Inspiring Expedition: Vendor to Industrialist

                      'Cigarette lelo...beedilelo, bauji Cigarette lelo...beedilelo’

These words of a small 8 year old child lured the attention of the passengers, who were travelling in the bus from Sardhana to Meerut (towns near Delhi, India).

 

This small child named Madan lived a life,full of struggles and hurdles. He never got a flowery road, infact there were so many tussles and hard grafts involved that though he was a highly emotional man, he turned into a strong cord, mentally as well as financially.

 

Son of a refugee from Pakistan, Madan was born on 25 April 1948. When he opened his eyes for the first time, his family members were in thrashes and turbulence as they had just survived the partition crash. His father, Shyamlal, was a very modest man and he couldn’t fetch even a penny from his collection at Pakistan and thereby they were just bankrupts in their early Indian years. The family lived in Sardhana, a town near Delhi. Shyamlal somehow managed the household expenditure, merely living hand to mouth. He followed the barter system, took raw cloth from manufacturer, carried it on his rented cycle and exchanged it for food items in the nearby villages.

 

Once, while selling his clothes in the muddy village area, during the rainy month of July in 1956, ShyamLal’scycle slipped, he fell off and broke his limb. This came as a catastrophe for his family as none could get even a day’s meal. The familysomehow managed for two days but third day was completely dry. Even the doctor’s fee was pending and Shyam was advised bed rest for three months. Being the eldest son, Madan could not bear his two brothers and youngest sister, whom he loved the maximum, suffering from hunger. He studied in standard nine and was quite young to get any job. So, he left his studies and thought of earning bread and butter for his siblings and parents by selling cigarette and match sticks in buses.

 

Through this Madan somehow managed to cater to satisfy the hunger of his family members but he was miserly disturbed by their pathetic condition. He was a child with high ambitions and he decided to drophis formal education and begin informal but professionaltraining that could at least save his family from starving. Madan took the lead and at the age of fourteen, left his town for a few months.He reached out to his cousin in Meerut to learn the skills of an electrician.

 

After becoming a good electrician, Madan wished to begin his own venture at Sardhana, his native town. Again misfortune troubled him and he had to pass the test by earning sixty two rupees that he needed to purchase the tools,mandatory to begin his work as electrician as his father could not affordeven that. He began his work in partnership with a rich friend who gave him the tools and he gave him fifty percent of his earnings for six months, before he could buy his own tools.

 

The journey to success had begun but it wasn’t a smooth going. Madan had to travel long distances on foot and hung himself inside the wells to fit motors in them. He witnessed the initial electric connections in villages and was instrumental in illuminating in the lives of many by fitting wires of electric currents in their huts and houses. People blessed him for his hard work and sincerity. Above all he was highly social and humanistic, never charged a penny more than he deserved. Gradually his fate started taking positive turns. Soon he opened an electrician’s shop in the town, which though small had earned the trust of big number of citizens. Madan’s empathetic nature and good interpersonal skills fetched him lots of love from the people in and around the town.Owing to his hard working spirit, a friend from village offered him partnership in a small handloom factory of cloth manufacturing ie. ‘KHADDI’.

 

Being a risk taker at heart, Madan accepted the challenging offer and begun working whole heartedly by hiring five workers initially. The hand woven cloth that was produced had less market in the town, so Madan started travelling to export companies in Panipat and Bombay to sell his products. Himself a ninth dropout, Madan had the confidence to talk and convince export companies to tie up with his small venture. He started getting large orders that motivated him to employ more and more ‘kaarigars’ ie. workers in his factory. 

 

During 1980s, Madan had to travel almost every month to Bombay by train that kept him more than ten to fifteen days away from family and on returning to Meerut, many a timeshe did not find any conveyance for Sardhana. Once he reached Meerut at 9 at night and the last bus to Sardhana left ten minutes back.Feeling desperate to meet his family and finding less money in his pocket to rent a guest house, he walked on foot to travel forty kilometres to reach his hometown.

 

Though not well educated, Madan had the qualities of a prodigious businessman, he was risk taker, responsible and conscientious person along with extraordinary interpersonal skills that amounted to immense growth in his business. But it was not a smooth journey to success. Madan had to pass through various harsh experiences and losses during this expedition. Being humble fetched him a lot of punishments as his customers cheated him by not paying for his products. Some exporters even refused to take big orders after production.

