It is the beginning of a new year and like all years, this year too will bring us new challenges and opportunities. And it will be up to us to choose how we face the situation life puts us in. So, let us begin this year with a story about perseverance, resilience and triumph.

It was in the month of August, in 1900 AD that a boy was born in a small village called Bhaun (now in Pakistan). The boy was named Mohan. He was only six months old when his father passed away. Although left with limited resources, his mother ensured that her son got as much education as possible. So, Mohan began his education at the village school, did his matriculation from Rawalpindi and passed the Intermediate College Examination in Lahore but, then the family’s finances ran out and his education got stopped.

Those were uncertain times in Mohan’s life. His education was not good enough to get him a good  job. So, he went to Amritsar to do a course in shorthand and typing but even that did not get him any employment. Defeated and dejected, he returned to his village. Months of frustration and waiting followed until his uncle finally found him a job at a shoe factory in Lahore. Mohan’s job was to supervise the manufacture and sale of shoes but his troubles were far from over. The factory was closed down and Mohan once again returned to his village.

It was around this time that Mohan’s marriage was fixed. After marriage, Mohan spent some time with his in-laws in the village Sargodha. On his return to Bhaun, he found that a virulent plague epidemic had broken out. On his mother’s advice Mohan returned to Sargodha. Once again the terrible days of unemployment and uncertainty began to haunt him. Then one day Mohan saw an advertisement for a junior clerk at a government office in Shimla. Although ill prepared for the entrance exam he left for Shimla with twenty five rupees in his pocket. He failed to qualify the exam.

Depressed and hopeless, Mohan took to walking the streets of Shimla. It was during one such aimless rambling that on an impulse he entered the Hotel Cecil and asked for a job. As luck would have it, there was a vacancy and Mohan was given the job of a billing clerk. His remuneration included a salary of forty rupees and quarters to live in.

Soon a new manager, Mr. Clarke joined the Hotel Cecil and Mohan on account of his knowledge of stenography was given the post of cashier and stenographer. And thus began Mohan’s informal education on how hotels were run.  In 1924, Mr. Clarke went into Hotel business himself and obtained a catering contract for the Delhi Club. Mohan joined him on a salary of hundred rupees. The Delhi club contract ended a year later and Mr. Clarke began looking around for new business. Opportunity came in the form of Carlton Hotel which was up for sale. Mr. Clarke was interested but he needed guarantors to close the deal. Mohan stood up to the occasion and raised the required amount with help from relatives and friends. Carlton Hotel was renamed Clarkes Hotel and started operations.

Five years after running the hotel, Mr. Clarkes decided to sell the hotel and retire but before doing so offered to sell the hotel to Mohan. The opportunity seemed God send. Mohan mortgaged his wife’s ornaments and bought the hotel. Soon after a cholera epidemic struck Calcutta (today’s Kolkata) and the hotel industry in the city suffered huge loses. Many hotels had to wind up business. One such hotel was a luxury hotel called The Grand Hotel. When it was put on the market, Mohan lost no time in proposing to buy its lease. He got it for a monthly rent of seven thousand rupees. It was around this time that the World War II started and large number of British troops started arriving in Calcutta. They needed accommodation and Mohan had a hotel in the city. He arranged fifteen hundred beds at ten rupees per head for the British soldiers.

Mohan’s service to British soldiers was recognized by the government of India and he was awarded the title of Rai Bahadur. Not one to rest on his laurels, Mohan went on acquiring and building hotels all over India. His hotels became known for the quality of their services and before long his chain of hotels became an established brand in India and abroad.

Today who hasn’t heard of the Oberoi Hotels? And the man who built the chain was Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi. His contribution to the Indian Hotel industry is enormous. It was the dream to make India a top country in the hotel expertise and that drove him keep the standards of quality at the Oberoi hotels very high. Mohan Singh Oberoi was elected President of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India in April 1955 and was remained President of Honour of the Federation for life in 1960. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1962 and to the Lok Sabha in 1968. Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi passed away in 2002 at the age of 101.

That was the story of a poor boy, with little education who left his village to look for a job and went on to found one of the finest chains of hotels in the world. Mohan Singh Oberoi’s life was not devoid of challenges. He too had his moments of self doubts and fears but he chose to overcome every obstacle life put in his path. He chose to seize every opportunity, life threw his way. Mohan Singh Oberoi determined to succeed. His life can aptly be summed up by the lines of Waler D. Wintle:

 Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster man;

But soon or late, the one who wins

Is the man who thinks he can.

The year 2009 will be another year of our lives and it will bring with it, its share of choices life has to offer to us. And it will be left to us to make the choice. It will be left to us to give up or to carry on, to fail or to succeed. Everything will be left to our perseverance, resilience and faith, but then if Mohan could do it, then perhaps any one of us can. I leave you all with this thought and wish you a very happy year ahead!