My Journey

In life we experience joy, pleasure, success and comfort punctuated by sadness, defeat, let-downs, and difficulties. There is no human being who has not experienced both sides of the coin. Throughout our life we face various challenges – but what is vital is how we face them and how do we resolve them. In this blog I will share the journey of my life before I joined Reliance. I will share some achievements and some challenges of my early days which are close to my heart.

Born in a modest family in Mumbai, my childhood has been a memorable one. I was my parents stubborn brat child. Cricket was my greatest passion, and studies were of little interest to me. While I often bunked classes to watch cricket matches being played in Mumbai, I still recollect how I once even skipped my annual examination to go and watch a match between India and the West Indies. I reached a level where I even played in the famous Kanga League during my college days. But then, due to a serious eye injury caused by a cricket ball, I had to forego my passion for playing cricket and making it my career.

After my college, I joined the New Era Mill near Matunga Station in Mumbai and worked there for 9 months in the dyeing department. My parents also wanted me to join the Kotak Group and work there as the Kotaks are close relatives. But I never wanted to join a stereotype service class job: a 10 to 6 schedule, catching Mumbai local trains everyday at the same time with a lunchbox in hand, etc.

I always believed that getting stuck in a routine job life was not for me. I always aspired of doing something of my own. The entrepreneur within me would always resist. I wanted to be the architect of my own life. After trying a couple of things for few days, hesitatingly, I accepted the distributorship of a soft drink of a famous brand that was offered to me. I had no capital, nor would my father give any as he didn’t approve of my entrepreneurial venture. I then decided to fight my own battle and I went ahead and did so. Eventually, I even bought a soap factory in partnership and marketed the soap products very effectively pan India. As our business was stabilising, disputes among partners forced us to shut down the soaps business.

From Mumbai I moved to Vadodara and obtained a membership card of the Vadodara Stock Exchange. The period in 1980s and 1990s saw success amongst many stock market players. I too had luck favour me. In addition, I had about 20 STD/PCO booths in Vadodara including one in the Stock Exchange building itself. But destiny had something else in store for me! Taking high risks can pay off handsomely if successful, but can finish one off if things don’t go our way. It happened to me too. I lost heavily on the stock markets during the Harshad Mehta Scam, I was burdened with heavy debts with no way to get out and gave up all hope.

Determined to end my life, I went to Dwarka for one last darshan of Dwarkadheesh Lord Krishna. I sat at the shore for hours together contemplating my decision. The thought about my family, specially my son Dhanraj, pulled me back.

In 1995 , I received a call saying Shri Dhirubhai Ambani wishes to meet you. I will not deny it came a surprise to me as to why the business tycoon of India would want to meet me but there I was. One meeting with the most humbled and the one who became my anchor for life, Shri Dhirubhai Ambani changed my life and the rest is history.