EARLY YEARS

BU grew up in a village that had primitive written all over it. A thousand years of invasions and European rule had left most of India’s countryside depleted and drained of resources, and BU’s ancestral place was no exception. There were mud huts and mud roads all around. Poles that were supposed to transmit power, loomed large, but there was no electricity around. His father was a laborer, and for the family getting two square meals a day meant a lot. BU knew that some of his distant relatives had left their life of impoverishment and migrated to African shores. He began to dream of travelling overseas himself.

Tough times do not last, tough people do. Somehow, through the tough times that the family had, BU earned a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the Baroda University. Soon came the opportunity to join some of his relatives in Zambia. Those were times when Zambia that had newly become independent and had started shedding off the tag of Northern Rhodesia was inviting Indians to develop its economy. For Zambia the entrepreneurial talent of the Gujarati community came as a boon. As a land long colonized and exploited was finding its feet again, BU landed in its midst full of enterprising energy. He acquired a commercial license and drove a 10-ton truck, the likes of which were not to be found in India. He also managed a stone quarry. When an apparel retail store came up for sale, he pooled in all his savings, and bought it. His young family lived in a small room at the back of the shop. There was barely enough space for his wife Pushpa and children Mayur, Tushar and Maya, but the family managed. Everyone was happy because BU owned the store, and Pushpa was helping him in business alongside building a joyful home. Soon he owned a garment manufacturing unit, but not before having to drive hard bargains to get it. His days of an immigrant struggling to survive were over. As orders came in, his business grew, and so did the employees who at one point touched 200 before he decided that he needed to sell it, and move to the USA.