A Life Celebrated with Packaging
"Packaging is a celebration," Mr Prabuddha Dasgupta is reported to accept said while addressing a seminar in Mumbai on 23 August 2017.
Speaking about the packaging of food, Mr Dasgupta said, "Information technology is the last thing your bread gets into from the bakery's oven and it is the start thing that information technology comes out from, on your dining table. Betwixt the ii lies the story of packaging."
Indeed, the 'story of packaging,' for most people outside the profession, is as simple as that. Simply for stalwarts similar Mr Dasgupta who pioneered their services for the industry in the 80s and 90s and worked indefatigably to innovate new applied science and innovation, the story has been long and twisted.
Starting out as a graduate from IIT, Mumbai, Mr Dasgupta entered the packaging profession with a Diploma from the Institute of Packaging, UK. His early stints were as Head of Packaging in pharma companies such as Wockhardt and Ranbaxy Labs. When he left to join the raw cloth supply side of the industry at VFC, Vadodra, I was fortunate to be appointed in his place at Ranbaxy and somehow fulfill the big role he had created for his position. Needless to say, I was grateful to have the confident support of departmental colleagues who had already been painstakingly mentored by him.
Speaking of their early years together in Ranbaxy, Gagandeep (who later joined him in HUL) says, "I had the fortune of working with Mr. Dasgupta when I started my career in Packaging Evolution, way dorsum in 1985 at Ranbaxy Labs, Delhi. Since I had no formal training in the subject area, he was almost similar a teacher and guide to me – to explain all the intricacies of the field. His passion for the domain was palpable and his confront would low-cal up every time nosotros went to him for some clarification or for immigration a doubt. He would make sure that we understood the basics of whatever nosotros were doing."
Sandeep Goyal (at present heading Sanex Packaging Connections) likewise speaks fondly of how Mr Dasgupta nurtured his growth in packaging as an intern and later by appointing him at Ranbaxy. He besides speaks of Mr Dasgupta's genial nature and generosity with his fourth dimension to share and explain the intricacies of packaging materials and engineering. He recalls how Mr Dasgupta was freely willing to give his time to anyone who asked and it often resulted in more than than one person turning upwards to meet him at the appointed 'nine:00 a.m.' time he had given! He also recalls how Mr Dasgupta instilled in him an constant curiosity for knowledge way beyond packaging and immune him the opportunity to learn computers when they were nonetheless a rarity.
As Mother Teresa said, "In this life we cannot exercise slap-up things. We can merely exercise small things with cracking dearest." This statement seems to hold particularly true for the life Mr Dasgupta led. Nigh everyone he worked or interacted with has spoken of his passion to learn things from the bones principles and to do every job with delivery and love. Everyone remembers his welcoming smiling and on occasions his jovial laughter which had the power to diffuse the tension in critical office meetings.
As Manjeet Sahu of Kellogs, who was his colleague at HUL, has said, "Anyone who worked with him will miss his ready grin. His vast storehouse of cognition made him a 'go-to' person for many and he always had something to give." In the same style Gagandeep says, "After (after leaving Ranbaxy) during my career at Hindustan Unilever, I worked closely with him as a colleague. He was extremely proud that I had grown as a professional in my own right and had been able to achieve what I could based on the foundations and grooming that he had imparted. For me he always remained a mentor and guide – A 'go-to' person whenever one needed help."
At HUL's Innovation Heart, Mr Dasgupta leveraged his position and resources to straddle the packaging manufacture mural like an intellectual giant. His work on bulk packs of tea or oxygen scavenging crown-cork liners for ketchup was comprehensive. His contribution to the improvement of flexible packaging specs for easy-tear and improved barrier properties helped do good the entire manufacture. His work was recognized by the numerous and frequent Worldstar and Indiastar awards that were received by the visitor as a consequence of his efforts. No uncertainty the work impacted not but the packaging industry merely extended much beyond, to improve the quality and availability of packaging used in the country. In fact, the most notable contribution of his life's work may be that information technology helped to create recognition for the role of professional packaging technologists in consumer brand companies. It helped to 'open' the profession and create career opportunities.
Every bit a result of this there was a bit of Mr Dasgupta everyone wanted – everywhere! He was in slap-up demand equally a speaker in conferences and seminars. Speaking at one such conference at Plastindia 2015, he said, "In international markets or at Duty Gratis shops overseas and in India every bit well, Indian packaged food is very hard to detect on shelves. The primary reason appears to exist lack of high-quality packaging solutions. With the increased apply of technology which has provided loftier quality and prophylactic plastic for various applications in the Indian food manufacture, the industry can become more pervasive and competitive and gain toll effectiveness." In this regard, during his later years, after retirement from HUL, his interest in plastics for safety and effective packaging of food for wider distribution was well known. He combined it with a missionary zeal of imparting knowledge and education to anyone who was willing to listen.
In the words of Benjamin Fairless, a prominent American CEO of the nineteenth century, "What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind at that place are only four essential ingredients: Choose a career you dear, give it the best there is in you, seize your opportunities, and be a member of the team." Peradventure this describes Mr Dasgupta'south career most aptly. It was apparent he loved his task from the cadre of his heart and cared securely for those he considered 'his team.' At the aforementioned time he could be very discerning nigh the people he came in contact with and chose his allies well.
Amidst all his vast and varied contributions to the field of packaging, in the end perchance a statement made by him while visiting the Manjushree Museum of Packaging in Bengaluru, best sums upward all that he stood for. He said, "I ensure that brand managers from HUL regularly visit the museum to look at new additions to the collections. It helps to await at the past and have concepts for the future."
For many of us today who proceed to work in this profession, and for future generations of packaging technologists to come, it will help if we too expect closely at the past legacy of Mr Dasgupta'southward vast body of work and seek concepts – not merely for packaging but a way of life in the profession.
He truly deserved to be chosen the Dada (as many chosen him) of Indian packaging. Live on, Dada Prabuddha, wherever you are in the Cosmos, to keep improving lives – from basic principles!
– Deepak Manchanda
deepak.thepackagingconsortium@gmail.com
Source: https://packagingsouthasia.com/type-of-article/editorial/a-life-celebrated-with-packaging/
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