Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw says she has inherited her independent streak from her mother

By Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

My mother ain’t no ordinary mother. In fact, she’s quite like no other! Like all other moms, she’s selfless and caring But then she’s different and really quite daring. have inherited my fiery, independent streak from my mother, Yamini Mazumdar, who, even at the age of 89, runs her own profitable dry-cleaning and laundry business.

What is remarkable is that she decided to become an entrepreneur at the age of 68, when most people prefer to settle for a retired life. She was a homemaker and had no previous business experience. Yet, she decided to turn entrepreneur after my father RI Mazumdar passed away. It was a brave decision.


Driven by the spirit of self-reliance, she mortgaged her home and sold the shares she had received from her husband to raise funds for her start-up venture in the late 1990s, which was ahead of its time.

She set up a first-of-its-kind dry-cleaning unit equipped with high-end, imported, dry-cleaning machines and a laundry unit with equipment that was not very common in those days. She and her five-member team used to work for more than 12 hours every day. It took time for the business to take off but she managed to become debt-free in a decade.

Today, she runs her enterprise with a team of 30 people — 18 women and 12 men — and takes pride in looking out for them as if they were her own family, sponsoring their children’s education and taking care of their health and medical expenses. She celebrated the 20th anniversary of her business last year. When most people her age are dependent on their families, my mother is supporting 30 families, which is a very proud feeling for all of us.

People could never understand why she had to “work at her age”. I remember when she approached a government official at the time of starting her business, he told her, “You should be retiring and devoting your time to religious satsangs”, and she retorted, “If Vajpayee (who was the then PM of India) could rule the country at 75, I can surely work at the age of 68!”

She continues to be a loving and caring mother to all of us and divides the profit she earns from her business equally between my brothers and me. We get fixed deposits as gifts on our birthdays.

My mother was a woman of steel through the challenging times my father went through in the latter part of his business life and she has instilled the same spirit of never-give-up in me.

When my father quit his corporate career and took up the challenge of reviving an ailing malting company in Baroda, my mother gave him complete support.

It was amazing to see her absorb the complexities of banking and other administrative responsibilities. In fact, it was my mother who later negotiated a settlement with the banks, which brought closure to a disappointing entrepreneurial effort.

If my father was my driving force in the first half of my life, my mother is definitely my inspiration during the latter part of my life. In 1978, when I embarked on my own entrepreneurial journey, my mother was always by my side.

She would also accompany me to all the government offices in New Delhi as I went about seeking the various statutory approvals for starting my company, Biocon. My mother has been a pillar of great strength, giving me the moral and emotional support I need. Her energy has inspired me to build Biocon into the global biopharmaceutical enterprise it is today.

The writer is chairperson, Biocon

Resolution 2020: Sachin Bansal, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw & Amazon India Boss Want To Explore AI, Read Books

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