It matters not how long we live, but how – Philip James Bailey
Appropriate words for Dewang Mehta, from Philip James Bailey. Those who knew him well are aware of the life he would lead. Working 50 hours a day, sleeping at 4 am, and be up and about before anyone around him, or fixing up a crucial meeting at his office way past midnight. And, to top it all, travelling 20 days a month, or more.
Without undermining the work of our software superpowers, clearly if there is one person the country should thank for putting it on pecking order in software, it’s Dewang Mehta. The industry always had potential, our vast nation had the brainpower, but it needed a messiah who would sell it to the world. And that, I have no doubt in my mind, was Dewang.
In fact, in a country like ours, there was an equal measure of selling to do to the corridors of power, which Dewang successfully managed.
I still remember a day 10 years ago at the then bustling Sea Rock Sheraton where I was interviewing Veer Sagar (then CEO of DCM Data) and there was someone familiar who was sitting at the table next to us. I asked Veer who he was, and didn’t look twice at the man. He had just joined Nasscom, but then who really cared about Nasscom, the software industry or a Dewang Mehta then.
In the decade since, he single-handedly made Nasscom into one of the most powerful trade bodies in the country. It is not without reason that Dewang became known as among the best lobbyists in the country. The man almost always got what he wanted, and other trades were left wondering why they couldn’t manage all the lollies.
The most important contribution of Dewang’s was that he got the industry together and made sure that they approach the West in one voice. The business got a catalyst who rallied around them, and because he had no personal stake in software, he worked selflessly for everyone.
He had facts and figures on his fingertips, and the finesse with which he presented all of them even had the most hard-nosed politicians eating out of his hands.
The annual convention he organised for Nasscom became a runaway success and there is actually a need to turn back delegates who come at the last minute. It was after looking at a small demo of the internet that I gave him six years ago that Dewang instantly decided to set up a ‘Cybercity’ at Nasscom 1995. He intuitively appreciated the true potential of the internet and has since been championing the cause of the web community.
His public relations was par excellence – he could be at ease with chief ministers from different parties and industry leaders from India and the rest of the world.
Over the years, he had also turned into a very charismatic speaker. His anecdotes and very easy style of speaking could hold even the most disinterested audience for over an hour.
For me, it’s a personal loss. A loss of a friend, a man with whom I could share my passion for new technologies and business trends. The Bombay Computer Club, which Dewang, Harish Mehta, Raj Saraf and I founded, has been a resounding success since its seven years of existence with his cooperation. I have also been associated with him with the Internet Users’ Club of India where he was vice-chairman and with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Gujarat chapter which he headed.
But more than me, the one person who would have felt the loss the most is Onward Novell chairman Harish Mehta. Most people don’t know that there was not a single decision that Dewang took without consulting him. Harish brought him to Nasscom and was his mentor throughout. Apart from the industry as a whole, it will be Harish who will sense his absence the most. In many ways, he had grown to be Dewang’s real family.
Despite all the technology practitioners around him, Dewang was an extremely religious person. He was a devotee of the Shirdi Sai Baba, and would find happiness in prayer.
Words from Tennyson come to mind as I leave for the cremation just after writing this:
God’s finger touched him, and he slept.
Dewang Mehta, RIP. May the software industry prosper as you had envisioned it to.
