Rebel and Achieve

Written by Pancinovia Neelu M, Creative Empowerment Batch 3

Born in 1956 the second half of the 50s, he was the eldest of the four children. By the time 60s were getting over was turning 14 interestingly for whatever reason inexplicable was vaguely thrown into the third standard when he was 5 years old. Starting off as an underaged made him aware of unexpectedly competitive surroundings and made him a wide-eyed, naïve character. Constantly existing in a surrounding where one needs to keep their mind, eyes and ears tuned to be a part utopian world he was put into was his first unintended circumstance he lived which became his trigger to be constantly aware and be sharp of the surrounding.

The treatment by their peers, society and the potential surrounding did not seem up to the mark of egalitarianism, equality for all kinds of the notion he had. Instead of fighting for the problem he kept looking for an explanation that made him go away from listening to people and delving into bits and pieces of paper floating in the wind as part of the garbage where he lived.

Those printed pieces were the spark for the glimpses of what could be beyond the words from the people he had lived with and pushed him further deep into the world of books, magazines, and newspapers and found a home in the libraries. The potential unintended habit was what shaped his mind in a way that explained inequalities and sometimes what he believed to be injustice and kept bringing a resolve in him while growing up.

“I am not going to do anything that has been done to me. And I am going to practice things which I have learnt so it smoothens and eases the minds of many other people who may be in my kind of situation.”

 Looking back to these abstract things made him feel like he was nothing but just a rebel, a non-conformist. Standing by his word and going his way whoever it may be, he lived by stating “I will chart my own course based on my discovery from the writings of whether it is Bankhim Chandra Chaterjee or Balakumaran or Jayakanthan” from the tamil literature.

Proceeding with a craving to learn a little bit of English because he believed it has more to offer and it was also breaking the linguistic barrier that prevailed around him. Luckily he got an opportunity to move out of Tamilnadu into Jawaharlal Nehru university.

Talking about inspiration as a conscious note, it hit him when he was pursuing his BSc Zoology second year while on a trip to collect specimens from the calm waters of Rameswaram which was blocked by the coral reaf. Accompanied by many North Indian peers, he realized how much of a culture barrier was distancing himself from his fellow classmates. The realisation is what created a spell or an impelling wish to live upto a life that one looks up to, to move out of the cocoon that he felt he hid under.

He terms the land of promise as the one that brought him life. The desire to learn English, move out of the state and live a life which is beyond basic was a trigger point for him on his way back from Rameswaram looking at his peers. But due to socio-economic reasons the struggle to find a way to his desires was persistent which made him to drive trucks and run a small condiment shop until he ran into an advertisement by Jawaharlal Nehru University where the university claims to pay for all the tuition expenses of the student.

Walking into the University is when he discovered what kind of a world exists, what levels are there and how there are islands where the egalitarianism, equality, you are to be interacted with based on what you are not what your family is or parents are or society. This was the big turning point in the life of Mr. Vijay which he terms as an inspiration where he plunged into it and took it head on. It also compelled him to learn the language of the world which is English which opened the floodgates of global literature be it relating to the future of societies, or award-winning ideas in science and then the whole existence shifted into the head cerebral.

He started chasing all the ideas and thoughts that have shaped humanity, learning about the story of philosophy, of science, of sociology and like many other people decided to test out the civil services IAS and then decided not to proceed with the field as it was a feeling of power game administration. Moving away from all these career options and he moved into banking where again the situation in banks of the way the bankers treated the customers who are the real bosses was pretty bad and living with the entitlement of selfishness and greed annoyed and brought out the rebel in him and made him think that one day he will change the way banking happens.

He said “when we wish for something intently, I think it comes our way”. By 1993, the banking economy went through a change, structural reforms took place and the banking sector was key and they were bringing about a change in which he was aligned to be a part of setting up the new bank called the ICICI back and then further it paved way for him to be a part of setting up the IndusInd bank.

 All these exposures made him think that why cannot create a new entity at the economic system of the country level International Financial Services Centre which led to why only new things in finance why don’t we do for the economy as a whole which later led to Free trade Warehousing Zone and an export-oriented area called Special Economic Zone. Without too much of a conscious thought going with the flow, it kept taking him to newer and wider and more complex areas which not many fortunately were paying attention to which made them a band of people who were keen on bringing in a change and trying to be the change upto an extent they can which he claimed was an infectious excitement.

He believed that you don’t need the whole country to move with you to bring about the change a bunch of four of five people is good enough to seed those things. Once the seed grows and picks up attention and momentum came in, that is how the special economic zones and private sector ports and public-private partnerships to build airports and seaports and integrated townships and investment regions all such achievements begun. When one gets deep into all such things one can learn every facet, and dimension. It could be legal or planning the land or designing a building or financing the projects it could be managing the people, convincing the government, and finding the customer all that one can't escape. It amplified the opportunities which forced him to dive into and gain opportunities to pick up the pearls from the deep ocean. All such successions gave the minimum recognition across the government and private sectors and policymakers in companies national and international.

A person who sees the need for constant improvement what he sees as sub-optimal, he found construction being done by turning human beings into cattle using muscle power. The whole process of the construction sector disheartened him. He saw an opportunity where it is streamlining, mechanizing, which adds value to people who need built environment and the people who are into building the built environment. Again it was not explicit it was intuitively known and implicit which force impels you. If it was very clearly understood it would not have so much of energy.

Being a new area he went into economic strife and found his way out of it. A person who believes in reaching nowhere but enjoys the pursuit and not in getting it.