RIP Rakesh Jhunjhunwala: A giant from my childhood home

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala walked the corridors of my childhood as he did the corridors of our home. He was a client of my late father Sri Ramawatar Poddar who was his broker.

More than a client, he was also a friend and often came to my father for advice as they both had kidney ailments. As a child, I may have seen him but not been aware that I was looking at a giant. I wonder how I seemed to him; perhaps I was crawling on the floor at home or maybe zipping around on my blue scooter.

In my late 20s, my father wrote an email to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala introducing me to him again. I feel sad now that I was unable to follow-up on it at that time, and then my father left for his heavenly abode. I chased it and was looking forward to meeting him at the all partners meet of Khaitan & Co in 2018 where I was performing a stand-up show and he was slated to speak. Unfortunately, our speaking slots prevented that from happening.

For the last couple of years, it was a constant endeavour in my head to somehow reconnect with the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala of my childhood, to ask him if he remembered my father and what conversations they had.

This need become even more urgent with my Funnycontrol humour articles in Moneycontrol, as I thought it would be hilarious to have him to do a fun interview with me.

It should be pointed out that he was a very humorous man. When a parody account of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was created by Aditya Mangal, instead of being annoyed, he called the creator to his office. This is a short excerpt from their exchange:

"So, do you have a girlfriend?"

"No, sir."

"Why? At your age, I was more interested in girls than in stocks."

"That's not true. At my age, you were on the floor of Bombay Stock Exchange trying to invest 5,000."

"So, you must be interested in boyfriends, if you are not into girlfriends."

"Sir, sir, no sir! Why do you want me to have a girlfriend?"

"Because only when you experience the whims of a woman will you understand life... and markets."

To be validated by a giant is perhaps the best return on investment that Mangal got from his parody account. Which goes to show you that sometimes laughter is indeed the best investment.

Even if I don't have the memories I would like to believe when he looked down at the kid playing with his toys he was saying "I have no doubt I am looking at a kid who will be a giant in the future". Because so was my late father.

I hope wherever those two are now, they are no longer stuck in sad discussions about dialysis and kidney failure. That they are probably thrilled to bits about how the investments their children have made are doing.