Join The Dots

AKS Member Manoj Israni talks about his experiments with art and the meaning of charity

Some people go with the flow and others spot the next big wave a mile away and ride it. Art collector Manoj Israni does both exceedingly well. However, it is his boys Edward and Oliver – a cocker spaniel and a beagle – whose scrutiny the Gateway bulletin team must pass through as we enter Manoj’s Breach Candy bungalow.

Many woofs and wags later, we tear ourselves away and advance through an entrance foyer showcasing an Anish Kapoor concave mirror. Further up, a stairway that is lined with the who’s who of the Indian Progressives masters leads to a living room housing items chosen personally chosen by Manoj to populate his surroundings.

“I look for works I like and can live with,” says Eddie and Ollie’s adoptive father – Rotarian and Arch Klumph member, Manoj Israni, President of Blue Cross Laboratories.

Manoj stumbled into an interest in art in the early 2000s, quite accidentally. He had just purchased his flat in Samudra Mahal and wanted elements similar to his childhood home. “My dad had an M F Husain painting in the centre of his living room so I wanted one too. I could not afford something big so I bought a small one for a couple of lakh. A few months later, the art gallery I had bought it from wanted it back and so they bought it back for three times the
original amount.”

“To sell something at three times the amount was interesting to me. Even though I had not done an MBA, I was financially literate and I knew the difference between an appreciating asset and a depreciating one.” He then bought a Ram Kumar for Rs five lakh which he sold for Rs 80 lakh. “I made a little bit of money.” Manoj started visiting all the galleries and buying up works by the Progressive Artists’ Group. “I bought up a lot of Husains and Razas and also Laxman Shreshthas. But I also bought a lot of rubbish. At one time I had about 500 paintings!”

He recalls a period in the early years when he wanted a Husain that cost Rs 18 lakh but did not have the entire amount. To the disbelief of those who knew him, or knew of him, he sold his Mercedes to raise the balance. People thought he had gone broke and, as most Indians have no filters when it comes to asking about personal matters, they asked him so. Perhaps it would have been better if they had thought him broke because when he said he had sold it to buy a painting, they thought he was mad.

Manoj went to great lengths to build upon, and gain from, his experiments with art. This was a trend he caught before
it became big. He is proud to say that he worked for every penny of it. Gesturing to the collectibles around him, he says, “Nothing here is an inheritance; with my family, we have always been very clear about what is mine and what is yours. I never got hand-outs. Life is a do-ityourself project. Anything else is a bonus.”

“I go with the flow, take life as it comes. I don’t make too many plans.”

Manoj confesses he has tried to pass on some of his learnings to his son Rohit, who has been doing business administration in Cardiff. “But I am not that strict with him,” he says. Manoj, on the other hand, had grassroot exposure to the country, right from his college days. “I was vice president student community AIESEC in 1990. I travelled a lot by train and bus in those years.” That was his first experience with charity and fund-raising. “Then, I was an executive director at dad’s company for 15 years before I became President. I have been to every market in the interiors of India to understand its pulse. In these rural areas, the concept of hospital is very different from
the big city. It means a person on a bed and there is an IV drip hanging by a nail on the wall.”

“My professional milestone has been in creating my own team. Teamwork is my strength. I believe in learning through empowerment – 90 per cent of the team has been groomed by me.” However, Manoj does not personally endorse the popular hire and fire culture. “I don’t like discord, I try and sort it out first,” he says. Like, when his driver of 15 years was going through a rough patch, Manoj tried to help him resolve his problem over a year-long period. He was let go of only after it did not work out. “My secretary Bina has been with me for 30 years! Attrition is very low in my company, especially for women – that is the atmosphere I have created. Our style of working is Japanese – the hierarchy is more on paper. I believe that corporate governance starts at the top and trickles down. If you live a straight and clean life – that will trickle down to your company.”

Manoj has donated several huge amounts to Rotary. He has given US$ 750,000, “but not at one go,” he clarifies, quickly. “In Rotary, I take Nirav’s (Shah) guidance – he is passionate and says it straight. I strongly believe that unless you give first, you don’t get back. The right money has to be given to the right cause. So I leave it to Rotary International.”

In addition, Manoj believes in sharing his wealth as and when the need arises. “If someone’s son has gotten into a fancy school due to merit but he cannot afford it, then I’ll pay the tuition fee. There are 3,000 people in my company – these are people to be taken care of. My secretary’s daughter got into the top 10 schools of the US: Harvard, Yale, Columbia… I agreed to pay her tuition fee if she chose to go to Harvard. This person has given me 30
years of her life – how can I say I cannot afford to do this for her?”

His typical day is working nine to five and meeting someone from the art world after that. “I want to enjoy my art – I love art. But I get bored in Bombay, so I go to Dubai. It is easier to go to Dubai than Alibaugh. I have a circle of friends in Dubai. I spend a lot of time in Dubai. When things were normal (pre-Corona virus), I went to London once every quarter and to Dubai every month. I have rented space there.”

Manoj refuses to do crystalgazing and share what he foresees for himself in the future. All he can commit to is that he has stopped buying and selling art as much as he used to. “I must have something for my walls,” he laughs.

Eventually, he might build a museum, “I am more of a go-with-the-flow kind of person. I have a spiritual side, in a way. I started meditation when I was 24 years old, about 20 minutes a day.” After this, Manoj promptly shuts down all talk of spirituality, refusing to engage in a banal, coffee-table discussion of it.

His advice to young Rotarians: “Common sense means connecting the dots and being ahead of the game.”