How
many businessmen will think of building an auditorium, not to make money, but to
primarily conduct programmes of their choice and to derive great joy in throwing it
open to friends and well-wishers as well? This always preceded or followed by
delicious South Indian tiffin. Food for the stomach and food for the soul! Doing
it month after month for the last twelve years, that businessman who is
considered some kind of a crusader in the music and heritage circle of Chennai
is R T Chari and the auditorium he has built is the TAG center, situated on TTK
Road in the heart of Chennai.
I
met Chari, at his office room in TAG center one evening to hear his success
story and to find out the secret behind his evolution into a successful
businessman and a human being with a magnanimous heart.
Chari
is a philanthropist who has been sharing his wealth and his passion with the
society, long before Corporate Social Responsibility became a buzz word in the
corporate world! Listening to him I was so carried away by his story telling
abilities that often I would forget to take notes. Though I have known Chari for
the last 36 years, I was so fascinated by his life story that my respect for
this unusual man has gone up manifold.
* * * * *
Chari
was born into a typical middle class Iyengar family at Kesava Perumal Street in
the heart of Mylapore, as the fifth child and fourth son in a family of nine
children. His father, with his limited means could only assure his children
three square meals a day and decent education. While he was the favourite of
his grand father, his grand mother was
more fond of his other brighter brothers. Sometimes she would join her brothers
in tease him about his inadequacies arising out of his being mildly dyslexic as
a student.
Chari
says, “It was this constant comparison between me and my brothers that sowed
the seeds of an angry young man in me. I was determined to prove to the world
what I am capable of.”
Fortunately,
the family moved to Tambaram which turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Chari.
He terms it his first break in life. While at Mylapore he studied in
P.S.Secondary High School; at Tambaram he was enrolled into Corley High School
run by Christian missionaries. The headmaster of the school discovered that not
only was Chari a good student but the tall young man was also good in sports. Constantly
encouraged by the Headmaster, Chari became a popular sportsman in the school
winning several prizes in high jump. He also became captain of the school
volleyball team and was dabbling in other sports as well. It is in this school that
Chari realized that he was good in Maths and also in Science subjects.
“My
success in sports and the recognition I got because of it changed the attitude
of my family towards me. My family members stopped teasing me. I was now even
more determined to prove to my family that I was different from others”, Chari recounts.
* * * * *
Chari`s
second break in life came when he had to
join a college for further studies. He had got very good marks in his
Intermediate Exam while studying in Jain College and so applied for admission
to College of Engineering, Guindy, with a lot of hope. But, he was crestfallen
when he found that his name did not appear in the first list of successful
candidates announced by the college. He became more frustrated when he found
out that he was not considered in the first list probably because of caste
considerations and a prejudice against students from Jain College and not because he did not have enough marks.
Chari
recalls with immense gratitude, the timely help provided by R. A. Gopalaswamy,
Chief Secretary of Tamilnadu at that time, a distant relative who intervened to
ensure that justice was done and Chari got his rightful place in the portals of
this reputed college at Guindy.
While
in College he continued to show interest in Sports and also fared well in his
examinations. After successfully completing his degree in Engineering, when
Chari was looking for a decent job with a good salary, fate again intervened to
decide the future course of his life. He calls it the third break in his life.
While
he could have got a job in a reputed company with a starting salary of Rs.700
per month like his other class mates, his paternal uncle R.Narasimhachari, a
famous Company law Consultant then , had
a different plan. Narasimhachari was
very close to Shri. S. Vishwanathan, Director of the Seshasayee Group and had persuaded him
to take Chari into his fold and mould him into a successful manager. His uncle
was very confident that Chari would do far better under Vishwanathan than
anywhere else. When Chari protested because the job came with a starting salary
of only Rs 150 per month, his uncle told him; “Fortune sometimes comes in the
form of a devil. If not accepted it goes away as an angel”. Chari decided to
accept the advice of a genuine well-wisher and joined Seshasayee Group as an
Apprentice Engineer in 1961. Rest, as they say is history!
* * * * *
In
Seshasayee, Chari found a wonderful boss and a great mentor in H.K Ramaswamy,
the Technical Director of the company. Impressed by his sharp intellect and
hard work (Chari often put in 20 hours of work a day), Ramaswamy took a great
liking for the young man and encouraged him to excel himself in every way
possible, providing him with all kinds of incentives, which were not offered to
others more eligible in the company
Later
on he would , along with another director
V.K.Seshasayee, even help Chari with funds from his personal account to
make up for a short fall of money required to purchase a three bed room flat in
Poes Garden.
“He
was a great leader who groomed me to become a successful man in life, I owe a
lot to him”, Chari says.
Chari’s
reputation as an engineer who was also a super salesman brought him quick
recognition in the company. He was known to accept impossible challenges and
make them possible. He was promoted as a Commercial Manager in 1968, as
Technical Commercial Manager in 1970 and Chief Technical Commercial Manager in
1972.
When
the management found out that Chari, though eligible, was not yet married
because he dreaded the thought of establishing a family in the small town of
Vadalur, in Neyveli District where his office was located, they decided to help
him by shifting base. Chari was moved to the new Sales office of the group in
Chennai when it was established in 1969.
