Be a decent drinker, man...

AMRIT KIRAN Singh?s baritone voice could easily get him an invite for a dubbing session in Hollywood. It?s another matter he wouldn?t take up that offer. For Singh, life?s much more than glitz and glamour which, in any case, envelopes him in his high-profile, demanding job at the helm of affairs in the liquor giant? Brown Foreman Worldwide.

Amrit Kiran Singh, Vice-President and Area Director (South Asia) for Brown Foreman Worldwide .

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AMRIT KIRAN Singh’s baritone voice could easily get him an invite for a dubbing session in Hollywood. It’s another matter he wouldn’t take up that offer.

For Singh, life’s much more than glitz and glamour which, in any case, envelopes him in his high-profile, demanding job at the helm of affairs in the liquor giant— Brown Foreman Worldwide.

Singh was recently appointed chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM India)—an organization with a current membership base of 380 most powerful American companies with bases in India.

“I passed out of La Martiniere School in Lucknow in 1975. My brother and I were kind of naughty during our school days and didn’t really like following rules. Once we refused to get our long hair trimmed despite warnings from the teacher and a barber was called in to the school for the trimming. The result was a ‘katora’ cut for both of us. It looked so horrible that we had to shave our heads to end the embarrassment of sporting long hair in school,” he remembers with a laugh.

“We enjoyed a great rapport with all our classmates. Those were the days of school in Lucknow. I still get to meet some of my old classmates when I visit home in Lucknow,” says Singh.

Even as Singh chatted away with HT We in the Taj Coffee Shop, an old classmate of his walked up to him. For Singh, more than the joy of meeting an old classmate after so many years was the fact that his friend too, is now in the liquor business!!!

And what about the biggest influence in his life? “It’s my father Wing Commander (Retd) H K Singh who brought high technology to Uttar Pradesh. It’s my father who set up the state-of-art Avionics plant of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Lucknow in 1969,” he tell you with unmistakable pride.

“My father is 80 years old now and was a workaholic during his younger days. His is a major influence on my life,” he says.

Singh gets up at 5.30 in the morning and heads for a round of golf at the DLF Golf & Country Club near Delhi. And by the time his family wakes up, he is home at the breakfast table. “My family is used to my travelling much of the time round the year on business. I read a lot and can’t really part with the laptop which keeps me connected to the world,” he says.

Before you decide to toss the next question, Singh takes the lead with: Let me tell you something about the liquor business too. We, in the liquor business, don’t like drunk people! They (drunk people) give a bad name to the liquor business. We want people to drink responsibly. These people get sozzled and drunk and then, blame the liquor barons for selling liquor. That’s ridiculous. No liquor company wants their drinkers to get drunk!!!”

A revelation, indeed!