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Authors: Hamish McDonald
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Ghulabchand, an old associate from Aden. For all his experience, Ghulabchand never failed to fall for it. On one occasion, Dhirubhai announced that everyone was invited to dinner across town at an address at Mafatlal Bath. Ghulabehand was sent in a taxi with Vakharia and another member of the office, Ramanbhal. At Marine Drive they stopped outside a building, and Patel went in to look for a fourth member of the group. After 15 minutes waiting, Vakharia also went in. Ghulabchand eventually gave them all up and took the taxi to Mafatlal Bath, where he found no one.
On returning home, he found Dhirubhai and the others eating a dinner they had notified Ghulabchand’s wife to prepare.
Vakharia recalls another prank in 1965. The India-Pakistan War was on, and a blackout had been imposed on Bombay for fear of naval and air attacks by Pakistan. About 10 pm, Dhirubhai said: “Let’s go out and take a round of the city.”’ The two drove around the dark Bombay, with Dhirubhai bluffing police at roadblocks that he was on official business and handing out small tips of ten rupees or so. ‘He got saluted all the way,’ said Vakharia. ‘On the way back we saw some lights in the Japanese consulate, so Dhirubhai went in and told them to douse the lights.’
On yet another occasion, around 11 pm on a cold winter night, Dhirubhai announced an immediate picnic. The cook was told to assemble supplies, and Vakharia and the family piled into Dhirubhai’s car. Another dozen friends were telephoned and told to rendezvous in their cars. ‘We were not told where we were going,’ Vakharia said. ‘We ended up at Rajeswari, about 50 or 60 kilometres from Bombay at about 3 am. The cold was very severe and we went to a dharamsala [pilgrim’s lodging] at a hot springs resort. It was meant only for sadhus [ascetic Hindu holy men]. Dhirubhai said we would all sleep there.
After half an hour we were still shivering and Dhirubhai got up and lit a camp fire. When the sun came up we had tea, and a bath in the hot springs, and cooked kedgeree on the camp fire. We told jokes and sang songs, and didn’t get back home until late in the afternoon.’
Dhirubhai’s fast pace caused a rift with his partner Chambaklal Damani in 1965.
According to Vakharia, Damani preferred to trade with great caution, leading to constant tension with Dhirubhai who was a risk-taker. The final rupture came after one clash when, at Dhirubbai’s urging, Reliance built up a large holding of yarn in the expectation of a price rise. Damani pressured Dhirubhai to cut back their exposure. So Dhirubhai sold the yarn stockpile-to himself, in secret. Two or three weeks later the price of yarn shot up and Dhirubhai made a killing. ‘Later Dhirubhai told Chambaklal: “I am prepared to share profit with you,”’ Vakharia said. “‘But in future if you do not know the business do not intervene.”’
Many others among Dhirubhai’s ex-colleagues and trade associates also believe the partners were incompatible.
‘He takes so much risk that people fear something will go wrong,’ said Vradial Depala, who knew Dhirubhai in Aden. ‘But the risks are all calculated. They are not blind risks.’
‘You may be a co-passenger in a car with me, but if you don’t like my driving you might be a little fearful,’ said Manubhai Kothary, a leading Bombay textile exporter and longtime president of the Silk and Art Silk Mills Research Association.
‘Someone advised Dhirubhai’s partner that he had made sufficient money and now should come out,’ said Susheel Kothari, the ex-colleague from Besse & Co who later worked for Reliance. ‘Dhirubhai’s business is catching live serpents.’
Chambakial Darnani himself will say only that ‘We agreed to separate willingly’ or that ‘We just became separate as friends’. But he agreed that the version given by Kothari and others about differences over commercial risk were ‘to some extent true’. Damani went into trading in a
On returning home, he found Dhirubhai and the others eating a dinner they had notified Ghulabchand’s wife to prepare.
Vakharia recalls another prank in 1965. The India-Pakistan War was on, and a blackout had been imposed on Bombay for fear of naval and air attacks by Pakistan. About 10 pm, Dhirubhai said: “Let’s go out and take a round of the city.”’ The two drove around the dark Bombay, with Dhirubhai bluffing police at roadblocks that he was on official business and handing out small tips of ten rupees or so. ‘He got saluted all the way,’ said Vakharia. ‘On the way back we saw some lights in the Japanese consulate, so Dhirubhai went in and told them to douse the lights.’
On yet another occasion, around 11 pm on a cold winter night, Dhirubhai announced an immediate picnic. The cook was told to assemble supplies, and Vakharia and the family piled into Dhirubhai’s car. Another dozen friends were telephoned and told to rendezvous in their cars. ‘We were not told where we were going,’ Vakharia said. ‘We ended up at Rajeswari, about 50 or 60 kilometres from Bombay at about 3 am. The cold was very severe and we went to a dharamsala [pilgrim’s lodging] at a hot springs resort. It was meant only for sadhus [ascetic Hindu holy men]. Dhirubhai said we would all sleep there.
After half an hour we were still shivering and Dhirubhai got up and lit a camp fire. When the sun came up we had tea, and a bath in the hot springs, and cooked kedgeree on the camp fire. We told jokes and sang songs, and didn’t get back home until late in the afternoon.’
Dhirubhai’s fast pace caused a rift with his partner Chambaklal Damani in 1965.
According to Vakharia, Damani preferred to trade with great caution, leading to constant tension with Dhirubhai who was a risk-taker. The final rupture came after one clash when, at Dhirubbai’s urging, Reliance built up a large holding of yarn in the expectation of a price rise. Damani pressured Dhirubhai to cut back their exposure. So Dhirubhai sold the yarn stockpile-to himself, in secret. Two or three weeks later the price of yarn shot up and Dhirubhai made a killing. ‘Later Dhirubhai told Chambaklal: “I am prepared to share profit with you,”’ Vakharia said. “‘But in future if you do not know the business do not intervene.”’
Many others among Dhirubhai’s ex-colleagues and trade associates also believe the partners were incompatible.
‘He takes so much risk that people fear something will go wrong,’ said Vradial Depala, who knew Dhirubhai in Aden. ‘But the risks are all calculated. They are not blind risks.’
‘You may be a co-passenger in a car with me, but if you don’t like my driving you might be a little fearful,’ said Manubhai Kothary, a leading Bombay textile exporter and longtime president of the Silk and Art Silk Mills Research Association.
‘Someone advised Dhirubhai’s partner that he had made sufficient money and now should come out,’ said Susheel Kothari, the ex-colleague from Besse & Co who later worked for Reliance. ‘Dhirubhai’s business is catching live serpents.’
Chambakial Darnani himself will say only that ‘We agreed to separate willingly’ or that ‘We just became separate as friends’. But he agreed that the version given by Kothari and others about differences over commercial risk were ‘to some extent true’. Damani went into trading in a
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