with the concerned authorities.

My take was that the authorities should not give any gratification, irrespective of the giver and especially when the purpose was legal, societal and for the larger national interest.

It was during this exercise that I came across Prof. M. S. Pillai as the only other person whose wavelength matched mine. With this, a unique enduring relationship of purpose, principles and passion started between two of us around two decades back, even without any physical meeting having taken place, to begin with.

First Meeting

In December 2005, when I visited Pune with some of our students for an educational excursion, I had my first meeting over lunch with Prof. Pillai along with a common friend Prof. Sameer Dua who was the host. During this long luncheon meeting, we analyzed and discussed threadbare the status of higher education in the country, especially the shocking role of the regulators in systematically undermining it and thereby adversely affecting the careers of students, lives of their families and the future of our nation.

Thereafter Prof. Pillai took me to his institution, Sadhana Centre for Management & Leadership Development (SCMLD) where he showed me how in a laboratory-mode he was inculcating and nurturing the various human values in his students. Later, I also addressed and interacted with Prof. Pillai’s students. After this, I again had a long discussion with Prof. Pillai, this time on his struggles for ethics with the authorities.

Though I had known about Prof. Pillai’s unconventional approach to inculcating human values in his students, it was an eye-opening experience for me to witness it in action. Prof. Pillai and I both firmly believed that a good manager had to be necessarily a good human being first. Moreover, both of us agreed that while the world of management was dynamic where the only constant aspect was change, the one thing which has remained unchanged since time immemorial was humility. To achieve all these, of course, Prof. Pillai and I had different mechanisms and pedagogical tools. Prof. Pillai had made it compulsory for the students to clean their toilets (something which Mahatma Gandhi professed and practiced), have self-service for meals after which students themselves cleaned their utensils, ensure strict punctuality and discipline, adhere to quality in everything, have an environment of equality, teach ethics through himself being the role model and propagate merit in everything he did. By all these, Prof. Pillai, in reality, contributed significantly towards our nation-building. His students appreciated these and the recruiters got attracted but unfortunately the mandarins of regulatory authority despised this approach, looked down upon his approach and did everything to sabotage it.

Second Meeting

In October 2013, jointly with Management Teachers’ Consortium (MTC) Global, we organized 3rd MTC Global Annual Convention on ENVISIONING MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE FUTURE at our campus Aravali Gurukul Ashram in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Amongst various distinguished keynote speakers, we were truly honoured and privileged to have Prof. Pillai to address this prestigious event on Education Vs Qualification: Experiences of an Educator. Prof. Pillai was there for all the three days of the event and stayed at our campus.

For me, it was insightful to listen how in his oratory, Prof. Pillai related and explained the complex principles of management with the simplest examples of what any common man did in daily life like farmers growing cereals and vegetables, our cooking and eating of meals and maintaining health. For him, the only way to ensure that the education happened was by making the learning take place, as distinct from the teaching alone per se.

Third Meeting

In March 2017, my wife Anita and I visited Pune to have detailed discussions with my friend Prof. Parag Shah, Founder of FLAME, in the context of entrepreneurship education and stayed at the campus of his unique institution MIDAS India. During this visit, we also met and interacted with a number of corporate CEOs, institution-builders and my fellow IITs and IIMs alumni friends. One of them was Prof. Pillai, whom we invited for a luncheon meeting and he graciously accepted our invitation.

This was a very long meeting during which, for the first time, Prof. Pillai opened up like one would do with someone closest and shared with me his sacrifices on the family front, his continuing struggles for ethics, his disappointments in life and his future plans. This discussion reinforced the fact that one can strictly adhere to ethics and persistently fight the authorities on not compromising only if the torchbearer had the following rare defining characteristics:

