Manu Chandaria: Billionaire with only five suits, two pairs of underwear

Businessman Dr. Manu Chandaria gives a talk to students and innovators at USIU University in Nairobi on June 22, 2023 [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Mahatma Gadhi taught Indians to eat simple meals and dress simply, as well as doing everything possible to be self-sufficient. He was frugal and so throughout his four years at the University of Bombay, Manu went to spin the thread for handlooms for an hour every single day

He got the thread weaved together with his brothers and cousins garments which they wore until they left India for Kenya and the United States. He had three shirts, two pairs of trousers, two pairs of underwear and a pair of socks.

"I could have bought as many pairs of socks and shirts as I wanted. We could afford to, but we were followers of Gandhi, so we also lived frugally," says Manu.

Gandhi's influence on Manu manifests itself in a different way today. "I always have had five suits in my wardrobe and when I buy a new one, I give away an old one." Manu can have as many tailor-made suits or designer clothes as he would want from the most expensive and exclusive stores in the world. But Gandhi did not need a suit to inspire India to independence. He dressed simply and lived frugally. Manu has emulated Gandhi's simplicity.

Speaking at a symposium organised by the Indian High Commission on October 5, 2004, themed, 'Gandhi in the 21st Century', at the UN offices in Nairobi, Manu revealed how Gandhi's teachings had impacted his life, the family and its business.

He was reported in a press release by the High Commission the following day to have said that "his family was inspired by Gandhi's way of life in setting up the Chandaria Foundation" and to have "highlighted the 7 sins, which Gandhi used to refer to and whose relevance is as undiminished today as during his lifetime".

Published in his newspaper, Young India, The teachings of Gandhi and Jainism have helped Manu to engage in deliberate, determined and ethical business, guided the family's investments, and management of its wealth and philanthropy. The same can be said of his appli- cation of the five main vows of his Jain faith.

Manu maintains, as did the Mahatma, that while people create wealth, they are not the owners of it but rather the managers or, put another way, its trustees.

Addressing an UBS Philanthropy Roundtable in September, 2010, Manu said that he learnt from Gandhi "the singular lesson of sacrifice to possess as little as possible and use the rest for the good of others".

 The other person who left an enduring impression and influence on Manu is Premchand Vrajpal Shah. Quite apart from being his father-in-law, Premchand Shah was a successful entrepreneur whose many businesses and industries made him one of the richest Oshwals of his time, a prominent voice and leader in the community and a philanthropist.

 He played a leading role in the setting up of the Desai Memorial Hall on Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi and gave scholarships to Kenyans to go for higher studies in India. He helped Africans to set up businesses and assisted Peter Mbiyu Koinange, a local politician, in establishing an African school in Githunguri in Kiambu.

He returned to Kenya in 1951, and to the family's businesses, Premchand Brothers, the provisions shop his father set up at Ngara in Nairobi, and Kaluworks in Mombasa, which employed 40 people, six of whom were family.

 "Our parents had nothing when they came here. And through sheer hard and backbreaking work; working early and late, scrimping and saving and sacrificing, had built something from nothing.

They put us through universities in India and America at great expense.

It is a story Manu has told many times and he told it in New York when accepting the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022. "What is wrong with you?" his father asked. "Perhaps you lived in America for too long." Undeterred, Manu responded that he had been in America for only three years. "Listen," his father shot back. "We have got 36 people at home to feed, and we have a hole here, we are poor. First fill this hole".

 The metaphor of the hole was to be used to urge Manu to work hard again when he attempted to take up golf as a hobby. Twice, Manu missed the daily 10 o'clock planning meetings convened by his brother. Devchand and his father confronted him and sought to know why he had skipped the meetings, to which Manu replied that he had gone to Pwani Club to learn how to play golf. "Golf" Devchand sneered incredulously. That little ball? The one you play into a little hole?"

"Yes," replied Manu.

"There's a bigger hole here. There are 36 mouths to feed. First fill this hole!" Devchand put his foot down. His father nodded in agreement and that was the end of Manu's golfing dream.

Manu's father was concerned that the hole of sport or leisure would deflect his son's attention from the hole of reality, that is, attending to the family's immediate agenda of building a fortune. Manu's father Premchand Chandaria was obsessed with ridding his family out of poverty and securing a prosperous future for it.

Since Devchand discouraged him from learning how to play golf, Manu has never tried his hand at any other sport. He is not a sports enthusiast, either. He occasionally plays cards with Aruna (his wife) and confesses that if they play seven games, she will very likely win five of them. That, he says, will be a great result for him on one of his best days because she is better and sharper than he is at card games.