The Day I Met Him

When I was studying in Class-6 at Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling my father was transferred to Presidency College. Our Principal then was Mr. Graeme Murray. He was kind enough to write two letters of recommendation that would help in my admission at St. Thomas' Boys' School, Kidderpore or Calcutta Boys' School.

I still remember what my father had said after our visit to CBS. During the course of his conversation he had asked the Principal, Mr. Clifford Hicks, what is the school uniform. He looked at me and told him that I can come to school the way I was dressed that day. There's nothing to worry about. CBS doesn't have a school uniform.

I was blessed to be admitted to CBS. But there were more surprises in store. Coming from the only coeducational school in Darj with the best campus and being very expensive it was most surprising to note that CBS didn't have any tuition fees and the books came free.

Anyway the standard of the school, quality of teaching, the students and everything I encountered was way beyond me. When the results for the Second Term was declared Mr. Hicks had written this in my report card. Promotion is very doubtful.

I just remembered that day and wanted to share it with you.

p.s. I was promoted.

With Malice Toward None

 Introduction

I passed out from Calcutta Boys’ School (CBS) in 1975. The ISC examination was held in late-1974. The results were published in early 1975. After exactly half a century some of our batch mates, for which I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart, have taken the effort to organise a reunion for our batch in December at Tollygunge Club.

This place is spread over 100-acres and is more than 200 years old. So, you can very well guess how good it is. A WhatsApp group has been made after tracing the mobile numbers of the students. Many are now located abroad and on different continents. At last count the number is 49. I passed out from the Humanities stream. Most of the members are from the Science stream.

I have been fortunate enough to reconnect with some of my batch mates with whom I was the closest. They say there is something divine for any good thing to happen. I strongly believe in that. I think that is the only way I have been able to find them. Here I will go back to my formative years and share some of the magic moments I have shared with my friends at CBS, those of which I still remember. There are so many you will lose count of. If any of that is left out now I promise I will continue writing my memoirs

The Memoirs

In our section I was closest to Partha Pratim Basu Chaudhury, Somnath Mukherjee and Sandip Gupta. I had taken great pains to find Partha and Somnath but with no result for such a long time. Today when I look back it was Partha about whom I did not have any trace whatsoever in spite of the best of my efforts.

Partha was and still is a very good singer. Both of us are diehard fans of Manna De. This brought us closer in our adolescence. He used to live at Nalin Sarkar Street in the northern part of this metropolis in the Hati Bagan area. The place is famous for the Durga Puja. I have been to his place several times. Those days I used to tell him to become a singer when he grows up. But boys will be boys.

Though he has continued singing he finished his splendid innings at National Bank of Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) in 2019. He divides his time now between Kolkata and Shantiniketan. I tease him and say that at Shantiniketan is your bagan badi. Bongs (Bengalis) will understand the latent humour. When do I hop in?  I hope we will now be able to make up for the lost time. It has been the longest wait. He hasn’t aged at all. I tried but couldn’t find a single crease on his face.  I don’t know how. I keep my fingers crossed. Botox lingers at the back of my mind. You can check yourselves. I have given below a pic to prove this, taken when he had come to my place last Sunday.     

Shantiniketan reminds me of Abir Ghosh, a very good friend of mine. He has settled there. I have spoken to him over the phone and hope to meet him sometime. His cousin (I have known him as his brother but that hardly makes any difference) and another good friend, Ashesh Ghosh gave me his number. I would like to thank him for that. Ashesh has settled in Mumbai and continues his business legacy.   

I shared a very good relationship with Somnath and his family. Emotional connect would be the right word. He lived at Mahendra Sarkar Street very close to our place and closer to CBS as well as Calcutta Girls’ School (CGS). I used to regularly visit his place. Both of us are lovers of good music. He had a good collection of records. I used to bring those 45 rpm records. I don’t remember the names of all but Har Mana Har is one of the many records I brought. The songs from this Uttam Kumar-Suchitra Sen movie still linger in my mind and occasionally refresh my mood even now.

Sandip had told me a long time back that Somnath works in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at Kolkata. Then he was working. I thought about going to the RBI building, it’s huge, and searching every nook and corner. But is it humanly possible? Asking from the chaprasi to the Governor, where is Somnath? Time passed by so badly and there has never been a moment when I did not remember him.

He now shares his time between Kolkata and Pune. Still a very soft-spoken person as he was. His appearance hasn’t changed one bit.