 

Madan was a man with strong will power and full of remarkable positivity. Big losses could not break his determination to reach heights. Along with cloth manufacturing unit, he invested his earning in a potato store house in 1990s, an effort to regain his losses, but destiny was quite upset with him and he had to undergo another big loss there. It seemed quite difficult to survive this time.

 

As said ‘To be successful in life, one has to be an ardent learner as for a learner even failure is an extraordinary experience.’ Madan too learnt from these experiences and pledged to start afresh and decided instead of apportioning his attention to many tasks, he would concentrate on one work. He thought of expanding his cloth manufacturing unit and constraining his market to areas where he could easily keep track of payments and deliveries.

 

He searched for gainful and lucrative market within NCR and Delhi region. Daily commuting to these places in whatever conveyance available as bullock carts or busses or scooters, he used to feel happiness at the end of the day as he was back with his family. He was happy that his family was getting good food and his children, who were born after ten years of his marriage, were studying in the best schools of Meerut. Again the happy days were disturbed by stormy times.

 

One day while driving back from Meerut on his scooter, Madan was attached by dacoits and they hit him on his head. That was a fatal blow to him. He was accompanied by his father that day and Shyamlal was also badly injured by them. The dacoits snatched all their money and belongings and left them semi-conscious on the road. Madan exhibited his bravery and patriarchy by gathering courage to stand in the mid of the road in front of a bus that was speedily heading towards Meerut from Sardhana. Initially the bus driver got scared to see a man with bleeding head, trying to stop the bus but a person sitting on the front seat recognized him and forced the driver to help Madan. With God’s grace Madan and his father were taken to a hospital at Meerut and their lives were saved, but that day itself Madan decided to shift to a safer place with his family and they all came to Meerut.

 

Migrating to Meerut was also not that easy. It was a resettling phase, a restart of everything. Madan had to shift his factory to Meerut first and that took him through a whole lot of struggles again. He took a huge loan for the same and slept in the factory on floor, without proper fans, amongst mosquitoes and worms of all kinds for two long years, till the structure of the factory was ready to shift the handlooms along with new power looms to meet the demand of the exporting companies. In 1993, Madan brought his family as well as work to Meerut.

 

At Meerut initially the family lived in a rented house and due to the pressure of heavy loans they again lived hand to mouth. There were days when Madan could not sleep for nights because of loan and stress at work. Still he never left a chance to buy enjoyment and entertainment for his family. He was blessed with four children, three sons and a daughter and every summer holidays, he took them out of station for an outing on a rented car.

 

Truly God helps those who help themselves, as Madan was so anxious and ambitious and on the top of it so hardworking, by and large he managed to own his first second hand car in 1996. In 1998, he inaugurated his new own new house and then after facing all the ups and downs in the work, he progressed with leaps and bounds.

 

Hebegun to be counted amongst leading industrialists in cloth and chain manufacturing with three industries, two villas and three luxurious cars under his umbrella during 2012.

 

Nevertheless, since then after much contemplation, conscientious hard work and sincere dedicated efforts, Madan is living his life as he wished to. His loans have been almost paid back.One of his sons is the permanent resident of Australia, the other two sons have taken over his business and his daughter is a successful professor in the top most university of the state. Madan has been quite fond of travelling and he has done All India tours along with visiting his son in Australia numerous times.

 

Though the complete life and successful attainment of his aspirations are an inspiration for all, the best motivation in his life is how he’s able to attain success without sacrificing his values and giving full respect and love to his family members. He shouldered all the responsibilities of his father and played the role of eldest brother in the best possible manner. He arranged the marriage of both his brothers and sister better than a father would do. He settled both his brothers in their business.

 

His achievements can be laid down in the words…. “He was the son every parent would pray for, he was the brother every sibling would ask for, he was the husband every wife would wow for and he was the father every child would seek for.” He is the businessman par excellence who has passed his qualities and skills of hard work, sincerity and interpersonal relations to his children along with his talents of orator ship and acting. May God give my ‘papa ji’ (father) a long and happy life!

Dr Preeti Chitkara

Manager-Institutional Affairs

KIET Group of Institutions

Ghaziabad