The Aswani Brand Of Business Success

Their long and arduous journey that took them from Sindh to Kochi down south post Partition is nonetheless peppered with sparkling display of entrepreneurial brilliance even while they had to shift places within Kerala, often not getting to remain even united as a family. But the Aswanis are today an integral part of Kerala’s business ecosystem, leading others by example. This innate business spirit still lets them experiment and guides them into newer territories. Through this exclusive interview, Destination Kerala introduces to its readers Deepak Lachmandas Aswani, the leader of the Aswani Group, and the Aswani family, which proved that entrepreneurial energy is boundless.

- Jyothisha V J

A sharp leftturn on MG Road in Kochi near Shenoy’s takes you to Doraiswamy Iyer Road where you will pass a long row of shutters quite unlikely to pique any particular interest. Here, up a tiny stairway and a floor above through the elevator, is the apartment which houses the Aswani family.

Take the first name and there won’t be many who would ask ‘who’? This is where Deepak Lachmandas Aswani, one of the doyens of Kerala’s business ecosystem and head of the Aswani Lachmandas Group, resides with his family.

Our team was on time for the photo-shoot and so was the Aswani family. Dressed in white, and insisting that all others in the family dress formally enough, the 66-year-old patriarch, whose business empire has come a long way since the arduous post-Partition journey across the Indo-Pak border that finally brought his family to Kerala, was full of energy.

A ‘FLIGHT FOR LIFE’ FROM ACROSS THE BORDER

The story of the Aswani family is very much intertwined with the history of independent India and the blood-stained mass exodus that followed the Partition.

“We were among the luckier ones. My father was a contractor supplying goods to the Defence Services StaffCollege in Quetta, Sindh, in today’s Pakistan and the family could safely crossover to India. While my father got preference due to his military connections, his family then – my mother and two elder siblings – took a train to Karachi and then a ship to Bombay. My sister was born just days before that ‘flight for life’. Whatever could be carried with them was brought, even jewellery hidden inside pakodas,” said Deepak Aswani reminiscing those difficult times.