First when we connected over WhatsApp on 14^th February, Partha told me my nickname. I was really taken aback. What a memory he has. We met on 18^th February at Mud Café. It is located on Rashbehari Avenue. It is the house of legendary Rabindra Sangeet singer Debabrata Biswas.

We mean the three of us. Somnath included. Lovely place. Partha’s choice. He really has a good taste of the finer things in life. Gave me a lot of gyan on cyber security on Facebook where I am taking my baby steps. As an afterthought the main reason for the long disconnects is not being on Facebook so long.

Mission Jayanta

Both Partha and Somnath came to my place last Sunday i.e. on 10^th March. Our mission was to trace Jayanta Sengupta, another batch mate. Before the mission, the background checks. Jayanta was a very smart boy in school. He used to drive a Yezdi bike. Partha remembered in those days his was the only bike in the CBS car park. Very stylish. Many including me were mesmerised. One day he decided to drop me home. No problem. I still live at the same place on C I T Road, hardly a kilometer from CBS. After a furlong he showed just how smart he was with a bike. He drove the bike to the right and then to the left and again to the right. I had my heart in my throat. I begged forgiveness and ultimately he stopped. There are some memories which never leave you.   

There was no clue about him except that Partha knew his house. I too remembered that he stayed near Chhaya Cinema. Being a movie buff, movie theatres were the landmarks for me then. Saturdays were the days I used to go. If it was a Western movie, it had to be Tiger. The 12-30 p.m. show. For Hindi movies there were a lot more. The road connecting to Chhaya Cinema from CBS was smooth. A single bus ride.

Like Felu Da, Partha led us on this mission which I call Mission Jayanta. We reached a couple of furlongs behind Maniktala mode on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, more popular as Circular Road. After getting down from Partha’s car he told his driver to park ahead on the left. Partha’s landmark was Jayanta’s house which has a gadi baranda.  

We searched every nook and corner of the surroundings, but couldn't find a gadi baranda or anyone who knows him. We ultimately came to know from a shopkeeper that he is known by his nickname. There’s no Jayanta around. After a lot of effort and thanks to Partha’s patience we ultimately found the house. Climbing the long and winding staircases and reaching each floor was an experience we never had. First floor. No Jayanta. Second floor. Same result. We lost all hope. Last came the third floor. Somnath feebly rang the bell. No response. I told him to knock firmly a number of times. The door opens and at last I see a face staring down. I was at the landing. Partha is much lower. Somnath seemed a bit nervous. But I recognised the face. It’s him. I asked Jayanta? And yes came the answer.  

Jayanta looks the same as he was. It felt really good to meet him and onboard him in our reunion. We had a great adda session. It feels like time never stops sometimes.

Then we went to China Town, a place very close to Partha’s earlier residence, the NABARD quarters. Beijing was our destination. Beautiful place. Good food. A long session of adda and after dropping me home they left.

I have remained connected with Sandip throughout right from the days he used to live in a beautiful and spacious flat at Jodhpur Park. We had endless hours of adda. He has been interested in rock from our school days. He was a very good student. After coming back to Kolkata after 20 years in 2014 and even in between during my homecoming we met at his office. It was closer to my house.

I have a family connection with Supratik Biswas. Both our dads were colleagues. In fact, my father started working first as a Professor at Krishnanagar Government College in 1952 where Supratik’s father worked. He was a senior. After coming to Kolkata in 1968 from Darjeeling my father worked at Presidency College. They connected once again. Then Supratik’s father was a very senior Professor at Sanskrit College bang opposite Presidency College.

Next in the same way I have been associated with Supratik as a colleague. I worked for United India Insurance Co. Ltd. for 10 years till 1994 where Supratik also worked though we were not at the same place. Sarajit Chaudhury, another batch mate also worked at the same company and we used to meet often. I still remember in 1985 we had gone to Jaipur to conduct an internal audit of one Divisional Office and all the Branches. Surprise, surprise. I banged head on with Sarajit at the hotel we were staying at. How come you are here was all I could ask him. We enjoyed our stay a lot.

Then there is Tathagata Chakraborty, more popular as TC. A staunch Mohun Bagan supporter like me. Stylish. Played good football. There was something unique about his voice. You can call it his USP. You may forget him but you will never forget his voice.  

I still remember I had gone to see a match at the Mohun Bagan ground. 60 paise was the rate of tickets. Surprise, surprise. I see TC standing ahead in the same queue. After seeing me he was stylishly indicating with both his hands near his stomach and upwards to come near him. Break the queue. Honestly speaking I don’t remember whether I obeyed his command.

