Philosophy from Bharat – Jaman Taneja

Philosophy from Bharat

Jaman Lal Taneja comes from a business family. Was sure that he wanted to continue in business. During his growing up years in newly independent small town India there were not too many other options. The family sent across young Jaman to the neighbouring Muzaffarpur for completing his education. His graduation in commerce ensured that the business was never in trouble with tax issues. Nowadays tax evasion has reduced considerably. The exemption limits have been raised. It used to be 6000 rupees a few decades ago; has gone up to Rs. 500,000 now. Although even now in small town India making your spouse a dummy employee does reduce tax liability. Jaman bhai believes that the current government is biased in favour of big business. interest rates have been lowered and the biggest beneficiaries have been the capitalists. Capitalists are also raking in the moolah because of lowered corporate tax rates. In contrast, individuals, earning upto 15 lakh rupees, have not benefited. A case of the poor subsidising the reach.

Jaman got engaged in 1959, when he was in his third year of B.Com. Got married three years later to Sheela, my dad’s younger sister. Jaman bhai had two elder brothers. All three ran a textile retail business, Taneja Brothers. Most of the clientele was from the neighbouring villages. Jaman believes that their stock-in-trade was knowledge of consumer tastes. Most of the purchasing for the women folk was done by the men, when they visited town for selling agricultural produce. Selection was key. The brothers knew their customers and family tastes. The brothers looked at two things while making a decision about the selection: Budget, Skin Colour. The Taneja brothers ensured that whatever stuff their customers took back from the shop was acceptable to their women folk. The shop was known for its fixed rates. The customer never had to negotiate, because they always knew that rates were reasonable, no matter who was in the shop.

My dad’s sister, Sheela, passed away in 1988 because of a thyroid problem. Jaman bhai was now a widower. Being in a joint family was a big support for Jaman bhai. A few months before his wife’s passing away, his elder son had got married. Thanks to his widowed state, he ended up getting three daughters instead of three daughters in laws. The legacy of three continues in the next-generation. Each of the three sons has three kids. Making it an overall balanced, four sons and five daughters in the third generation of the family.

The Taneja family follows an interesting family accounting system. All income goes to a common pool. Each brother takes out funds for his needs and some limited wants. Jaman bhai narrates an interesting anecdote about life in joint families. Many years ago, the family used to own a valve radio, an expensive item in those days. One day Jaman played the radio at a slightly higher volume. He got a dressing down from his elder brother. From that day onwards, Jaman did not touch the radio. Many years later, on one of his rare trips to Nepal, Jaman bhai bought a transistor radio (in those days a quite high-tech item). On his return, a neighbour taunted him: Did you take permission from your family before you bought this radio? Jaman replied that the transistor was as much a family property as was the valve radio. Jaman’s belief is that the moment the concept of property becomes personal, it’s time for the family to split.

13 years after the passing away of his wife, death hit Taneja brothers’ business too. In 2001, both the elder brothers passed away. By then the elder brother’s sons were well settled in their own shops. Jaman’s own sons had started a pharmaceutical distribution business, which was showing signs of promise. Jaman told himself that the textile business would be inherited by the middle brother’s sons, who were struggling to find their feet. He mentored his elder nephew for 7 years. This included sending him on purchasing trips to Bombay, something which Jaman’s elder brothers had not done during Jaman’s days as a mentee in the business. Letting go was a bit painful though. The day Jaman bhai disclosed the idea of the inheritance to his nephew, Jaman was put under pressure to retire.

At 84, what has been the secret of Jaman bhai’s amazing health? Jaman believes it’s God’s gift. I believe it is his food habits. He eats only at home. His food is always sattvic – no onion, no garlic. When he travels, he chooses the simplest of restaurants and dhabas to eat in. He has never entered a 5 star, or for that matter even a 2 star hotel restaurant. The number of chapatis has been going down over the years. From 3-4 a few years ago to about 2 today.

This was not always the case. He remembers his hostel days where he would eat 10 rotis. He had joined a Marwari basa (mess). In those days an unlimited thali cost 50 paise, 30 rupees if you paid for the whole month. Two of his hostel mates egged him on to binge eat, reminding the commerce student about how this is what will get him value for money. Luckily for Jaman’s health, one of these friends plugged the year and left. The other one shifted to a Darbhanga college for his B.Com. Jaman bhai then shifted to private lodgings. Over there, his set of housemates decided to make their own food. And Jaman bhai was back to his regular frugal eating habits.

Self discipline in food is about equanimity – however bad or good the food is, you eat the same quantity. And never complain about the food. Take it as it comes. There will always be good days and bad days for cooks. For the last few decades, Jaman bhai has followed a policy of non interference in his sons’ business affairs. Unfortunately, the same policy also applied to health affairs. Jaman is worried about obesity in the family. He believes it’s not right to question. There is a lot of context in which obesity happens. And he does not have control over that context.

Jaman bhai has been active in community work. Hygiene is a very visible issue in small towns. Drains overflow, because they are not designed for handling both sewage and rainwater. The root cause is construction in the floodplains. This is the case even in big town India. He was an office bearer at the local traders association for a long span of twenty-two years. However, this is coupled with his antipathy to politicians. When he realised that the traders association was becoming aligned with certain political parties, he switched to other volunteering. For the last two decades, he has been working for Kawad welfare. Kawads are the guys who walk to fetch Ganga water for their village deities every spring. He has been doing this work for the last 20 years.

Jaman bhai has been conservative in business. He’s not the one who had too many dreams in life. He believes the best life is one which is dreamless. His philosophy has been to rely on savings for investments. It does not mean loans have not been taken. Once in a while, family finances have been stretched and loans have been taken, to build the assets. Manufacturing has scalability. Maybe the third generation of the Tanejas can look at it.

We discussed next gen’s jobs vs business decisions. The attraction of big city life will encourage migration. It’s much easier to do a job than to start a business in the city. City business requires tons of capital. and you also need to spend a lot of time in creating business and social networks. Jaman bhai’s advice to gen next wanting to get into a job: Do it with integrity. And even if the young folks migrate out – keep in mind: United we stand, Divided we fall.