From missing rials in Yemen to Vimal suits | #213
Also, speaking of nepotism 🤭
Hello friends
This past week, social Media was abuzz with the Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant wedding. It was after all a small, quaint gathering with a few millionaire guests in attendance. Take a look at Justin Bieber showing up in a genji with his underwear clearly visible for all, and Anant Ambani suited up in what one can presume is a tribute to a Bajaj Scooter seat-cover. The Ambanis have also ensured their grandkids will be part of memes right from childhood - they have inherited well.
But the Ambani riches were truly built from humble origins. Dhirubai Ambani was the son of a school teacher, who moved to Aden in Yemen looking for better fortunes and started work as a petrol bunk attendant. He came back to India with a young son, who he named Mukesh, with the ambition of starting something on his own.
This week, we take a look at the OG Ambani and some interesting stories of his life.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
In the early 1950s, treasury officials in Yemen noticed their country's currency, the solid silver rial, was mysteriously vanishing from circulation. The trail of the missing coins led them to Aden, a bustling trading port and British colony. There, they discovered a young Dhirubhai Ambani, barely in his twenties, had placed an open order in the marketplace for as many rials as he could obtain. He astutely realized that the silver content of the rial was worth more than its exchange value against the British pound and other foreign currencies. Seizing this opportunity, he began purchasing rials, melting them down, and selling the resulting silver ingots to bullion dealers in London. Despite the small margins, it was a profitable venture. Dhirubhai amassed a small fortune in what was one of his first entrepreneurial ventures. This revelation was made in an unauthorized biography about Dhirubhai called Polyester Prince by Hamish Mcdonald which was criticised by the Ambani family, who sought to ban the book from being sold. Harper Collins has never published this book in India. We do not know the veracity of the story, but certainly shows Dhirubhai’s knack of the ‘Dhandho’ - exploit market inefficiencies for profit.
Dhirubhai returned to India with Kokilaben and Mukesh in tow and set up “Majin” in 1958 with his cousin Champaklal Damani. Their business was to import Polyester yarn and export spices from India. They eventually split in 1965 and Dhirubhai established Reliance textiles. Dhirubhai Ambani named his textile brand Vimal Suitings after his elder brother Ramaniklal's son. When Reliance sponsored the World Cup in 1987, host of international cricketers including the hirsute Alan Border and the dapper Vivian Richards wore the Vimal Suits. There was only one song on everyone’s lips - Only Vimal, only Vimal ... Vimal
If there was an adversary to Dhirubhai, it emerged with the firebrand reporter of yore - Arun Shourie. He published a series of articles in the 80s which meticulously detailed a host of ways in which the Indira Gandhi government had gone out of its way to assist the Ambanis. But all that changed in 2002, when Arun Shourie was the disinvestment minister in the Vajpayee cabinet and oversaw the sale of 26% of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited to Reliance Industries. In 2003, he spoke at the Dhirubhai Ambani memorial lecture and did a 180 degree turn on his views from the 80s about how the licences kept in the 80s should not have been present in the first place and that India is thankful to the Dhirubhai’s of the world for making India an industrial power. Shourie you’re joking!
From IWTK, with love 💌
Check this scene from the film Awara. It might have been peak Nepotism.
Shaimak Dawar can speak to the dead. Now that we have grabbed your attention, can you answer this question?
Only In India 🇮🇳
Referring to Cricket World Cup wins, Zee News Kannada had found the right connection between 2011 and 2024 - Kannada actor Darshan was in jail both times. The text in Kannada reads - “In 2011, Darshan was in jail, India won the world cup. Will it happen this time?”
Talk about Stats™
<3 IWTK