'I have surely been lucky'

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: London-based business baron and philanthrophist Lord Swraj Paul calls himself 100% Indian and 100% British. It’s not difficult to understand why. He was born In India, but established his empire in London. His roots, he tells you proudly, go back to the little town of Jalandhar in Punjab, where he was born in 1931.

The chairman of the Caparo Group, which had a turnover of one billion euros, is also a member of the House of Lords and was knighted by the Queen in 1978. The NRI industrialist was also adjudged as the second richest in the British Midlands with a family business worth £1.5 billion (Rs 12,000 crore), according to the Birmingham Post’s Rich List 2008. The British Ambassador for Overseas Business, Paul came next only to John Caudwell, founder of a mobile communications company, who is worth £1.65 billion.

Paul’s journey has been an eventful one. He studied at Doaba School in Jalandhar while his father Payare Lal ran a small business of manufacturing steel buckets, tubs, trunks and agricultural implements. A small foundry behind the family home was his dad’s office. After school Paul went to Foreman Christian College in Lahore. He studied there for two years but had to move to Doaba College, Jalandhar, to complete his final year, after Partition. His enthusiasm to study engineering saw him travel to the US to do a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He joined his family business of Apeejay Group in 1953, which was founded by his elder brother Satya Paul and is now looked after by Sushma Berlia, the daughter of Satya Paul. Their ways parted in 1966 when Swraj had to go to London with his family to get his daughter Ambika, who was suffering from leukemia, treated. But the trip changed his life. Despite efforts he lost his daughter and this shattered his life. Meditation and philosophy were two things that helped the grief stricken Paul to finally start afresh. He decided to stay on and start his business.