Letters: HMT's indelible mark

Reports on the impending closure of HMT revived memories of the days when HMT was synonymous with watches. Like many others, HMT watches have made an indelible mark on my personal life. I belong to a large middle-class family of seven brothers and two sisters. Our father was a polio patient and mother a housewife. Though we had some paddy fields, thanks to the effective implementation of the land reforms by the then red brigades in Kerala, we lost all of them.

Our eldest brother was a teacher in a nearby school. For us, he was the de facto parent and sacrificed everything to take care of the family. He did not have a watch (which was perceived as luxury in those days) since he had made a vow to not wear one till all his siblings had settled down and could afford to buy a watch.

I am the youngest in my family. After completing my SSLC and a year's practice of typewriting and shorthand, I came to Madras (now Chennai), where I got a job in a trading company in the Paris Corner of Chennai with a monthly salary of Rs 125. When I decided to visit home after a year or so, I instinctively knew what I should buy for my brother. My brother was overcome with emotion when he opened the gift (an HMT watch that cost Rs 85 at that time). Though he accepted it, he said: "Till now, I lived without a watch; you are all going to office and need a watch. I will wear it for a few days and then you can take it back". However, I insisted that he should wear it and he did so for many years. Though he did change his watch, he kept the HMT watch in his drawer with a sense of pride.

It is a pity that a company, which was once at the commanding heights till a few years back, was unable to read the writing on the wall. One hopes that good sense will prevail on the mandarins of the North Block to ensure that such a catastrophe should not strike other companies that are viewed as temples of modern India.

P P Kuttikrishnan Palghar, Maharashtra

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