• No skeletons in the cupboard: One should not have done anything illegal or wrong in his/her entire career and life. This is because when you take on the government, the authorities do not become defensive but rather retaliate by vigorously searching and then snowballing your wrongdoing(s) and go offensive against you.
• “No Choice” paradigm: One should constantly tell him/herself every day that he/she did not have any choice but to stick to ethics and not to compromise at all, irrespective of the circumstances and consequences.
• No axe to grind; Nothing to lose: Whatever one was doing was to satisfaction of the noble cause of humanity and nation-building at its core. There was no tangible or any other gain. Nothing belonged to you and therefore, there was nothing to lose. You are merely the trustee of all the assets which were at your disposal.
• Simple living and high thinking: When one is aiming the impossible in an unthinkable way -establishing and running an organization without compromise in India-it is important that you live simply so that you could manage with minimum means.

Prof. Pillai epitomized all the above qualities. He sincerely believed that the right thing (which true education is) should necessarily be done in the right way. This is, of course, in sharp contrast to the prevailing scenario where the large majority of both the government and private educational institutions operate in the wrong way – not having right faculty, right courses and curricula, right pedagogy, the right culture and right organizational networking. For Prof. Pillai, education was a noble cause and not a commercial business venture.

Fourth Meeting which did not happen

Spandan Foundation for Human Values in Management & Society was founded by Prof. G. P. Rao of IIM Calcutta in the year 2001. Late Prof. Ishwar Dayal, part of the initial faculty of IIM Ahmedabad who later became the Founding Director of IIM Lucknow when it was established in the year 1984, was the Chairman of Spandan Foundation since its inception till his passing away in the year 2015. In October 2018 I had recommended Prof. M. S. Pillai’s name for the prestigious 11th Spandan IBA SKC Award in Human Values for Professionals 2019. Prof. Pillai was selected for the award by the jury and informed about it by Prof. Rao. In his e-mail dated 27th November 2018, while accepting his selection for the award, Prof. Pillai wrote “Deeply feeling humbled that all of you, the pioneers and great champions of value-driven education, have found me to bestow the award. I accept this honour with humility. Look forward to being with you all and others on 22nd January 2019”.

Prof. Pillai and I were in regular touch with each other. We both had planned to reach Bengaluru on 21st January 2019 so that we could have one full day for meeting and discussion on various aspects. On 4th January 2019 afternoon, I received from Prof. Pillai his travel plans. Everything seemed going as per the schedule. However, the very next day morning, I got the shock of my life when a common friend S. Deenadayalan rang up to inform me about the sudden passing away of Prof. Pillai due to a massive heart attack. I just could not believe it. I double and triple cross-checked this news with some Pune-based common friends. Destiny has its own strange ways. The Almighty had unfortunately snatched away from us Prof. Pillai-a dear friend, a great educator, a man with a mission and a wonderful human being.

With the passing away of the awardee, the Bengaluru event was cancelled. Our 21-22 January 2019 meeting did not take place.

Prof. Pillai was one of the exceptionally rare human beings who had the strength of character, strength of commitment, strength of confidence, strength of conviction, strength of cooperation and strength of courage

Epilogue

Talking about how the regulatory mechanism had subverted the educational system of our country, Prof. Pillai in his e-mail of 28th September 2018 wrote to me “One example is me. I would have and still, can set up a world class but unique India rooted and Indian ethos based institute here. Our Trust purchased the land for the same as well. However, as long as the regulatory agency in its current form exists, I will not do it. Hence I am growing grass in the same land. It gives me peace of mind. After raising and spending Rs.25 crores in building the campus, why the hell I should go and beg and bribe these unscrupulous men with uncontrolled power, to get approval and renew it every year? Also, why should I deposit money and they draw interest on my money? In fact, these so-called regulators commercialized education more than the unscrupulous, education barons. Ultimately, the students pay.

Prof. Pillai was one of the exceptionally rare human beings who had the strength of character, strength of commitment, strength of confidence, strength of conviction, the strength of cooperation and strength of courage. From these strengths. Prof. Pillai developed and derived the power of purpose, power of passion, power of principles, power of practice, power of persistence and power of people. Prof. Pillai was truly himself an invaluable brand personified.