Legacy: Letters from eminent parents to their daughters

by Menon, Sudha

  SUDHA MENON

  Published by Random House India in 2013

  Copyright © Sudha Menon 2013

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  EPUB ISBN 9788184003949

  To my parents,

  my conscience keepers,

  without whom my world would have been

  a different place.

  I love you, forever

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  Ajay Piramal

  Amit Chandra

  Capt. Gopinath

  Chanda Kochhar

  Deep Anand

  Ganesh Natarajan

  Jatin Das

  Kishore Biyani

  K.V. Kamath

  Mallika Sarabhai

  Narayana Murthy

  Pradeep Bhargava

  Prakash Padukone

  P.P. Chhabria

  Renuka Ramnath

  Sanjeev Kapoor

  Shaheen Mistri

  Zia Mody

  Acknowledgements

  FOREWORD

  udha’s book, a collection of letters from inspirational men and women, is a reiteration of my belief that our parents can be our best teachers—mine certainly have been for me and my two brothers. It is from our parents that we internalize the values that shape our lives.

  N.R. Narayana Murthy’s letter to his daughter Akshata is a delight to read—he comes across as a doting father who is keen that his daughter benefits from the wealth of his own experience. I love the way he tells her to talk to her own daughters about their ancestors and their great accomplishments. It is heart-warming to read his thoughts about the struggles of women at work and how he is inspired by them.

  Only a truly global leader like Narayana Murthy can tell his daughter to become a citizen of the world in every sense while simultaneously asking her to be a proud Indian, wherever in the world she lives.

  Looking back at my own life after all these years, I can say without hesitation that I was lucky to have been born to my parents, the two extraordinary individuals who shaped my life and made me what I am today. I owe them everything that I have achieved.

  Although my father is no more, he remains my strongest source of inspiration. Through my letter to my parents, I hope to convey what they mean to me.

  Dearest Daddy and Mummy,

  When you told me to consider brewing as a profession decades ago, it was rare for a girl to go out and even get a job for herself. All she was expected to do was complete her education and wait for a suitable man to come along so that she could get married and settle down.

  Daddy, you were not the one to tread the beaten path—nor would you let your children do so. You made sure that your only daughter was no different from your two sons. After graduating in Zoology, I was wondering what I could do with my life when you completely stumped me one day by asking me to consider brewing as a profession. Being in the brewery business, you knew it had great potential in India and that I could apply my college education to my career.

  Being your daughter, I soon found myself in Australia, studying to be a brewmaster—a profession that, even in a developed country like Australia, was a man’s world. It was challenging but also fun being the lone girl in a room full of men who possibly thought I was out of my mind to be in that class! That was the turning point of my life, in many ways. On my return to India, I went from brewery to brewery in pursuit of employment but soon realized that the brewing world in India was not ready for a lady brewer. This was the first time I faced failure but strangely, it made me even more determined to succeed, I might never have become an entrepreneur. Biocon would never have been born but for the fact that I refused to let somebody else’s prejudices dictate my life.

  It was your faith in me, Daddy, that I would do something worthwhile with my education that laid the foundation of my own belief in myself. You were the one who showed me that gender has nothing to do with one’s dreams. You often said to me: ‘If you are intelligent and willing to work hard, you can make anything out of your life.’It was these seeds of wisdom that led me to apply my knowledge of fermentation to develop and pioneer a biotechnology-led enzymes business in India.

  You also said that knowledge knows no gender divide. I know it is true today. It is completely possible to bridge the gender divide by being strong-willed, which is what I was as a young woman starting out on a singularly lonely journey into entrepreneurship. I continue to be strong-willed, heading an enterprise whose nucleus is the power of imagination and innovation—which is how I was able to transform my enzymes business into a fully-integrated biopharmaceuticals enterprise that it is today. Fermentation Science, a programme that I started with when I was studying to be a brewer, still remains at the core of our business expertize today.

  I am self-assured and strong-willed thanks to the support from you and Mummy—and because you taught me to believe in myself. Had you not treated me as equal to my brothers, I may have suffered an inferiority complex being a woman and even diffident. This is what still happens in many Indian households where young women often grow up feeling they are not good enough—and it is a real pity that they were not blessed with enlightened parents like you.

  The most fundamental truth that I learnt from you, Daddy, was this: you have to earn your right over anything you want. I dreamt of studying medicine as a young girl but was so arrogant about my abilities that I applied for admissions to just one college, St.John’s in Bangalore. When the results were declared, I found to my horror that my name was not on the list of those admitted to the college. The only option then was to pay a hefty capitation fee for admission to a private college that offered medical education.

