Khandekar - Little MASTER

WE WERE DRIVING ON the roads of Ludhiana, and Malkit Chand was telling me a story from his childhoodat the time he was about three years old, his mother, Swarna Devi, used to stitch clothes for neighbours, without ever asking for payment. On one particular occasion she had stitched a salwar-suit for Sugana Devi and had asked Malkit to deliver it. Sugana Devi, whom Malkit affectionately addressed as Mausi (mothers sister), gave him a one-rupee note in return. These days, a rupee is merely in the form of a coin, but back when this incident occurredMalkit pointedly reminds mea rupee was in the form of a currency note. His mother saw the note and asked him to return it. Malkit promptly went to return the rupee to Mausi, who refused to take it back. This resulted in Malkit being sent off on a series of to and fros between his mother and her sister.

Malkit reveals how he shredded the note into almost fifty tiny pieces and buried it. He had innocently assumed the money would grow from the ground, and both his mothers and Mausis problems would disappear once and for all. Every morning, for about fifteen days, little Malkit religiously watered the spot until one day his secret was outhis mother and Mausi got talking about the rupee and eventually discovered the fate of the note. Malkits mother often narrates this story to relatives and pulls his leg about it.

Just the previous year, when she was narrating it yet again to Malkits daughter-in-law, he couldnt take it any more and retorted: Now you can pluck as much money as you want from the money tree!because even though the money planted by Malkit Chand forty-seven years ago bore no fruit at the time, his hosiery business is nothing short of a mega money-spinner today.

By the time Malkit had finished narrating this story to me, we had reached Ludhianas Bahadur K. Road, where his new factory is located. Spread over an acre and a half, this hosiery factory does everything: from making cloth to stitching garments. Around 150 workers produce nearly 5000 shirts a day. Malkit owns two companies: Janagal Exports Private Limited and Little Master Knitwears. Janagal, which exports its products, has an annual turnover of Rs 70 crore, while Little Master, which produces for the domestic market only, records a turnover of Rs 6 crore.

Right from his childhood, Malkit had been determined to make money. When money didnt grow on a tree he started looking around for other ways of making it. His decision to study stitching instead of medicine came as an obvious shock to his family. Malkits fatheror Pitaji as he called himwas a cutter master in Ludhianas largest hosiery factory, owned by Kuldip Oswal, where he designed and cut fabric for stitching.

Malkit recalls, On the seventh of every month, Pitaji brought home so much money that Id flip. In those days, he earned Rs 10,000 a month. It struck me that if Pitaji could earn so much while working for someone else, then we could earn a lot more by working for ourselvesmuch more than what I could have earned even as a doctor. Thus, without telling anyone at home, Malkit quietly started working on a sweater-making machine, and it took a few months until his family realized that their son was not studying to be a doctor.

About two years later, in 1980, Malkits father decided to set up his own factory. Pitajis venture was a failure, but Malkit had learned another lesson from the experiencehe was now a cutter master and believed that nothing could come in ones way if one was a master. With his new knowledge of cutting, in addition to stitching, he now knew all aspects of hosiery production. In 1982, he became a cutter master in Joginder Jains factory, where he was paid Re 1 for every T-shirt he cut. Malkit remembers cutting 200 to 300 T-shirts every day.

Gradually, he also learnt the finer nuances of the hosiery business: buying material from the market, selling products to customers, dealing with banks, etc. In a few years, he started single-handedly managing Jains entire business. But setting up his own business was still a long way off.

Malkit started his first company, Little Master Knitwears, on 30 April 1992, but had decided on its name almost five years previously, in 1987it was the day Sunil Gavaskar became the first cricketer in the world to score 10,000 runs. As Gavaskar was breaking one record, Malkit was setting another. He had cut material for 666 T-shirts in one day and had earned Rs 666 for it. Malkit kept hearing the match commentator repeatedly refer to Gavaskar as the Little Master and decided his company would be called Little Master too. After fixing the name, Malkit also designed the company logo. Now all he had to do was get started.

After working for Jain for ten years, Malkit didnt want to leave him in the lurch. In 1992, he gave Jain twelve months notice, telling him he intended to start his own business in a years time. Irritated, Jain asked him why he was waiting for a year and why he wasnt starting right away. Malkit wasnt expecting this response and was shakenhe shared a fatherson relationship with Jain.