Meeting with Dhirubhai

My cousin Manoj Modi had called me about the meeting with Shri Dhirubhai Ambani. With all the questions and still in surprise about what made him call me, I went to Mumbai to meet Shri Dhirubhai.
Unfortunately, the meeting did not happen that day since he was occupied with his meetings. I had my commitments in Vadodara, so I left.

After a few days the meeting was rescheduled and I was with the man himself, Shri Dhirubhai Ambani in his office accompanied by Shri Mukesh Ambani and Shri Anil Ambani. I was a little nervous as it was for the very first time in my life I went to a corporate office with so many things going around.The Ambanis were very generous and they made me feel very comfortable.

Shri Dhirubhai Ambani started briefing me regarding his dream project to build a World Class Refinery in Jamnagar. The land they wanted to acquire for the refinery was owned by farmers in that region. They were offering a good compensation to the farmers but they were still protesting. He wanted to understand why were the farmers upset despite receiving more than 8 times the money of the land acquired from them.

To my surprise, he wanted me to meet the farmers and find out the exact issue. Very humbly I told him that I had zero idea about how to deal with it as I was not experienced or even versed with the technicalities of land acquisition and government procedures. But he had confidence in me. He told me, “Parimal, main bolta hun tu kar lega. Tu bas shuru kar aur mujhe bata.”
Again, with thousands of questions in my head I left from the meeting but one thing I was sure about was, I will make this happen. The confidence Shri Dhirubhai Ambani has shown in me, the responsibility he’s given me, I will fulfil that.

I got myself a rented office in Jamnagar called ‘White House’ and started working on the project. I met the farmers and came to know that they were happy with the compensation but wanted job assurance for atleast one member of each family. I asked them to have faith in me.I took advice from our lawyer and started gathering information. All this was new for me but I was confident that I will be able to convincethe farmers.

People started having faith in us but there wasa group of farmers from the village who created hurdles. One of them was Hembha Jadeja. Despite the assurance, he was adamant about giving his land only if we gave him 1 crore rupees. He said “Parimalbhai hu Nariman Point par ubho chu ane kau chu, Mane 1 crore rupya aapso to j hu mari jameen aapis baaki maaro gaado marg mane aapi do” (I will only give my land for 1 crore rupees else build a pathway for me to take my bullock carts at my farm land.)

There was another group of the Bawa community who have a worship site on one of the land we wanted to acquire, they had their apprehension and were not ready to give up their site of worship.
These were the only two who were not ready to give their land so we worked on a mutual solution to allow them in the refinery ensuring proper security measures were taken. Gaado marg was built and they were all given a pass to enter the refinery.

Consent was taken from all the farmers and submitted in the court since land acquisition was quashed by the Supreme court before we started this process.Our efforts paid off well and the land acquisition for the world class refinery was completed. Jobs were given to the members of each family as promised. That road in the refinery till date is being used for farming on Hembha Jadeja’s land and Bawa community worship daily at the samadhi.

In the entire process, along with Dhirubhai’s faith in me, I earned the faith and love of all the people who gave their land for the refinery on my word and that was my reward for life; something I cherish till date.

This is how I got associated with the Reliance Industries Limited and became a part of one of the biggest refinery in Asia. Dhirubhai has been my mentor and I owe all that I have learnt from him. Working with Shri Mukesh Ambani has been a journey in itself that I am obligated for.