Guru: A Long Walk to Success
Author : Narendra Raval
Publisher : Bloomsbury, Rs 499
The sheer humility of the narration in this autobiography of Narendra Raval is impressive, coming as it does from a self-made billionaire and one of the leading private sector lights of Africa, writes Gautam Mukherjee
Forewords to this autobiography of Narendra Raval (nicknamed Guru), one of Kenya’s greatest industrialists, include congratulatory letters from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has long known Raval, and Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Amherst educated son of the legendary Jomo Kenyatta. Another is from Lord Raj Loomba of the UK, whose charitable foundation Raval supports. The Loomba Foundation helps widows in India, and at the behest of Raval, in Kenya as well.
This book speaks endearingly and conversationally, in Raval’s voice. It is cast in inspirational terms, with a plethora of slogans, pieties and bon mots, with a clear belief in destiny. It descends from time to time into a family and organisational scrap book — without however taking anything away from the impressive tale at its core.
Raval was born in a joint family in the tiny village of Mathak in the Halvad Taluka of Surendranagar district of Gujarat, the gateway to Saurashtra. His father and family were thrown out of the prosperous family home by his grandfather before Raval turned 10. Raval’s early years were spent dodging school and book knowledge, not only while in his father’s care, but elsewhere in Gujarat, with his maternal grandparents, and maternal uncles. A key turning point was his induction as a priest into the Swaminarayan sect. It became something of a lifelong association and network for him. It began in his late teens, as a priest, first in Bhuj, and later in Nairobi, when he was sent to a Kenyan temple. It laid down the basis of his freelance priestly work carried out later at Nakuru, a Kenyan hill resort. It also has a good deal to do with his own spiritual outlook and honesty, his caring attitude towards employees and colleagues, animals and birds. All this combined with Narendra Raval’s extraordinary abilities in palmistry and astrology that made him much sought after in the Gujarati business circles in Kenya and the UK.
It was at Nakuru where the young Brahmin priest began to be called Guru for the first time. This, both for his priestly and astrological skills, the latter learned initially during his time at the Bhuj Swaminarayan Temple.
It was also at Nakuru where he met President Daniel Arap Moi for the first time in rather mundane circumstances when he had tagged along with technicians who had gone to fix the President’s TV.
He was invited, soon after, to live in as resident priest and spiritual adviser by the owners of Kenya’s most successful steel rolling mills — the Kikuyu Steel Rolling Mills in Nairobi. Raval was thus introduced, in his early twenties, to an opulent business environment by the Dayabhai H Patel family.
He started going to the office with the head of the family, and learnt about the steel rolling business in all its aspects. By the time, not very long after, this family sold up and went their separate ways, to the US, UK, and elsewhere, Raval had his basic grounding in the steel business. He also had a renewable work permit for Kenya.
Next, Raval teamed up with some of his Nakuru friends who ran a hardware business — Delta Hardware, and persuaded them to open a Nairobi branch for wholesaling. Introducing more and more steel items to the mix out of his knowledge at Kikuyu, Raval gradually took the business national, started importing quota regulated items, and grew Delta Harware to the biggest business in its field in Kenya. But Raval was not a shareholder, nor did he work for a salary. The very growth he induced led to the split and closure of Delta by its four partners. By now Raval had also got married to Neeta, a qualified chemist. Though so much had happened, he was only 23 and not yet a Kenyan citizen.
In Raval’s life, many turns for the better, it is seen, was always preceded by being sent back to square one. Married and almost penniless, Raval resolved to set up for himself, opening the “Steel Centre” in the name of Neeta who was a Kenyan citizen already. They rented a warehouse in a new business district of Gikomba in Nairobi, even though it was in a rough neighbourhood.
But in four years, between 1986 and 1990, the business had grown to Kenyan Shillings 1 million. Raval found finance from wealthy friends and friendly bankers, all due to his priestly work of yore and his ongoing astrology that he still dispensed to help many people free-of-charge.
By 1993, Steel Centre in turn was now the largest hardware trading business in Kenya encompassing wholesaling and retail as well. The two existing steel rolling mills in Kenya could not keep up with demand, and so, Raval resolved to set up a steel rolling mill of his own. The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) was instrumental in both financing Raval’s move into manufacturing (Devki Steel Mills Ltd.) and seeing it through to stability by 1996. And meticulous accounting, he says is: “The heart and soul of your business. A small error, if not nipped in the bud, can bring down a well established business”. Gradually, Narendra Raval expanded, acquired, diversified, and backward integrated, growing his businesses into the “one stop manufacturer for all infrastructure products” he dreamed of. This, in time, meant Steel, Building Materials, Cement, and spreading out into the countries neighbouring Kenya as well.