Chari
was married to Rangi, a multitalented girl from Bangalore, chosen by his
parents, in 1971. The couple moved to their own flat at Satyanarayana
Apartments in Poes Garden. Within two weeks of his starting his married life,
fate again intervened to change the course of his life.
Xxxxxxx
Through
a force of circumstances Chari was selected to attend a ‘Foundry Exhibition’ in
West Germany followed by a 30 day trip to Europe to explore a possible
collaboration for his company, to make the hardware for Insulators used in Electric
Transmission Systems. During his trip Chari managed to strike a deal with an
Italian company, a leading maker of this particular product and was delighted
at his success in his very first attempt. However, on his return to India, he
found to his dismay that the Management, because of some politics at the high
level, had decided to drop the idea of their expansion plans.
Not
one to accept defeat, when Chari requested the management to allow him to try
his luck with the new project, thanks to the tremendous goodwill he enjoyed
with the top people in the Company, they
agreed. The management was so good to him that they also allowed him to
continue as a Commercial Manager with the company until he proved himself in
his business. Chari could have his cake and eat it too! This turned out to be
the ultimate break in his life
Xxxxxxxxx
Along with his brother Gopal who had also come out
successfully as an Engineer from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chari
launched his own company TAG Corporation with its factory located in Chrompet.
The word TAG, is an acronym using the first letters of Thiruvenkatachari and Gopal,
his youngest brother who has been a pillar of strength to Chari in all his
business and other social causes for the last 40 years.
Around the time Chari started his business, the Electricity
Boards in the country were planning to
move from 220KV to 440 KV systems and looking for companies which could provide
them with the hardware (which at that point had to be imported), required for
the changeover. UP state Electricity Board was the first to decide on the new
system. TAG managed to get a small order worth Rs.6 lakh which was only 10% of
the total order. But the quality of the items manufactured by TAG was so high
that the UP State Board soon placed another order worth Rs.32 lakhs. Chari also
recalls with gratitude, names of the two Engineers of the Board: J C Gupta and
Matha Prasad who were instrumental in TAG getting the order purely based on
merit. He did not have to `look after` anybody in the Board to get his order.
He says, “In early years I was extremely lucky to get good orders purely based
on merit. No other considerations came in the way of the bureauocrats deciding
in my favour”.
The next big thing to happen at TAG Corporation was when it developed an
import substitute item for 4R Dampers, with half the weight and price of the
imported item. Chari had got a sample
order for 5000 pieces from MP Electricity Board worth Rs.40 lakh on which he
made very good profit. Chari once again recalls the name of T
K Srinivasan, Chairman of MP Electricity Board back then, who was instrumental in
TAG getting the order, purely on merit and competitiveness. Soon a big order
worth Rs.30 Crores followed, making Chari the uncrowned king in the manufacture
of 4R Dampers, a very crucial item required by all Electricity Boards. By now
he had also cut his umbilical cord with Seshasayee group.
Being a visionary Chari also set up a first of its kind full-scale
outdoor test line to assess the performance of spacer dampers in India. The
type of testing facility Chari started in India for Dampers is even today, considered the second best in
the world.
Chari started seeing big money and instead of just hoarding
the money, he decided at the young age
of 40, to share his prosperity with society. From being a successful businessman,
Chari was on the road to becoming a generous philanthropist. A philanthropist
who did not believe in just cheque book charity
* * * * *
When I asked Chari, which was the first act of charity he
performed, he recalled the advice he had received from one Mr.R P Iyer , the
then Chairman of Killicks group,who had once told him “When you are doing well,
first take care of your near and dear ones before you look beyond to do social
service. If every successful businessman does this, the country will take care
of itself”.
He had also been irked by the fact that a number of his
close relatives who were doing well had not come to his father`s rescue when he
desperately needed help. He decided to put the record straight. He was also
inspired by the helpful nature of his eldest brother towards the family. So, for
Chari, ‘charity began at home”. He decided to persuade, cajole and if necessary help every one of his siblings to
acquire a house of their own.
At this stage Chari also realized the immense joy he was
getting by the act of giving and sharing. He added, “I wonder why many
successful businessmen cling to their riches and do not share it with deserving
people. There is so much satisfaction and happiness in giving”
Beyond the family the first act of charity he performed was
donating Rs.10,000/- to Corley High School, where he studied, to be given to
the best sports person of the school. Next he decided to support Dr. C V
Krishnaswamy, the well-known Diabetologist in the establishment of Ramabhadran
Juvenile Diabetes Research Centre at VHS hospital. In the early years he had
also donated Rs.3.5 lakh to the Cancer Institute Adyar for purchase of X-Ray
equipment. Child Trust Hospital and SMS School in Chrompet were also the
recipients of Chari’s munificence. Last year Ramu Endowments, the charity arm
of his group helped set up the ambitious TAG –VHS Diabetic Research Centre, another
dream project of Dr.CVK, at the VHS hospital.
While Chari was continuing with his generosity, an incident
in his personal life completely changed him as a
mpletely changed him as a person and the direction of
his philanthropic activities.
( Edited version of this article appeared in Madras Musings. The second part appeared in the next issue )
No comments:
Post a Comment