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M. R. Pai: The Story of an Uncommon Common Man AS consumers many of us are not aware of our rights. Due to this unawareness, we are exploited everywhere whether it is a government or private organisation. This book is the biography of ‘Uncommon Common Man’ M. R. Pai, who was a consumer activist, and is written by his close friend and associate S. V. Raju.
Born in Mangalore on May 7, 1931, he studied at Canara High School, Mangalore, and completed his MA in Political Science at Presidency College, Madras. After completion of his studies, he went to Bombay and there he worked as an Assistant Editor with the Times of India. Two years later, he went to the US to obtain Master’s in Journalism from the University of California, Los Angeles. After returning to India, he joined the New India Assurance Company Limited for some time until it was nationalised. In 1956, he joined the Forum of Free Enterprise, which was launched by the late A. D. Shroff. In 1957, along with Nani Palkhiwala, the Forum was developed into a national organization. Later, it started organising meetings on economic subjects across the country. He left the Forum in 1976 to become a business consultant but continued to be its vice-president till his death on July 3, 2003. In those years of licence-permit raj, almost all services were provided by government-owned organisations and people were unaware of the term ‘consumer rights’. At that time, Pai and the Forum of Free Enterprise played a vital role and came forward to help the consumers by demanding good services for them. This biography simply tells the story of Pai’s life and leaves it to the reader to make his or her choice whether to choose Pai as their role model or not. The author has also tried to show some glimpses of Pai’s life through photographs. A selection of his letters written to various organisations is provided in the appendix section. Besides fighting for the rights of consumers, Pai has also written books on banking, career and time management. To make his efforts a success, we need to be aware of our rights as consumers.
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M. R. Pai (Mangalore Ranga
Pai) was an eminent personality of Mumbai who worked hard for the
benefit of consumers. For him, the common man always came first. He had
simple solutions to complex problems and a single action initiated by
him, arising from a consumer complaint, benefited thousands. His
involvement in consumer affairs started after his personal experience of
trying to get a telephone connection.