So you want me to tell you how we started all these educational institutions. Okay then. It has to start with Babulal Mehta. After finishing my B.Com, I started looking after our family business. One of my cousin brothers helped me manage the business.
Our family had already started a small school for the children of our community in the heart of the city. It was doing quite well. Babulal Mehta, who was actively engaged in the administrative affairs of the school would often discuss the details with me whenever we met. After a while, I too started visiting the school along with him. I would write the accounts there after business hours. I would listen to all the discussions that the other committee members had with my father and other people.
Slowly I too started getting involved with the administration of the school. We never interfered with the teaching part. Yes, we would conduct interviews, appoint teachers, go on rounds, look at the income and expenditure, manage the funds etc. The principal would take care of the rest.
Two incidents are still clearly ingrained in my memory. The principal of our school at that time was one of my college professors. And I, his student, was a part of the administrative team. Yet, he had the integrity to set right something that was amiss without getting offended. One day, I politely but openly told him that there was a lot of noise in the classrooms. He took my remark in the right spirit. He called for a meeting with the teachers and rectified the matter within a day.
The second incident may interest you now. But it was a big issue for us at that time. We had an accountant in our school. He was an Iyengar Brahmin. He would come to our house every day at 6 a.m. and stand in front of my father with folded hands. His voice was soft and his entire approach was humble. He would wait patiently till my father signed all the cheques. He would then deposit the cheques in the bank and divert the funds towards the various expenses of the school after getting the necessary signatures from the school authorities.
Now, who would suspect an Iyengar Brahmin of forgery? I mean, the tag of the caste itself has a lot of value, isn’t it? No one could even imagine that a Brahmin, let alone an Iyengar Brahmin could siphon off money so neatly. My father, as usual, signed the cheques to pay the salaries of the teachers. But instead of bringing the funds to the school, this accountant of ours ran away with the money. He simply vanished into thin air.
When we came to know about it, the first thing we did was to scrutinize all the account books. To our utter horror, we realized that this man had even forged the signatures of several other committee members and had siphoned off a tidy sum of money without anyone’s knowledge. It was a huge sum, mind you. Not something that you could simply write off as a bad debt.
Babulal Mehta, one of my cousins and I joined forces and started looking into the details of this case. At that time, two Iyengar Brahmins would chant hymns from the Bhagavad Puran in our house early in the morning every day. I narrated the entire incident to them and told them how grave the situation was. I then casually asked them if they had any idea about the accountant’s whereabouts.
One of them started squirming uneasily. I could sense what was going on in his mind. How could he, an Iyengar Brahmin, betray another Brahmin? I knew he was hesitating to reveal something. I told him that I would not disclose his identity to anyone. He trusted me. When I cajoled him a bit, he told me that the accountant was now living in a temple in a distant suburb – but with great reluctance.
We got in touch with the police immediately. Now the police department of that suburb was different. They had to get permission from the collector or some authority. I don’t remember the procedure exactly now. All I know is that it was a long drawn procedure and getting an arrest warrant was not so easy. But we did get it.
But before that, we had to send someone who knew the accountant by face. We had to verify and confirm if it was the same person, first. No? After completing all the procedures, finally, we went with the police personnel of that area, arrested him and put him in jail. But he was a smart man. He had already spent all the money by the time we nabbed him.
It was unfortunate indeed. But one of our community members was a bank agent and he had ensured that the cheques with the forged signatures were approved by the bank without verifying the signatures. So he ended up paying all the money that the accountant had siphoned off.
Of course, it is not fair. An innocent man should not suffer for a crook’s wrongful deeds. That’s right. But it was his duty to do his job properly. He should have checked and verified the signatures properly. No? I understand. The man’s humble demeanour fooled him. It is sad. It is unfortunate. But yes, he repaid the sum that the Brahmin siphoned off.
We had gone to nab the crook, that Brahmin, in our Fiat car in the middle of the night. Yes, it was a major issue that took a long while to sort out. We got back the money that we lost, yes, but not exactly in the way that we had anticipated.
I learnt to deal with issues like these only because Babulal Mehta and my father moulded my thinking and inspired me to serve the people of our community.
The vision, the idea to create a group of institutions for the people of our community too actually came to us from a challenge that Babulal Mehta had faced at that time. His son had finished his schooling. He had scored very decent marks. Yet he was finding it difficult to get admission for his son. My father knew a few educators. He approached them and sought their favour for Babulal Mehta’s son’s college admission. He did get it and he was very grateful too.
But that was when Babulal Mehta discussed the matter with my father. He said, “Despite getting decent marks if this is the plight of my child, imagine the plight of other children who have no contacts. Not all children score good marks in all exams. But that does not mean they will all be deprived of an education? I think it’s time we start a college of our own? If we have a college of our own we can give top priority to the people of our community? All the other communities already have colleges of their own!”
I will tell you all the details now. You can create another write up for this part of the story if you want to. I’m glad you find all this interesting. Write about it if you want to. I have no problems.