Page 10 - Dec 2021 ST
P. 10

crap. If at all anybody has had a complete         have had. Wants to live all by himself in
         life, it’s been him. Adventures across             a 36-storey building on a one acre plot on
         various continents leading businesses,             Warden Road.
         womanising and if you believe society               How much is enough? How much land
         gossip: as honest or dishonest as he               does a man require?
         could be. The book is an effort to garner           This appears to be the beginning of the
         sympathy, but his dishonesty comes                 end of the Raymond group. Dive deep into
         quite through. He ends his book by giving          the company and you will discover loads of
         readers a lecture on being honest, truthful        inefficiencies. The group has not been able
         and righteous and a lot of holy bakwaas.           to retain any CEO for a long time, this is
         Reminds me of the line: Sau chuhe khake            because of Gautam’s reported extravagant
         billi Haj ko chali (सौ चूहे खाके बिल्ली हज को चली).  lifestyle. Vijay Mallya is supposed to have
          One can’t resist mocking in the face of his       been his mentor – friend, philosopher and
         self-righteous grandeur.                           guide. Mallya is supposed to have gifted
                                                            him his entire liquor collection to Gautam.
                                                            There is a story to this, I am told.
                                                             The real estate of the Raymond group
                                                            is up for sale often you see full front-
                                                            page ads stating welcome to world that
                                                            is incomparable and address by Gautam
                                                            Singhania.
                                                             Really? Who is Gautam Singhania? A man
                                                            who disowned his father and threw him out
                                                            of home! Would you like to live in a home
                                                            build by someone like him? I wouldn’t.
                                                            There are enough and more horror stories
                                                            about Gautam but nothing beats this
                                                            inhuman act of throwing his father out of
                                                            his home and office.
                                                             He forgets that he is who he is because of
                                                            him.
                                                             Time has a way of settling things and
                                                            eventually all this evil will come back to
                                                            haunt him. There’s an old Indian saying
         Vijaypat Singhania with son Gautam (left) posing for
         phographs at a car show in 2010.                   that the blessings of your parents are an
         Photo Credit: Sachin Khedekar/Fotocorp
                                                            armour that no arrow can pierce. And
          Let’s look at his son Gautam. Downright           the curses are arrows that no armour can
         mean of him to not give his father a home          contain.
         to live. To humiliate him in public, to             Vijaypat has set a bad example which his
         renege on his commitments to other family          son followed. The moral of the story is, as
         members giving them back their homes               Vijaypat says: “Your wealth can and should
         in the reconstructed J K House. Gautam             be passed on to your children, but only
         has been a horrible son any father could           after your death.”


    10
   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15