  I turned to you then but my heart broke when you simply said ‘No’! I wept and ranted and accused you of being unfair to me because I was a girl child. Today, I am grateful that you stuck to your guns and told me that you would never spend a single rupee on capitation fee, as a matter of principle. You told me in no uncertain terms: ‘If you want something, work for it. Don’t buy your way through things because, if you do, you will never respect yourself.’ Years later, my admiration for your strength of character continues to grow—especially in the context of the challenges of growing corruption this country faces today—as does my appreciation for the value of what you were trying to teach me. To this day I am proud of the fact that I have never ‘bought’ any favour or paid a bribe to facilitate anything that I needed. I simply work till I get to my goal. Thank you, Daddy.

  While I shared a deep bond with Daddy, I am deeply inspired by you Mummy. You grew up in Gujarat in a traditional family that placed a high premium on educating seven daughters and their only son.The difference, however, was that they did not think their daughters needed a career. When you married Daddy, you did so un
derstanding that you would spend your life being a housewife and raising kids. But Mummy, you did that with such joy and commitment! Despite your traditional background, you raised us differently, exposing us to your work at the Catholic mission that you volunteered with every week. You encouraged us to interact with your friends from different nationalities, religions, and backgrounds. This instilled a healthy worldview in all of us—that diversity is good and that we must respect different people and their various points of view. And that there is space on this earth for everyone and everything—a lesson that stands us in good stead even today.

  Most importantly, Mummy, from you I learnt courage and determination. When Daddy passed away, you were devastated and bereft. You had lost the one person who was your anchor and for a while, it seemed as if you felt your life was over. And then, you surprised us all by emerging from the depths of your grief and despondence to set up your own automated laundry service and you called it ‘Jeeves’ after your favourite P.G. Wodehouse character. You are one of the bravest and most resourceful women I have known—and I am proud to be your daughter.

  I look upon all young Indian girls who are approaching adulthood with a mix of anxiety and intrepidation as to what the future holds and reflect on my own youth when I stood at similar crossroads. I would like to say to them: We woman are equal citizens of this country. A good education and pursuit of a career or vocation that is useful to society is what really matters. Making money is not everything; adding value to society with impactful work is.

  I would also like to tell them—as I have learnt from you, Daddy and Mummy—there are no shortcuts in life. There will be successes and failures, pain and gain, and there will always be plenty of sceptics, critics, and people with prejudice—as I have learnt through all these years of building Biocon. Life’s rich tapestry is made of all of these. Your task is simply to take everything in your stride and forge ahead. We women are a resilient lot; we are able to take failure and other setbacks in our stride.

  My message to all the young girls in our country is that sometimes your weakness can be your biggest strength, and like the handicap in golf, your weakness can be your biggest advantage. If indecisiveness and diffidence are your perceived weaknesses, work quietly on converting these into unwavering self-confidence and decisiveness, and then, go out and conquer the world.

  With my deepest love,

  Your daughter,

  Kiran

  Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

  CMD, Biocon Ltd

  Bangalore, 2013

  Ajay Piramal

  jay Piramal is a man of many interests. An animal lover, wildlife photographer, and a whimsical writer, Piramal is also the man who almost single-handedly charted one of corporate India’s most lucrative deals when he sold Piramal Healthcare’s domestic formulations business to the US-based Abbott Labs for a stunning US$ 3.7 billion in 2010, catapulting him into the league of the country’s top 50 billionaires.

  It is easy to get intimidated by his reputation and by the stillness of his top floor office at Piramal Towers in central Mumbai, where priceless art and verses from ancient scriptures, engraved in granite, compete for space.

  The man himself is disarmingly humble and down-toearth. Though he initially had to be persuaded to speak about his life, once he got talking, there was no stopping him. His tales were so enthralling that I went back not once but three times, to know the real person behind the veneer of his public persona.

  At the age of 29, Piramal found himself at the crossroads of life, shouldering the responsibility of managing a flagging textiles business while ensuring the well-being of his own family and that of his brother who tragically passed away after suffering from cancer, leaving behind a young widow and two little children.

  Many in the industry predicted that the business would not survive owing to his lack of experience, but the relatively ‘inexperienced’ Piramal took the challenge head-on and the last few decades, has seen it grow into a formidable US$ 2 billion conglomerate with presence in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, real estate, finance, and telecom.

  The astute businessman lives his life and manages his business drawing inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita. He quotes extensively from it, which is not surprising considering the fact that every weekend, he and his wife attend a class on the teachings of the dharmic scriptures conducted by his guru.

