Avanti Birla talks about being her industrialist husband Yashovardhan's anchor through tragedy

Avanti Birla, wife of Yash Birla Group chairman Yashovardhan, would rather not revisit the first year of her marriage. "That was the most difficult time. It's painful to even think about it today," she says. In 1990, Yash lost his parents Ashokvardhan and Sunanda, and sister Sujata, to a plane crash in Bengaluru — an incident he recounts in chillingly clinical detail in his recently-released biography, On A Prayer. But here's what you won't find in the book. A year later, when Yash and Avanti tied the knot, everyone looked to the new bride to help put an utterly devastated and broken man together again. And how she managed to do just that.

Avanti admits she really struggled with it. "I didn't know how to cope with the situation, how to offer Yash solace," she says. "We were both young and totally lost. It was traumatic for both of us." There was the added pressure of proving she could be a good Birla bahu. Avanti, a Maharashtrian with much humbler origins than the Birlas, was initially found unsuitable to join the family. Her parents weren't terribly excited about the match either. "They were very scared for me, and kept asking if I would be able to manage the situation," says Avanti. "Look at the state Yash is in, they would keep saying, and were nervous for me right till the wedding."




Priyamvada Birla with Yash and Avanti on their wedding day

A desperate quest

Their fears weren't misplaced. Yash was, at the time, on a crazed quest to find answers for his predicament. He could not sleep at night, visited one temple after another, and even took to consulting mediums in an attempt to communicate with his parents and sister. Avanti watched from the sidelines, somewhat helplessly, because she didn't understand what he was going through, and didn't always agree with his methods. But she did the next best thing a supportive partner could: She joined him on that desperate path.

"We were never in Bombay on the weekends," she says. "We visited every temple in the country, every holy place." An avid reader, Avanti gave up her bestsellers and novels, and began reading spiritual books like her husband (he reads nothing else, even today). "It was under Yash's influence that I found myself transforming," says Avanti. "Our travels and reading brought about an 'awakening' in me. I finally began to understand what Yash was going through."


Avanti, Vedanti, Yash and Nirvaan Birla at Kalpeshwar in the Himalayas



Filling the void

According to Avanti, Yash's pain at losing his family began to recede a little only after his kids were born. The couple has two sons, Vedant, 22, and Nirvaan, 20, and a daughter, Shloka, 14. A large family, Avanti says, that they wanted to fill their "empty mansion" of a home, with. It was the birth of Shloka – middle-named for Yash's sister Sujata — that finally brought him some peace, says Avanti. "Yash believes his mother and sister have come back to him," she says. "He sees aspects of them in her quick temper and her playful nature."