There are few people who leave a mark on you on just a few brief encounters. Mr. Nallamani was one of them. I must be two generations away from him. He probably has grandchildren who are older than me. Nevertheless, I feel like I had a special connection with him and feel for his loss.
A man's life should be judged not by his personal success, but by his contributions to the society. Mr. Nallamani was not only a successful Entrepreneur in many fields, but also a philanthropist who built a school and college, in addition to employing many in his transport, hotel and other businesses. That is certainly a tall order for which he should be commended. But there are few other subtle things that makes him incredible as a good human being.
From all I know he is a self made man. I believe he started as a paddy salesman and built his successful businesses one after another. He certainly commanded good respect and authority because of his success in life. But that is not where it stopped. He had a acute sense of identifying a need and finding ways to fulfill it. He identified that girl children from his village had to travel to Madurai or Natham, a nearby town for high school. He built a school for them.
In his village, because of him all the families follow simple customs on every occasion such as a temple festival or a family function. He explicitly forbade extravagance. For example, there is a custom to invite people with money for weddings. Typically invitation to relations who are 'uncles' are accompanied by a few betel leaves, areca nuts and a one rupee coin. Don't know how that custom started. But that custom morphed into inviting people with more and more money. So one rupee became 5 or 10 rupees sometimes. In his family they made sure any invitation that came along was accompanied by just one rupee coin. Anything more, they returned promptly with a courteous message to maintain frugality. Not only that, Mr. Nallamani showed up on weddings! I remember there was one occasion when a high ranking officer did not show up for his own daughter's betrothal function. I was an young boy then and could not comprehend what could be more important for a father than his own daughter's once-in-a-life time function. But I digress. That was not Mr. Nallamani. He showed up for any family function for which he is invited. He presided over many weddings in his life. The lesson is to respect everyone big or small equally.
For all his successes, rarely I saw him in the news. There was no public controversy on his life. He passed away respectfully as he lived. Hope his ideals of simplicity, respect, equality and hard work stay alive in his village and beyond.
A man's life should be judged not by his personal success, but by his contributions to the society. Mr. Nallamani was not only a successful Entrepreneur in many fields, but also a philanthropist who built a school and college, in addition to employing many in his transport, hotel and other businesses. That is certainly a tall order for which he should be commended. But there are few other subtle things that makes him incredible as a good human being.
From all I know he is a self made man. I believe he started as a paddy salesman and built his successful businesses one after another. He certainly commanded good respect and authority because of his success in life. But that is not where it stopped. He had a acute sense of identifying a need and finding ways to fulfill it. He identified that girl children from his village had to travel to Madurai or Natham, a nearby town for high school. He built a school for them.
In his village, because of him all the families follow simple customs on every occasion such as a temple festival or a family function. He explicitly forbade extravagance. For example, there is a custom to invite people with money for weddings. Typically invitation to relations who are 'uncles' are accompanied by a few betel leaves, areca nuts and a one rupee coin. Don't know how that custom started. But that custom morphed into inviting people with more and more money. So one rupee became 5 or 10 rupees sometimes. In his family they made sure any invitation that came along was accompanied by just one rupee coin. Anything more, they returned promptly with a courteous message to maintain frugality. Not only that, Mr. Nallamani showed up on weddings! I remember there was one occasion when a high ranking officer did not show up for his own daughter's betrothal function. I was an young boy then and could not comprehend what could be more important for a father than his own daughter's once-in-a-life time function. But I digress. That was not Mr. Nallamani. He showed up for any family function for which he is invited. He presided over many weddings in his life. The lesson is to respect everyone big or small equally.
For all his successes, rarely I saw him in the news. There was no public controversy on his life. He passed away respectfully as he lived. Hope his ideals of simplicity, respect, equality and hard work stay alive in his village and beyond.
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