Rolling in the Deep

WHEN IT COMES TO choosing a career path, India has a long tradition of following the family practise. It is pretty common to see a doctor’s son taking up medicine or a chartered accountant’s daughter joining her father’s firm. So, when the son of the Dean of the city’s medical college and the grandson of the state’s most prominent physician decided to break the family tradition, quite a few eyebrows were raised.

No, it wasn’t that Kamal K Singh was a rebel. He was just fortunate enough to have a mother who refused to push her child into taking the conventional route to success. “My mother said: I have seen your grandfather minting money. He made tremendous name for himself, but he had no time for himself or family. Your grandfather left everything he owned to your father and that money is helping us to support you. Otherwise in his own salary today, we can’t afford to spend ₹1,000 a month for the education which you are getting. So my advise is, do something different,” recalls Singh, who then went on to pursue mechanical engineering.

But, even as he was studying to be an engineer, Singh had decided to take the untrodden path. “I was probably 17 when I decided I will do my own business,” he says. “I was a topper throughout my college days, but I never gave a single campus interview.”

It wasn’t long before Harvard University Business School beckoned Singh to earn a Master of Business Administration degree along with a hefty scholarship. With a few months to kill before the course was to begin, Singh set up a steel rolling mill on the behest of a family friend. When the time came for school to begin, Singh had to choose between the life of an executive in the United States and his dream of setting-up his own business.

The first-generation entrepreneur chose well when he decided to stay back in India. Because taking that humble steel works plant to the heights of high technology, Singh has led from the front the four-decade-long transformation of one of India’s most iconic companies — Rolta India.

At that time, though, Singh’s father wasn’t too pleased with this decision. So, Singh took refuge in his mother’s positive affirmations and his wife’s unflinching support. “My wife always understood my decision; she has given me much-needed strength.”