Determined To Win

Back in 1938, it was a long way from Dhulian to Kolkata, and so was it for any aspiring Marwari to be a man of letters given the apathy towards education among Marwaris in those days. Having embarked upon both these journeys at the tender age of 12, Kashi Nath Memani exhibited rare mettle that was to put him in the driver’s seat of Ernst & Young in India one day and script its huge success story, while, of course, exemplifying the perfect art of balancing a stellar career with equal passion for arts, literature and service to humanity.

- Joseph Rozario

DHULIAN, A NONDESCRIPT town along the banks of the Ganges in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, hardly comes across as a business hub, but back in the early twentieth century, it was a promising trading centre. Given its vantage point, Dhulian facilitated both riverine and land trades and so despite its remoteness, the ever adventuresome Marwari trader was not to be deterred. Some of them pitched camp in the town, and among them were the Memanis, who had come all the way from Nohar, in Bikaner, Rajasthan. To this household Kashi Nath Memani was born in August 1938, to Bhagwan Das Memani and Janki Devi.

A diamond in the rough

The Memanis were a well-to-do family, who traded in raw jute, grains, jaggery, linseed, mustard and black lentils. Back in 1938, education was counted among the least of priorities for Marwaris, and picking the nuances of the family business under the tutelage of an elder was considered the rite of passage for any young man. Kashi Nath Memani, it was expected, would join the family business once he came of age, but he was cast in a different mould. Unlike his siblings, he exhibited unusual aptitude and appetite for learning. In fact, with such acuteness he felt the need to imbibe knowledge that he was willing to go the extra mile for it, even if that meant forgoing the comforts of home and roughing it in faraway Calcutta (now Kolkata).

Given his tender age and the Marwari community’s disinclination towards education in those days, this, however, was an unacceptable proposition for family elders. But Kashi Nath was persistent. “I made an adamant appeal to tauji, who was the family patriarch, that I be allowed to pursue formal schooling in Calcutta,” says Memani. “It was a tough decision to allow a 12-year-old to stay away from his parents in a faraway place like Calcutta, but looking at my unusual zeal, the family relented.”