I have kept in touch with Sumit Das who has now settled in Toronto, Canada.

I have reconnected with Samit Talukdar, another good friend of mine. Despite being an East Bengal supporter.  He lives very close to our firm. I would like to meet him and have a long adda session very soon.

Another friend with whom I have reconnected is Anindya De. He used to stay bang opposite our building. I was very close to him and his family during our school days. He relocated to Salt Lake later after which we lost connection for a long time.

Before concluding I would like to once again thank the untiring efforts taken by our batch mates to make the Mission Impossible happen. It is due to them that we are going to meet each other a thing we never dared to dream.   

To be continued

 

A Daddy's Boy

I would like to share with you why I studied in an English medium school. To know this you have to turn the clock back to the time when my father was a Professor at Hooghly Mohsin College. We lived in Chinsurah. 

He studied in a village called Nimtita in Murshidabad district. The place was made famous by the legendary Satyajit Ray when he shot his fourth film Jalsaghar there at Nimtita Rajbadi. 

My father stood tenth in the Matriculation examination and stood first in the district. Naturally with this background he wanted to admit me to Chinsurah Duff School. The best Bengali medium school there.

But surprise surprise. My mother didn't want this to happen. She hailed from Nagpur where she had studied at Providence Girls' High School a renowned English medium school. 

My mother had said her son will study in an English medium school. There was a truce. And peace and happiness came back. 

I was admitted to Auxilium Convent School at Bandel. Founded by the Salesian Sisters in 1951. Then it was the only English medium school in that area. I used to travel there by the school bus. Now it is a girls' school. But then boys studied in the primary section till Classes-4. 

There's another background to my admission at Auxilium Convent School. Earlier to my admission we used to live in the older part of Chinsurah closer to the Hooghly river. One of my daily rituals was to wake up and see from our first floor flat students of Auxilium Convent coming from Naihati which is bang on the opposite side of the river and going to school. In case I was sleeping then I used to be waken up so that I don't miss them. 

With this at the back of my mind we shifted to a better house and started living on the ground floor. On the first floor lived a family where the son studied at Auxilium Convent in a higher class. We became very good friends though he used to beat me a lot. 

I have fond memories of my first school. But after a couple of years my father was transferred to Darjeeling and I got admitted to Mount Hermon School. The boy on the first floor also took admission there and stayed at the hostel and completed his schooling from there. 

 I will leave that for another day. 

Life's Lessons - What We Have Learnt from Mr. Hicks

I am what I am is for this institution (read - Calcutta Boys' School/ CBS). These were my first words when I met the Principal of CBS sometime back. 

I am what I am is for Mr. Clifford Hicks. The respected Principal of CBS, when I studied there, who has made CBS what it is. 

There are a lot of memories of CBS during my formative years. I want to share one such today. 

I was studying in Class-10 then if my memory serves me right. The teacher who was supposed to conduct the class had not come till then. Our classroom was just above the office overlooking the ground. The students sitting close to the window found out that a few girls had come to the office and were waiting outside just beneath the window. To have a good view they went to the window to see telling the others to watch the exit lest they get discovered. But boys will always be boys. Gradually one by one many went to the window. The place became so overcrowded after some time, with some toppling over others, there wasn't anyone left to keep an eye on the exit. 

After the show was over and enjoying every moment of it when we started coming back to our seats we found to our horror that the teacher has come to class. And was sitting in his chair. 

The matter was reported by him to Mr. Hicks. The period was just before lunch. Mr. Hicks decided to teach us a lesson to remember for a lifetime. 

He asked all of us to kneel down in front of the classrooms of middle school, that is the junior section (read - Classes-5 to 8) during the entire lunch time for all to see. There is a big room the boundaries of which comprised those classrooms. 

Even after almost close to fifty years I haven't forgotten the lesson I learnt that day. I would like to thank Mr. Hicks for doing what he did that day. A thing I still remember.

The Fall of Byju’s and Byju Raveendran

#suprioghatak #byjus #byjuraveendran #corporate governance #mca

The Fall of Byju’s and Byju Raveendran

We have seen that Byju’s and its CEO and founder Byju Raveendran are occupying centre stage for all the wrong reasons. A lot of water has flowed down the drain since the edtech major occupied top drawer ranking globally among its leading competitors. 

Introduction

Established in 2011, Byju’s introduced its learning app in 2015. The edtech company achieved unicorn status (a valuation of $1 B) with 15 M subscribers by 2018, gathering huge attention.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, Byju’s experienced considerable growth as students increasingly accepted online learning as the new normal during lockdowns. However, in 2021, the company incurred a loss of $327 M. Byju’s also witnessed huge layoffs in 2022 and 2023.