  A great believer in the power of sharing one’s privileges, his philanthropic enterprise, The Ajay G. Piramal Foundation runs multiple programmes for the rural poor in his home state of Rajasthan. He is also the Chairman of Pratham India, India’s largest non-governmental organization in the education sector, reaching out to over 33 million children through its ‘Read India’ campaign.

  Piramal finds great inspiration in Rabindranath Tagore’s words:

  Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,

  But to be fearless in facing them.

  Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,

  But for the heart to conquer it.

  Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield,

  But to my own strength.

  Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,

  But hope for the patience to win my freedom.

  Grant me that I may not be a coward,

  Feeling your mercy in my success alone.

  But let me find the grasp of your hand

  In my failure.

  Piramal’s letter to his daughter Nandini, an executive director at the group’s flagship company, Piramal Healthcare, gives a fascinating insight into his own journey to finding unbelievable success and mental bliss.

  Dear Nandini,

  A long time ago, when I was a young man of 24, my father, whom I was very close to, passed away unexpectedly, leaving the family without its anchor. He was the head of our family in every sense of the way. We depended on him for guidance and emotional sustenance and his death left us rudderless and the family business, without a leader. Somehow, we recouped with the help of your uncle, my brother Ashok, who became the new father figure in our lives and took over the family business. It was a difficult time. Soon after dad’s demise, the family itself went through a difficult division of assets and I chose to remain with Ashok in the textile business which constituted 90 percent of our business interests while my other brother decided to move away.

  On January 1, 1982, just days after the division, our business was hit by a trade union strike. This was the infamous Datta Samant textile strike that paralyzed Mumbai’s thriving textile industry and our business went into limbo for the eighteen months that the strike lasted. Our valuations took a severe drubbing and while we were still coming to grips with the losses, my beloved brother, who was just 35 years of age at the time, was diagnosed with cancer. He suffered from the disease for over a year before passing away in 1984. I was 29-years-old then.

  Suddenly, at 29, I found myself all alone, faced with the prospect of shouldering the responsibility of not just running the family business which was in shambles but also of being in charge of two families—mine and my brother’s. He had left behind a young wife and three children, the youngest of who was merely 3-years-old. Life seemed like a huge burden, an impossible task, and there were a lot of people who wondered how I could handle all this since I was an inexperienced young man. They thought the business would fold up without a leader, in no time.

  But it was my faith and the spiritual teachings of my father that carried me through this difficult phase. He had a great belief in God and in a superior force above, which he believed, watches us at all times. So even though the world thought I was inexperienced, I knew that both my father and my brother had complete faith and confidence in me and that helped instilling a self-belief.

  Your mother, Swati, too was no different. She always gave me the support and strength to face challenges and had the ability to look at the brighter side of things, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

  How else can you explain the fact that just a
couple of months before my brother passed away, we acquired Gujarat Glass, a move into a completely uncharted territory for us? My brother and Swati encouraged me to follow up that acquisition even when he was seriously ill because they believed that it was important to diversify our business so we would not be vulnerable to factors over which we had no control. And so, even though we were steeped in debt at that point, we made the acquisition in order to de-risk ourselves. Twenty years later, our textile business constituted less than 5 percent of our total business. We had succeeded in completely changing the complexion of the group.

  We made that acquisition in June and my brother passed away in August, leaving me with a crucial life lesson: Life has to go on, no matter how big the loss or how deep the suffering from life’s unexpected surprises are.

  Looking back now, I can see how lucky I was to have people in my life who had enough faith in me to let me make mistakes and grow from them. None of us can learn without making a few mistakes of our own.

  I also learnt that what we look upon as really hopeless, bad times, are merely temporary phases which will also pass and life will be smooth again. I learnt courage from my brother who valiantly fought cancer, never giving up once or complaining about his lot in life. Never once did he say: ‘Why me?’ I learnt from him to always be optimistic. He also taught me that the difficult phases in life are moments in passing and that a situation that you think you will not be able to survive will not seem so bad when you look back at it. We as humans have the power to overcome our circumstances, all we need, is the courage to take firm decisions and stick to them.

  That phase of my life also taught me other crucial life lessons which I have strived to follow over the years. I realized the importance of prioritizing things. I decided that my family came first, our health second, and work third. I learnt to love unconditionally and selflessly, without expecting anything in return. For me, the love that a mother has for her child is the purest form of love. Sadly, most of the times as parents, we go on to expect our children to give back to us in some form for the love we showered on them in their childhood. Love given in expectance of something in return is a transaction. You are a mother of a little daughter now and remember this as you raise her, Nandini.