India unbound by Das Gurcharan

Author:Das, Gurcharan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Delhi : New York, NY : Viking
Published: 2000-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

wholesalers and retailers, Dhirubhai Ambani was hustling nearby in Bombay's Mulji Jetha wholesale market. He was peddling imported nylon yarn, which he had acquired through the export of rayon fabric. He worked from a tiny, borrowed office in Bhaat Bazaar, but he spent most of his day trudging in the muggy, teeming yarn markets of Pydhonie, chewing paan and drinking endless cups of tea. There was little to distinguish Dhirubhai from other traders. They were all sharp and had learned to operate on razor-thin margins. He lived in the bowels of Bombay's bazaars, in a one-room chawl with his wife, his brother, his mother, and his two sons in Kabutarkhana in Bhuleshwar. It was a fifth floor walk-up, pigeon-holed among 500 families.

'Kabutarkhana' is literally a place where pigeons live, but no one is quite sure how it got its name. There is a temple next door, where everybody goes and prays, and throws chana to the pigeons. Kabutarkhana is also home to Bombay's milkmen and there is a milk market nearby in Pinjrapol. Strange companions to the milkmen are Bombay's embroiders, who include the famous retailer, Maganlal Dresswalla. Everyone agrees that there is a lot of hustle and bustle in Kabutarkhana.

Like other traders, Dhirubhai used to take his family by bus to Chowpatty beach on Sundays, where they permitted themselves two treats per person—a snack and a drink or two snacks. Sometimes on a Sunday he took his boys to watch hockey at Churchgate and followed it up with idli-sambhar at an Udipi cafe. 'Sunday was an important day,' remembers his son, Anil Ambani. A few kilometres away from Dhirubhai's world was my upper middle class, leisurely life of gymkhana clubs,-English movies, comfortable jobs, spacious flats, and Saturday evening parties.

What set Dhirubhai apart from other Gujarati traders is that he had vision, and he understood the minds of men. He realized that synthetics were the future fabric of the Indian middle class, although the government regarded them as a luxury and taxed them at extortionate rates. Sense would prevail one day, thought Dhirubhai, as he plowed his trading

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.