The man who would be barrister still had to pay for his lunches at the Inns of Court. Leaving the heart land of Punjab after post partition chaos, a hope and prayer was not good enough for Hira Sehgal in a London, where you queued for sweets after a horrendous World War, with sanity still to return to time honoured professions. If we meet him now he presides over the Holiday Inn behind Oxford Street and within walking distance the boutique Leonard Hotel which was the Shah of Iran’s guest house until the days of the splendid Pehlavi were over.

For the man who set off with a hope and a prayer to England very long time ago. Hira Sehgal has kept close to his heart the simple touch of rural Punjab, amidst all the alien corn.

Today Hira Sehgal  walks with kings and in fact has been honoured by the Queen for his great contribution to  British Industry. Luckily in the rarest of rare instances of the many millionaires of our country in London he is yet to loose the common touch. A true man of our times, two hotels and a million friends in London and in India, where he spends nearly equal time. Barbara, of course helps. He met this elegant lady during the early days with Air India after a truly depressing period in his life.  Following his retreat from ambition in the legal profession, he humped sacks of rubber from lorries to factory floors. Today when he takes off in private jets that belong to his gilded friends to play golf all over the world he must think rather happily at the trophy won on a golf safari in Kenya, that sits on the mantelpiece of the dinning room of the Leonard.  The self effacing owner drops by every late morning for a cup of coffee and to keep his finger on the pulse of the immense complexities that it takes to run this plush collection of elegant suites. Where a new employee, as he attends to the owner, may not know who this quiet person is sitting there getting  his gear together  before taking off for a daily afternoon round at the Hamstead or Bukinghamshire golf course. The success story of Hira and Barbara Sehgal is based on 48 years of immense affection in a competitive land in the demanding hospitality industry of impeccable standards and huge trade swings. The Sehgal wedding was on April Fool’s day in athe Town Hall and no one turned up because their few friends thought it was all a joke. The groom had to rush to the toilet to retreat a gardenia as a buttonhole from someone who  had got married a little earlier. There were diamonds in his pockets but these did not belong to Hira. He had begun to find his way into that rewarding but as it turned out, vicious and venal world. Where the glitter of the stone also masked the wink of duplicity. Just when it seemed that the precious gem would lead  the Sehgals to fame and good fortune and with a name like that, disaster descended.  Someone, possibly a goon hired by a competitor, followed Hira home from the train station after one of his business trips. The precious stash kept under his bed on trust vanished during the night and today’s man of charm and wit had to start all over again.

In his elegant drawing room of his present apartment of his Portland place, there is a photo of young Sehgal,  very debonair, almost a twin of the much older actor Dev Anand. With Barbara  an exceptionally attractive blonde, the chrysalis of the current head of the Indo-British Women’s Association. The lift in Hira Sehegal’s plush apartment is programmed to stop on their 5th floor. No amount of British ingenuity can make it do anything else for it was in Sehgal’s apartment that General Einshenhower had his residence when he commanded operation towards the D-day landings.

There are period paintings of vanished colonial landcapes at home. At Leonard, a few months ago three suites were taken up with an explosion of the best Indian and Pakistani art brought together for the first time in London. At the wine and cheese, on the opening day, the Sehgals had a guest list that might have been printed by Forbes purely for  private circulation. A nod here and a touch there and the Sehgals are ready to take off to Nigeria or to Dubai where their exceedingly attractive daughters are happily married into the corporate purple of their adopted countries. I wait for Hira and Barbara to come to Bombay in our winter months. I know there will be lots of good golf with Hira where he may give you the odd put but fights every inch of the way all the time. And Barbara will host elegant dinners in their large apartment at Napean Sea Road, overlooking the Priyadarshani Park. For the man who set off with a hope and a prayer to England very long time ago. Hira Sehgal has kept close to his heart the simple touch of rural Punjab, amidst all the alien corn. Meet him, like him, stay with him, for he is a very good friend who conjures up excellence at work and at play.