During May 2023, Byju’s faced a lawsuit filed by its lenders in a US court. The lenders claimed that Byju’s had missed payments and broken the loan agreement’s clauses, which prohibited material delays in the publication of financial results. The company was also accused by the lenders of misappropriating money through its US-based subsidiary, Alpha. Byju’s, however, refuted these accusations made against it.

On June 22, 2023, Deloitte tendered their resignation as statutory auditors of Byju’s to the Board of Directors, effective immediately. Despite the appointment of BDO as their new auditors, skepticism persists regarding the future of Byju’s.

Inspection of Byju’s ordered by Government amid financial and corporate governance concerns

The inspection of Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd., which operates under the brand Byju’s, will be carried out by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

In the recent past, Byju’s has been battling with multiple negative issues, including most importantly misselling courses, the delay in submitting financial statements, resignation of its statutory auditor in June 2023 and its corporate governance practices.

G. V. Ravishankar of Peak XV Partners (Sequoia Capital India), Russel Dreisenstock of Prosus, and Vivian Wu of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative also resigned from Byju’s board.

Earlier MCA asked the Regional Director at Hyderabad to conduct an inspection of Byju’s, registered in Bengaluru. Further courses of action will be decided after receiving the inspection report.

Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated on 30^th November 2011. The last Annual General Meeting of the company was held on 19^th September 2022.

Byju’s may face a probe as MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) wants to involve SFIO (Serious Fraud Reporting Office) for the resignation of Deloitte and Delayed Financials.

MCA has checked out the legalities and procedures involved in referring the matter to SFIO.

MCA wants to engage SFIO to investigate the resignation of its auditor, Deloitte, and the delayed financial reporting by its parent company, Think & Learn Private Limited.

Deloitte was appointed statutory auditor for a five-year tenure till March 2025 (2024-25). Following the exit of Deloitte, Byju's appointed BDO (MSKA & Associates – a member firm of BDO International in India) as its statutory auditors for the year commencing from 2021-22 for the next five years.

SFIO, a multi-disciplinary organisation under MCA, includes in its hierarchy experts in accountancy, forensic auditing, banking, law, information technology, investigation, company law, capital markets, and taxation domains.

In June 2023, Deloitte Haskins & Sells officially resigned as Byju’s and Aakash Educational Services Limited (Aakash Institute) (AESL) ’s statutory auditors, resulting from the delay in the company filing its 2021-22 financial statements. They were scheduled to be presented to shareholders during an annual general meeting within September 2022.

The government's regulatory response to the compliance failures was influenced by the absence of any mention of non-cooperation by the management, financial irregularities, or fraud in Deloitte's resignation letter to the company's board.

Moreover, Deloitte thanked the management and staff of Think & Learn Private Limited for the cooperation extended to them during their tenure as auditors of the company.

SFIO has to investigate Byju’s affairs in several situations. These include when the Registrar or inspector under section 208 of the Companies Act, 2013 submits a report, when a company passes a special resolution indicating the necessity of an investigation, when it is deemed to be in the public interest, or when a department of the Central Government or a State Government requests an investigation.

This comes a few days after Byju’s proposed the establishment of a Board Advisory Committee (BAC) to guide the CEO, regarding Board composition and the governance structure of the company, during an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).

During the EGM, Byju’s CFO Ajay Goel reiterated the ongoing engagement with newly-appointed auditors BDO for the audit process. The company aims to meet the previously communicated timelines, with the 2021-22 audit targeted for the end of September 2023, and the 2022-23 audit expected to finish by the end of December 2023.

The crisis at Byju’s forces top India VC Firm Blume Ventures to revise strategy

The corporate governance blunders at Byju’s are sending outrage through India’s developing startup economy.

Blume Ventures, a big venture capital firm managing $625 M in assets is becoming more cautious in its investment strategy, alarmed by crises in a homegrown startup and ed-tech leader Byju’s.

It is cutting back on thoughtless investments as it wants portfolio companies to shift focus to profitability, co-founder Karthik Reddy said in an interview. A third of its portfolio, including e-commerce and mobility firms, has turned shaky over the past year.

Byju’s, once India’s most valuable upstart is in turmoil after missing a deadline on financial statements, skipping payments on a $1.2 B loan and losing its auditor and some of its board members.

