Capture the Dream is a fine blend of information, entertainment & inspiration packed into the story of CP Krishnan Nair

Bachi Karkaria  certainly knows how to tell a riveting story, spark interest in a subject that you may not care much about, and keep you asking for more. If you have not read any of her books, her latest one titled Capture the Dream: The Many Lives of Captain C.P. Krishnan Nair (2022), published by Juggernaut, might be an excellent one to start with. It is a fine blend of information, entertainment and inspiration packed into the story of an entrepreneur.

The protagonist is  C.P. Krishnan Nair  (1922-2014), who worked in the army and the handloom sector before he set up the luxurious Leela Hotels named after his “wife, guide and soulmate” who played a defining role in almost every venture he undertook. The book tracks Nair’s professional journey in a chronological fashion, peppering the account with anecdotes of how he rubbed shoulders with the political elite including  M.K. Gandhi ,  Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan ,  V.P. Menon ,  Morarji Desai ,  Louis Mountbatten , and  Sheikh Abdullah .

“Net worth is enhanced by networks,” writes Karkaria, emphasizing a key ingredient of Nair’s success. At an early age, he learnt from his mother that only talent and passion were not enough; it was important to be at the right place at the right time and get associated with people who could open up opportunities. Nair quickly understood that credibility is a sort of currency, so trustworthiness and affability would have to be his calling cards. This was accompanied by style and sophistication, the gift of the gab, and his exquisite taste in food.

The author notes, “A business network is a complex machine with many moving parts, and Krishnan lubricated them in all his dealings and travels. The friends he made in one US foray would continue to appear to help him out in another.” He won the support of textile traders, bankers and bureaucrats, and fellow Malayalis in India, the US, and various Gulf countries.

Karkaria shows how art dealer Kekoo Gandhy, circus doyen Gemini Sankaran, tennis player Vijay Amritraj and actor Rajesh Khanna came into Nair’s life, and what they did for him. It is fascinating to read how Nair, who was once a boy of humble origins from Kannur, went to Abbottabad, Delhi, Pune, Bombay and New York to write the script of his illustrious life. This book will boost the confidence of people with big and bold dreams, regardless of their age. Nair established the Leela Hotels in his sixties, a time when many choose to retire.

The author writes, “Our protagonist never wasted an evening, or any time of the day. His eye was always on the main chance, his hand always read to grab it, and his clutch of qualities always there to optimize the opportunity.” In today’s terms, we would call him a go-getter.

While the author focuses on Nair’s strengths, she also looks at challenges that cropped up when Nair was setting up his first hotel in Bombay. One of these was an uproar in Parliament based on a news report that 19 rules had been bent by the authorities to enable Nair to build the hotel. Apparently, established hotels from SoBo (South Bombay), feeling threatened by the competition, had “allegedly whipped up” the idea that the new hotel’s height would “interfere with the flight path of planes at the adjacent Sahar and nearby Santacruz airports”.

Such bottlenecks are commonplace in the world of business, and people who get discouraged cannot last for long. One needs to develop an appetite for solving problems creatively. Karkaria points out that during “the West Asian conflagration of 1991”, Nair was able to make “the most of a bad deal”. He installed a dish antenna to broadcast CNN’s war coverage in all its rooms. “The foreign press corps stationed in Bombay huddled together to watch.” Nair was also able to capitalize on the fact that Bollywood stars lived closer to The Leela than the big hotels in South Bombay – such as the Taj and the Oberoi – so they preferred a more conveniently located “hangout spot”. Nair’s business picked up for another reason – the hotel’s proximity to two important commercial hubs – Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ).

The winds of change are unpredictable, so it is unwise to sit on one’s laurels and preen. Read this book to find out what happened when hotels like the Lalit, Hyatt Regency, ITC Grand Maratha and Le Meridien sprang up “all within a one-kilometre radius of the airport”, what gave Nair the confidence to set up hotels in Goa, Bangalore, Udaipur, Delhi and Gurugram, and why “each one of his hotel projects” got saddled with “insurmountable problems”.

Karkaria’s in-depth research, her sassy turn of phrase, and her ability to make unusual connections will make this book an enjoyable read not only for people who work in hospitality, tourism or business but for anyone who relishes a story that is well told.

Chintan Girish Modi is a journalist, commentator, and book reviewer.

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