Thread by @GhostedOU812

Yesterday was #AkshayaTritiya2023. My hero's birthday. He would've been 85. A man literally born with a silver spoon with 16 Palaces to stay in, he lost everything at the age of 15. 1952 the Zamindari system was abolished & a shrewd trick played by Nehru & Bidhan Chandra Roy...

(2/n) left him and a family of 17 literally on the streets. They were given 7 days to vacate #UttarparaRajbari, one of the 16 palaces he was born in. His mother, Rani Ma (my nani) had throat cancer & his father spinal cancer. 14 others were either children or people who never...

(3/n) had to work. Everything came from estate that spanned 7.8 million acre, including the #Sunderbans. There was only 5K cash in the house. Just on the 7th day a battalion of police came to the Palace and asked the family to vacate. They collected whatever they could and with..

(5/n) 5K they came in a truck and rented a 3 bed room apartment in Ballugunge. Soon they ran out of the 5K, given there were 17 mounts to feed. The government was yet to take control all the fisheries the family owned. There were 3 that were still ours. At 15, he would wake up...

(6/n) each morning, take the ferry to the Sunderbans, catch fish and bring them to the city to the apartment. He would then take a spot at Gariahat Market and sell the fish to feed the 17 mouths. He realized that it was impossible to sustain this so he started venturing into....

(7/n)Real Estate business. Mukjerjee's owned the largest number of brick fields in India and these bricks were world famous. The bricks from Uttarpara were used to build the West/South Wing of Buckingham Palace. He started supplying bricks to contractors. Soon realized that....

(8/n) he was really not cut out for the dirty real estate business. As sharp as he was, in the meantime by 19 he completed his graduation in science but continued to dabble with multiple things just to sustain the family of 19. At at 23/24 he met a few amazing people.....

(9/n) who became his lifelong friends. One was Alok Saha. Alok Saha was a top man at Tata Steel and CEO of Tata Ryerson later. Alok uncle saw the spark in my hero and proposed they set up their own business. The duo, with another friend decided to create a start-up in DC Power

(10/n) Supply Systems. They took up a shed right outside Tata Steel factory in Jamshedpur. 3 young boys were struggling to get started and money had dried up at home. He lost both in parents within a year not being able to provide ANY treatment. He was shattered but didn't give..

(11/n) up. One day as the 3 young boys were discussing whether to wind up & think about alternatives, JRD Tata walked into their tiny office. He asked for "Shyamal Kumar Mukherjee". My hero almost pee'd in his pants. JRD hugged him and told him how obligated the #Parsi community

(12/n) to our family. Had it not been for #RajaJoykrishnaMukherjee, #DadabhaiNaoroji would never have been the 2nd @Inc President. A matter of tremendous honor for the Parsis. It was Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee who had proposed and nominated Dadabhai as the 2nd President of @Inc

(13/n) JRD gave the trio a lumpsum of money and assured them of an all out support in their endeavor. There was no looking back and no more of catching fish and selling at local markets. The business started to grow. Soon ambition hit the 2 partners and they decided to part ways

(14/n) One of the partners left for the US and the other, Alok uncle, joined Tata Steel. My hero shut down the operations in Jamshedpur and set up his office in #Kolkata. I barely saw him until I was much older. he would leave home by 4 am and return by the time my sis and I.....

(15/n) were ready to go to bed. he worked hard enough that 4 of us could get at least 2 meals. We could eat breakfast (bread and milk) and dinner (a bowl of rice, lentil soup and maybe 1 side dish). Most nights mom would skip dinner because we would have eaten her portion.......

(16/n) Mom would satiate her hunger by consuming mounds of beetlenut & beetle leaf that later destroyed her kidneys. She was the ultimate mother. Always reminded us of dad's struggle to feed us & what it took the man to even pay for our school fees. She always reminded us where.

(17/n) where we came from and the value of hard work and humility. My hero's efforts never let him down and he built India's largest DC Power Supply System company "Caldyne Automatics Limited" now Chloride Industries Limited employing 300 people and clocking a revenue of about.

(18/n) Rupees 120 crores around 2004. With my mom's condition deteriorating and that taking a toll on my dad, I decided to return to India in 2005. Caldyne was taken over by Exide Industries in 2006ish and dad retired. He had Rs. 25,000/- in his bank account. Before retirement...

(19/n) he gave ALL his money to the company and the people. He said "Whatever I was or I became were for those 300 people". I was angry....livid and may even have expressed my anger at my hero. What he said after that summed up my life to that point. He said "I have built 2......

(20/n) Banyan Trees that are unhindered and unhinged. Both my children are rock solid and you will find you ways without my help. Help those who need the tree & you will have enough". My hero was made of a different element & I wish I was 1/100000000 th his caliber.

Who's your.

(21/n) hero? What's your story. We all have stories that are inspiring. We could used a platform like @Twitter to bicker over filth or tell inspiring stories that will make the world a better place.