The chaos at Byju's has forced the entire ecosystem to think about what could be wrong in every portfolio company? Blume Ventures backs Byju’s rival Unacademy, and a number of startups including delivery firm Dunzo and gadget marketplace Cashify. You get these questions from your investors as well.

Byju’s was valued at $22 B in late 2022. In June 2023, one of its main investors, Prosus NV, slashed the value of its stake in a move that pegged Byju’s total valuation at about $5.1 B.

The missteps in governance resulted from a venture capital boom that lasted through 2021. Funding has dried up since as slowing economies, rising interest rates and higher levels of inflation prompted venture investors to pull back.

Indian startups raised $5.4 B in the first half of 2023, a decline of more than 70% from the same period in 2022. Already in 2022, funding dropped to about $27 B from $43 B in 2021.

There is very little early-stage investing happening right now. Blume, based in Mumbai, typically provides seed funding to upstarts.

That cautiousness dovetails with several small startups shutting down amid the funding winter. Investors have become more prudent and firms such as Blume are wary of writing a cheque for just another e-commerce, marketplace or influencer marketing idea.

Fallen Star Byju Raveendran Is No Longer A Billionaire

Three years after he joined the billionaires’ club in 2020, Indian edtech entrepreneur Byju Raveendran is out of that elite ranking for a series of blunders.

Prosus, formerly Naspers, had written down its 9.6% stake in Byju’s to $493 M (as on 31^st March 31, 2023). The write off values Byju’s at $5.1 B, a steep 77% discount to last year’s peak valuation of $22 B.

Consequently, Raveendran’s 18% stake is now valued at under $1 B, but after accounting for the loans he took last year to invest in Byju’s, his personal net worth is estimated at $475 M.

That is a far cry from his net worth of $1.8 B in 2020, when he debuted on Forbes’ World Billionaires list and his firm was valued at $10 B. In two years, his fortune had doubled to $3.6 B — until things began to be destroyed.

Byju’s parent, Think & Learn, founded by Raveendran, a former math tutor, went on a fundraising rampage in 2020-21, raising nearly $4.2 B from a countless number of investors including UBS and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund.

It used a major part of that money to fund a buying binge across India, Asia and the U.S. that included the $950 M acquisition of Indian test-prep provider Aakash Educational Services Limited (Aakash Institute) and $600 M for Singapore’s Great Learning, a higher education and professional training firm.

The sheer pace of growth took its toll. Byju’s grew too quickly, without proper checks and balances. Byju’s did not have a CFO (Chief Financial Officer) from December 2021 to April 2023 though it had Vice Presidents of Finance for its different divisions. But still it is yet to file its financial results for the year ended March 31, 2022.

Results were last published in September 2022 for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021 — after a 12-month delay. Byju’s reported a loss of Rs. 45.6 B ($573 M) — up from Rs. 3.1 B the previous year. Revenue fell 3% to Rs. 24.3 B in the same period.

Raveendran pacified investors by participating in Byju’s funding round in March 2022, investing $400 M at the $22 B valuation. The funding rounds that were announced with much flamboyance did not materialise in funding as investors such as Sumeru Ventures and Vitruvian Partners backed out.

Raveendran said “I’m going all in” during the Forbes Global CEO conference in September 2022.

I've been doing this for 15 years, and the aim is to do this for another 30 years. The world needs 10 more companies like ours. If you do good, you’ll end up doing well.

That did not cut much ice. BlackRock slashed Byju’s valuation to $11.5 B in October 2022 and further to $8.4 B in May 2023. Prosus, a leading investor in edtech globally that had funded Byju’s to the tune of $536 M since 2018, was less generous.

In September 2022, Prosus, which has a dozen edtech investments, including San Francisco-based up-skilling platform Udemy and New York-based social learning community Brainly, marked down the value of its investment in Byju’s to $578M, valuing the firm at $6 B.

Prosus noted in its 2022 annual report that in September 2022, the group lost significant influence in Byju’s over the financial and operating policies of the entity.

Byju’s shook from one crisis to another, the most recent of which was the resignation of its statutory auditor Deloitte in June 2023 over the inordinate delays in preparing financial accounts. Three board members also quit.

Now, Byju’s is in the process of reconstituting the board by bringing in a few independent directors. It is also looking to set up a board of advisors who can guide the founders. At a recent executive board meeting with shareholders Raveendran admitted to making mistakes but asserted that he is focused on course correction.

Byju’s also announced in June 2023 that it is planning an IPO for Aakash Educational Services Limited by mid-2024.

Only time will say what will happen after this. Until then we have to wait.

To be continued