When needed, I’m there… In a chat with Rotary News, TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta describes the various facets of his “chequered life”.

He brought water “as a core area to the Rotary platform; from the early 1990s, I felt water will become a critical global concern, and started working in that area, and organised a mega water conference in Delhi in 2003.” A known water activist, TRF Trustee Sushil Gupta loves mountains, has visited the Gaumukh glacier several times, despairing at its degradation downstream, and has been Vice Chair of the Himalayan Environment Trust (HET).

Recently, under Gupta’s leadership, Rotary has signed an MoU with the Indian Government for an ambitious project to clean up the Ganga river.

“In the Rotary world, my interest in water is well known and after I became a TRF trustee in 2014, John Kenny, Trustee Chair Elect, knowing my interest in water, asked me to head the WASH in Schools (WinS) Committee. That’s how WinS, which is not just water, fell onto my lap. And, if I am given a job, I give my 100 per cent to it and remain totally focused,” says Gupta, in a chat with him and his wife Vinita at their spacious home in Shanti Niketan in Delhi, with a beautifully landscaped lawn lovingly nurtured by their son Sandeep.

Early life

His life is a “chequered one”; born in Amritsar, he comes from a family of businessmen and freedom fighters with deep political connections; “I’d say ours is a very nationalist family.” Their ancestral business in hardware was started in the 1860s; after the Partition “we shifted to Delhi which took over Amritsar’s status as a big business district for Northern India, as it became a border town. Our major business was in Karachi and we lost all of it,” he says.

But later the family returned to Amritsar, where he continued his education. As a young lad he got curious about Rotary when he saw a sign in a hotel while visiting Mussoorie which said ‘Rotary meets here’. His desire to become a Rotarian was fulfilled when a fellow tennis player introduced him to Rtn Prakash Khanna and he joined RC Delhi Midwest, a new club chartered in 1975, which was looking for members. Striking a reflective note, Gupta says, “There is always a design in where life takes you. Being a small club, I became president in 1981–82 and DG in 1986–87. Had I joined RC Delhi, it would have taken me 20 years to become president, leave alone a Governor!”

A proud Rotarian, he has worn his Rotary lapel pin “every day without fail right from Day 1. I keep my pin along with my watch and ring, and wear it with great pride,” the advantage being that even in a crowd, other Rotarians can spot him.

Polio eradication

Gupta considers his work in polio eradication “the highlight of my Rotary career”, and was involved in it right from the beginning when the first national polio event, the ‘Banish Polio’ march from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, was flagged off by President of India Giani Zail Singh in January 1987 in the presence of the then RI President MAT Caparas and RI Director Elect ­Sudarshan Agarwal. When Rotary approached the Government of India “with a donation of $19 million for polio vaccine, it took me six months, but I managed to get the Hold Harmless agreement which waives Rotary’s liability, signed by the Indian Government,” he recalls.

At many crucial junctures, this TRF Trustee has ‘opened doors’ for Rotary in India, and TRF Trustee Chair Kalyan Banerjee often introduces him as one who ‘thinks out of the box.’ “Well, I happen to be in Delhi and hospitality business and my interest in sports — tennis and golf — has helped me do this,” he smiles. (See box)

In 2005, as RI Director and Programmes Committee Chair, Gupta was instrumental in getting Rotary Action Groups approved by the RI Board. “There was a lot of resistance earlier, as it was thought these would compete with the Foundation. But they’ve now taken roots, and there are many active Rotary Action Groups today, the most active being in water and sanitation,” he says.

He met the late RI Director Manohar Lal Manchanda around 1978–79 and “He mentored me in my Rotary career, I learnt a lot about Rotary from him and Past RI Director Sudarshan Agarwal. In 1986, I met Kalyan (Banerjee) who became a great friend. In this journey of Rotary I have gained many friends, including many senior Rotary leaders, and am proud of their friendship.

The Himalayas have a strange attraction for me. I get a very strange feeling there… that I was here.

Hospitality business

So how did he get into the hotels business, I ask him. “I often say that we Punjabis have a flair for hotels, restaurants, film industry… we want to be part of glamour. So in 1980, when an opportunity came, I grabbed it, being very adventurous, as I had absolutely no knowledge about hotel business.” It was before the Asian Games and he joined two other partners to put in a bid and thus Asian Hotels was born.

But having taken the plunge, he worked hard to understand the industry, keeping to his life’s credo of ‘pehele mujhe samjhaiye’ (make me understand it first). “That way I am a very hands-on person. Ours was the first company in the private sector in 1982 to get the euro-dollar loan of over $11 million, and it was covered by Doordarshan News.”

That’s how the first Hyatt Regency was born, opening 200 rooms for the Asian Games, and then expanding to 520 rooms. “My motto is to always meet deadlines, fight for my rights and not compromise on values. Even when we opened the JW Marriott Hotel near the Delhi airport, there were a lot of difficulties. But I fought, telling the officers hotel to khulega zaroor, tell me what extra security measures need to be undertaken. Having learnt about the industry on the go (“jo kuch seekha hands on seekha”), when Gupta became President of the Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India, he decided to get the CHA (Certified Hotel Administration) degree in 1997 from the American Hotels and Motels Association.

Trekking

With his father planting a deep love of the mountains in a young Gupta, trekking is a passion with him and he has trekked with the legend of mountaineering Reinhold Messner. With the desire to do something for the environment latent in him, he got involved with Capt Mohan Kohli, the famous mountaineer of India and Chairman of the HET of which Sir Edmund Hillary was Chief Patron, and together they started the Gangotri Conservation project. “There was so much of degradation of the forest there that people were using bhojpatra for log fire! We made many trips there, took LPG to that area, undertook many other afforestation initiatives and planted 20,000 bhojpatra trees at Bhojbasa, the base of the Gangotri glacier, through a Rotary project in the 1990s.”

Relationships in both sports and hospitality have been built over long years and helped me open doors for Rotary, more so in polio eradication.

The Himalayas have always fascinated him; “they have a strange attraction for me. I get a very strange feeling there… that I was here.”

Gupta and Vinita are AKS members and Gupta was given ­Padmashri in 2007 for social work and his contribution to Tourism.

Pranic healing

Gupta is also known for his prowess in pranic healing, which he has been doing since 1995. Averse to taking medication, when he got hypertension, pranic healing was suggested to him. It worked, he got hooked to it and formed the local chapter of the Delhi Pranic Healing Foundation. “I first did the basic and then advance course, and have since helped many people get rid of their ailments through pranic healing, including distant healing. Because of my close association with revered Swamis, many of my Rotary Governors during my tenure as RI Director referred to me as Swami Sushil Gupta!”

Centennial year

The TRF Centennial will be a unique opportunity to showcase ­Rotary’s work and “fortunately we can show the world our work in polio eradication, as we are almost there. It also gives us an opportunity to tell the Rotary story to both non-Rotarians and Rotarians. Very few clubs are involved in the Foundation; it is an opportunity to talk to them and raise more money for the Foundation. But the biggest thing is partnerships; Bill Gates is already there and now Google is on board to do virtual reality videos; one on polio eradication will be launched at the Convention.

Coming to WinS, Gupta says the main focus is not building toilets but ushering in a behavioural change. “When I was asked to develop this programme and then chair it, I didn’t think it would become this big,” he smiles.

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat & special arrangement