Roses for a man of steel

by Rashmi Menon

Connoisseur of art, food, music and expensive liquor – here are some more little known facets of Rustomji Homusji ‘Russi’ Mody.

Roses are red

Mody loved red roses. Ratan Tata remembered that. He sent a bouquet of the same as a mark of respect to the late Tata Steel head. Cyrus Mistry sent yellow roses too, perhaps to complement the red sent by Tata.

Next to mom

The ashes of Mody were laid to rest next to the tomb of his mother, Lady Jerbai Mody, in Jamshedpur on Monday. About 150 people attended the memorial held the following day.

Naughty, naughty

Mody loved to pull a fast one. Two of his close friends were the tennis player Naresh Kumar and his wife, artist and writer Sunita Kumar. One day Mody told the couple he would take them to a nice restaurant with live music, and instead took them to the zoo.

Egg-citing times

Mody was a good cook. Jyoti Sabharwal, co-author of Mody’s biography along with Partho Mukherjee, says the dinners hosted by him were legendary. Famous for having a taste for 16-egg omelettes, Kumar recalls once Mody asked his cook to make akuri with 100 eggs. The cook had to scramble to arrange the eggs.

Life after steel

Mody’s original heir was Aditya Kashyap, his protégé and adopted son. However, Kashyap, who was a bachelor, died of cardiac arrest in early 2007. At the time, Kashyap was working with Mody in Mobar India, which was launched in 1993 after Mody’s stint at Tata Steel. The company folded up soon after Kashyap’s demise.

The problem with Mody’s

Mobar India “We had a lot of talent, but there were external factors out of Mody’s control,” says Sameer Saxena who worked at Mobar India. “For instance, there were mafia-related problems while trading with Russia.

Many people let us down, many didn’t pay up. Here was a man who had a reputation for turning whatever he touched into gold. It’s not how it should have ended for Russi Mody.”

Who after Mody?

Mody’s nephew, Mumbai-based psycho-analyst and clinical hypnotherapist Jimmy is his sole inheritor. His bungalow on Alipore Road, Kolkata, boasted paintings by MF Husain and Jamini Roy, among others.

But Jimmy says the paintings are not real and the artifacts are not worth much too. “My uncle had a high lifestyle to maintain. Money came and went before anyone knew it,” says Jimmy who considers Mody his mentor and role model.