Khandekar - THREADS OF SUCCESS

DEVJIBHAI PREMJIBHAI MAKWANA HAS lived in a three-storeyed building in Sardar Patel Society, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, with his four sons and their families for the last twelve years. Bhavnagar has a population of approximately 12 lakh people; a lot of the rich people of the city live in this colony. Every house has a couple of cars parked outside itDevjibhais house has ten. Each of his four sons runs different factories and two of his daughters-in-law take care of the office-related work.

Devjibhai wanted to buy another plot in light of the familys increasing space requirement, but wasnt able to due to caste discrimination. He had identified a plot, but the seller refused to liaison with Devjibhai because he was a Patel and Devjibhai was Dalit15 per cent of the residents in the housing society are Patels. Traditionally, Patels have been proud landlords and pramukhs (village heads), but they cannot be vocal about their prejudices against Dalits as discrimination is a punishable offence under the law and can result in imprisonment for the accused. Instead, they have found subtle ways to perpetuate their preconceived notions, usually by making excuses to not deal with Dalits. Fed up of playing cat and mouse, Devjibhai decided to build a house in another part of the city.

According to Devjibhai, the only reason he was able to buy the house in Sardar Patel Society at all was due to the fact that the builder was his friend and was in need of money at the time. Otherwise, despite earning crores of rupees, the Makwana family could not even have owned a house of their choice. Before moving to the society, they lived in Kumhar Vada in their ancestral homethe Dalit neighbourhood where Devjibhai started his career. Today, though his business has grown by leaps and bounds, Devjibhai truly appreciates the value of money. He knows he is allowed to live where he does because he has money. Without it, he would not be accepted into society.

Despite facing discrimination, Devjibhai has succeeded in setting up an empire valued at Rs 300 crore. He manufactures filament yarn, plastic ropes, fishing nets, PVC straps, crimp yarn, etc. All these products are made from petrochemicals and are used in manufacturing mats, thread for stitching bags, industrial packing, socks and undergarments. Devjibhai has four companies: Suraj Filaments Private Limited, Veera Synthetic Private Limited, Shiv Synthetic, and Straps India Private Limited, with factories just outside of Bhavnagar.

While visiting the factories along with Devjibhai, I noticed that none of them were on the main road; there was no signage giving directions nor was there a board displaying names or any other information. Even though every company wants to highlight its name in todays brand-conscious world, Devjibhai doesnt believe in doing so. This is not because he manufactures industrial products that are not sold directly to the customer, but because he feels that being on the main road attracts unnecessary attention and may lead to interference from government officials. His insecurity seems to stem from the fact that he is a Dalithe avoided elaborating on his apprehensions further.

The Makwana family has been in business for three generations nowever since Devjibhais grandfather came to Bhavnagar from Ranpur and the family started working on leather pickers. Pickers are used for weaving cloth and picking thread on both sides of the loom. Devjibhais father and his brothers set up Bhavnagar Pickers Limited, which was later divided amongst them. Devjibhais father, Premjibhai, started his own business, Bhagyoday Pickers Works, and the father of Ratilal Makwana (whom we meet in Chapter 3), Galabhai, started Gujarat Pickers Industries Limited. Gujarat Pickers is still active, but instead of making pickers, the company now trades in petrochemicals. It sells raw materials like high-density polypropylene (HDPE) and low-density polypropylene (LDPE), whereas Devjibhai uses this raw material to manufacture all kinds of plastic products. The two cousins have nothing to do with each others businesses.

Devjibhai has studied only up to class ten. He discontinued school in 1972 not because of poor circumstances, but because he wanted to start working right away. He was the second of five brothers; his older brother had been making wooden bobbins, used for manufacturing fabric, at the time, while his other brothers had continued studying. Devjibhai says he preferred to work rather than study. Later, working became a necessity.

In 1974, his father passed away at the age of fifty, leaving the entire responsibility for the business with the five brothers. However, as the emergence of plastic pickers resulted in the leather picker business going through a slump, the brothers got together to start manufacturing plastic ropes. This company, Suresh Industries, made ropes out of petrochemicals. There was no particular reason for choosing this business except for the fact that Bhavnagar has a large number of these factories, being the largest hub for manufacturing of plastic ropes in the country. All five brothers worked together, and for the next fifteen years the business did well and achieved a turnover of Rs 45 crore.