V.G. Nair means Very Good Nair
This
is about a very ordinary, humble, simple and down-to-earth, but an
extraordinary and amazing personality called V.G. Nair.
Who is
V.G. Nair? Like any previous generation Malayali from Kerala V.G. Nair arrived
in Bombay in search of a livelihood. The youth has a strong will and
ready-to-do any job attitude. After searching for job and doing some odd jobs,
he joined as a waiter in Ananda Bhavan Hotel near to HMV, which is now Axis
Bank fort branch, next to Laxmi building. Anand Bhavan Hotel, the pure
vegetarian south Indian hotel run by Iyer and Sons is a landmark in fort area.
The current name of the building where Ananda Bhavan situated in the ground
floor is Sheri House. The National Hindu Hotel and Lodging situated opposite
fort market is the parent institution, which was probably the only place in the
city that served unlimited vegetarian meals for a fixed economical price.
In the
mid 1970s, I was living at Ulhasnagar. The Ulhasnagar Malayali Association had
two offices, one in camp number four near Venus cinema and the other in camp
number three near the Bharat Stores and Malayali tailor Rajan’s shop. I was
staying in camp number three in a single self-contained rented long room. We
were four roommates and I was the rented-room owner. I.V. Chandran, who is my
childhood friend and neighbour in native village Pullut of Kodungallur Taluk
and presently residing with his family at Dombivli. Gopalakrishnan who was
nicknamed by me as Gokru taking the first Malayalam alphabet ‘Go’ from
the formal part of his name Gopala and ‘Kru’ from the later part of his name
Krishnan and Sukumaran were the roommates. Now
Gopalakrishnan settled in native place and Sukumaran took VRS and returned to
native place. Except Sukumaran, all were bachelors. Sukumaran’s family was in
his native place Azhikode, near Kodungallur.
Balakrishnan,
the vice-president of Ulhasnagar Malayali Association, who is presently living
in Kalyan east, was our neighbour in camp three. Opposite to our room
Karuthedathu Subramanian Ravindran of Hawkins Pressure Cooker and his brother
were staying. I also gave him a nickname as Karuthedan. At that time,
I become the member of Ulhasnagar Malayali Association and office bearers of
the association asked me to take charge of the editorship and start
association’s handwritten Malayalam magazine titled UMA. The name UMA was made
by taking the first words from Ulhasnagar Malayali Association. It resembled
like a Malayali name and was easy to remember.
During
the editorship of UMA, one day I met V.G. Nair, a handsome man in white pants
and slack shirts, in the association office at camp four. I did not know much
about that good-built, ever smiling and energetic man at that time. We met
again at some occasions, exchanged smiles and made few casual chats.
Incidentally, V.G. Nair’s sister Madhavi wrote poems and regularly contributed
to UMA handwritten magazine. V.G. Nair and I simply know each other at that
time by face was our only relation.
After
few years, one day I was dining around 1.15 p.m. at Anand Bhavan Hotel in fort.
I saw five people with a red flag picketing in front of the Hotel and shouting
slogans in Hindi and “Inquilab Zindabad, Inquilab Zindabad” against the owner
of the Hotel. A well-built youth was the leader in white shirt and white
paints. His full sleeve shirt was evenly folded carefully and artistically with
one and half inch width fold till the elbow. I have been told by the manager of
the hotel that they are the dismissed staff and demanding for compensation and
more wages. The well-built youth was V.G. Nair. But, I could not easily
recognize him as Madhavi’s brother V.G. Nair instead I thought, the face of
this person is familiar to me.
With a
meager compensation of less than Rs. 10,000 received from the Anand Bhavan
Hotel owner V.G. Nair built his present business empire of more than 100
crores. With his strong will power and desire to become somebody, in 1982 he
started steel vessel business at Ulhasnagar. He flourished day by day and the
rest is history. The trust and mere trust reposed by his customers, hard work
and his promise to deliver were the main capital. If V.G. Nair gives a word or
promises verbally, that is a more powerful instrument than any written record.
This honesty, time management and promptness in service made him the
multimillionaire V.G. Nair of today.
After
a gap of few years, we met again. He is a voracious reader in Malayalam, Tamil
and English and a good speaker and listener. Before he starts his Jewrllery
Shop, the entire cash dealings were doing by him personally. I had witnessed
his amazing memory power at many occasions. I remember one occasion when I was
sitting with him, not opposite the table, but just next to his cash counter and
near to his left hand. He was talking to me seriously and with the same
seriousness handling each and every visitor with ease. When he was operating
the business at a single point, he quickly recognized all his regular
customers. He could recognize all 6000 plus members of his vessel scheme or
chit scheme by name with their family history, name of his/her father or
husband, brother, sister, children and their years old dealings with him. Now
VGN group has grown greatly and the entire transactions are computerized and he
divided the responsibilities to his Managers and General Managers. Customers
feel at home when they visit any establishments of VGN group and they have the
affection of meeting a family member when they meet V.G. Nair personally.
The
most important thing is the easy access of V.G. Nair to a customer. When people
become rich, they start telling more and more lies and blunders to show that
they are very big. However, V.G. Nair is the same humble and simple person
without any change whom I met first around three decades back. Very few people
can possess such character and integrity.
V.G.
Nair is Very Good Nair to all his staff members and their family members, his
all customers and their family members and all his friends. Few years back,
Kairali TV Aswamedham fame G.V. Pradeep in a public function at Chembur, where
V.G. Nair was sharing the dais, openly acknowledged his generosity,
philanthropy and honesty and said that V.G. Nair means Very Good Nair to him.
Professor Parambil Jayakumar once told me that he was the first person who
called V.G. Nair as Very Good Nair. Well, now I would like to interpret it in
Malayalam as Valare Gunangalulla Nair and I think I can claim the
patent for this interpretation.
I
compiled a Marathi-English-Malayalam Dictionary, a unique Dictionary in four
parts with pronunciation guide, pronunciation of important and difficult words,
Marathi Grammar in Malayalam and an appendix. My day and night hard work of
many years was the result of Marathi-English-Malayalam Dictionary. I have
become bankrupt and my life was miserable at that time. I am thankful to V.G.
Nair, the Managing Director of V.G.N. Jewellery Pvt. Ltd and Chairman of V.G.N.
Group of companies, who helped me by ordering a good number of copies and
giving the full amount in advance to release the Dictionary from the press.
Really,
V.G. Nair is a gem of man.
