Mumbai: In an exclusive autobiography titled "An Incomplete Life", former Raymond Group Chairman Emeritus and avid aviator Vijayapat Singhania bitterly recalled his own experiences with a bitter family property dispute in 2015 and said that now, employees in his former firm were even forbidden from speaking with him. The experience led him to believe that parents should be more cautious about divesting property to their children in life, he writes in his biography.
"Your wealth can and should be passed on to your children, but only after your death. I do not want any parent to go through what I live with every day," the legendary industrialist says.
"...[I am] forbidden from going to my own office, which contains important documents and other material that belong to me...I have also lost my cars in Mumbai and London and access to my secretary. Raymond employees seem to be under strict orders to not communicate with me and prevent my entry to my office," read excerpts from his book.
Singhania is now fighting to gain back everything he lost in the property dispute. In an interview with Money Control last year, Singhania had also spoken out against his son to whom he had given a large share of property and money, saying a man's character could be judged by how he behaved after being given power.
Singhania has worn many hats in his lifetime, including sheriff of Mumbai, management professor, author and a commercial aviation pilot who captained flights for free for airlines. He also started a newspaper called The Indian Post in the mid-1980s. "An Incomplete Life" chronicles his love for flying and details his many flying achievements, such as flying a microlight aircraft solo from Britain to India in a record 23 days in 1988.
Singhania is the first man to sail at 69,852 feet above sea level on a hot air balloon during which he set a world record in 1988. After taking flying lessons at the Bombay Flying Club, he got his private pilot licence on April 6, 1960. Obtaining this licence from the Hind Provincial Flying Club in Kanpur meant he could fly three aircraft - a Piper-cub J3C, a Chipmunk and a Piper L-5.
"Mine was the first PPL issued in Indian history with initially three aircraft endorsed on it. While flying was an incomparable experience, I wanted to do it in my own aircraft," he says, adding that he bought a Cessna 172, Czech-built Morava 200 and a Beechcraft C-18 (both twin-engine aircraft) and three 36-seater Dakota aircraft for that purpose.