A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN INDIA Fabindia, the business the late John Bissell built, set trends in the textile trade. But it was for different reasons the transplanted American was so highly esteemed by associates. A friend recalls the man and his work.
ith their antennae permanently positioned to lure the passing customer, retailers tend to be the most sensitive denizens of the marketplace. Everything affects them-bad weather, rent laws, shrinking wallets or a depressed economy. But there are some shops that acquire an immunity to these and allied bazaar disorders. One such exception is Fabindia--drop in on any slow-selling summer afternoon and its showrooms are a buzzing hive of activity. John L. Bissell, the man who started Fabindia as a small enterprise 38 years ago and turned it into a household word representing good taste at affordable prices, was an exceptional man himself. He was a highly individual American who brought New World merchandising to Old World handlooms, and succeeded in striking the precise balance between commercial profit and social commitment. He left the world of Seventh Avenue retail to make India
W
his home but carried with him the lingering spirit of American liberalism that staunchly defends the virtues of honesty, selfreliance and respect for the dissenting voice. In this he remained, as his banker friend Peter Jeffreys put it, "the quintessential Connecticut Yankee ... captivated but not deceived by India ....His observant eye and critical tongue were not the least of the innumerable contributions he made to India." Together with his wife Bimla Nanda, John struck a talent for friendship and hospitality that placed the Bissells at the heart of political, social and diplomatic Delhi for 40 years. A more consistently successful, influential and enjoyable Indo-American partnership can scarcely be imagined. When John Bissell died in March, aged 66, after a long, valiantly-borne illness, John Burns, The New York Times's South Asia cor-