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 SukumaranSukumaran 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 MadhaviMadhavi 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.