A man who would make you laugh like a child
Dr Kallam Anji Reddy, founder of Dr Reddy's Laboratories and a
stalwart of Indian pharma industry in his own right passed away on 15 March
2013.
It is personally a sad moment for me. You do not meet too many
people in life and come back thoroughly inspired. Five occasions I had the
privilege to meet with this truly modest and humble son of an Andhra turmeric
farmer, were some of the most memorable moments of my life – the moments which
are firmly ingrained in your memory for life.
Though I would meet him as part of the team of private bankers
that managed a part of his wealth, we never talked about money and investments.
The thing I liked most about him was his laughter. He had this
amazing ability to laugh like a two year old child on almost everything.
He was always keen to know about the socio-political problems
afflicting the country and how he could contribute his two cents to help the
wanting. The meetings planned for 10-15 minutes all ran for well over an hour.
On one of the occasions he even postponed his lunch to continue the discussions
about education for poor girls I was mentioning to him.
After relinquishing his routine responsibilities at DRL, Doctor,
as he was affectionately called, had devoted himself to a variety of
philanthropic causes, including providing drinking water to rural areas and
mid-day meals to school-going children.
Despite keeping a bad health, he was deeply involved and working
hard on an Alzheimer drug for past many years. While his modest beginning, hard
work, commitment to research and rise to the top rung of fiercely competitive
and highly regulated pharma are all well known and documented, very few talk
about his innocence and easily trusting nature.
Whenever he would come to Mumbai, he was nostalgic about his
graduation days at Mumbai University, when he lived at small place in Matunga and
had his food at famous Udupi kitchen near Mantunga railway station.
It may also be not well known outside pharma industry circles
that Dr. Reddy Laboratories under his stewardship has produced many successful
entrepreneurs who dot the pharma map in India.
For past many years, there had been rumors about him wanting to
exit DRL, like Ranbaxy promoters. But he would always laugh out loud and say,
“I take my medicines with my name written on these. Why would I want it any
other way”.
As reported
by a newspaper – “Life did full justice to his enterprising spirit — it threw
several challenges his way all of which he gamely tackled. What stood Reddy in
good stead were his incurable optimism, his passion, his trust-and-delegate
management style, and his ability to continuously seek inspiration.”
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