In a way it was a homecoming for Monika Jauch-Stolz.
Fifty years after she left Chennai, Ms. Monika, daughter of Wilhelm Stolz, who led the Design and Manufacturing Wing of the Swiss team that helped set up the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), visited the factory which has completed 60 years.
ICF was set up in collaboration with Swiss Car and Elevator Manufacturing Corporation Ltd.
On September 19, Ms. Monika was felicitated along with Rosa Saxer, daughter of Heinrich Saxer, then Production Superintendent of the technical team and Lukas Braem, the grandson of Walter Braem, then Chief Technical Manager.
While Lukas was born only in 1970, both Monika and Rosa Saxer spent their childhood in Ayanavaram. Monika, who was three months old when she arrived, learnt Tamil during her seven-year stay in Chennai. Ms. Rosa was barely two years old when she came here.
“As I was the only Tamil-speaking member of the family, I loved to overhear the people in our house, the caretakers, the cook and our nannies,” reminisced Ms. Monika, who first visited Chennai in 2013 with her husband.
V. Swaminathan, Deputy Secretary to the ICF GM, said he was surprised when Ms. Monika and her husband met him with a request for visiting the factory.
“But her connection with the ICF made me happy and she took pains to send two big parcels containing two large size drawings on ICF-Architectural plan and rare photos of dignitaries,” he said.
Ms. Rosa secured the agreement between Indian government and Swiss Car and Elevators Manufacturing Corporation Ltd. now with the Swiss Museum. Their enthusiasm infected Mr. Swaminathan, who, in turn, brought out the book, “Tracing the Roots,” a detailed history of ICF with documents and photographs.
Ms. Monika’s family left India in 1962. She said her family was sad about leaving India.
“They did it for our benefit. They wanted us to study in Swiss schools and didn’t want to be separated from us,” she recalled while expressing happiness that she was able to establish contact with all the people and descendants who lived with her in Perambur.
One Indian who had memorable days with the Swiss team was Tara Murali, whose grandfather K.Sadagopan, was the first General Manager (the designation then was Chief Administrative Officer)
She vividly recalled the huge cheese brought by Walter Braem as a gift for her grandparents.
“It was so big that it had to be placed on the dining table. I’m not sure whether there was a refrigerator in our house in Perambur, but it would most probably have not had sufficient space to house this cheese,” she said in her recollection.
Monika’s father Wilhelm Stolz was part of the Swiss technical team which established ICF
