Mumbai: It was just before the first public issue of Reliance Industries in 1977 that Dhirubhai Ambani took a group of potential investors from Mumbai for a plant visit in Ahmedabad. He tried to explain to the not-that-technology-savvy men how the plant works.

Seeing the blazed looked on their face he realised that they are not following him. So he immediately changed the tone and pointed towards a set of pipes and said: "I put Rs 1 crore through this pipe, and it will come out as Rs 5 crore through other pipes. So you guys put the money here and get the money from there."

This was how he sold his dreams to millions of investors and they were no mere pipedreams. Over the last 25 years, he had created a corporate empire, which recorded a turnover of Rs 63,000 crore and a net profit of Rs 4,600 crore in the fiscal ended March 2002, giving enormous benefits to millions of shareholders, and in the process developing an equity culture among Indians.

From a humble school teachers son from Chorwad in Gujarat, who started a trading house with an initial investment of a mere Rs 15,000 in 1958, to a man rubbing shoulders with the Forbes list of the worlds richest men, Ambani did, beyond an iota of doubt, travel a long journey before he breathed his last on Saturday (6 June) night at Breach Candy Hospital, nearly a fortnight after suffering a cerebral stroke.

A pillar collapses
Ambani's body was kept at the family residence since Sunday morning for people to pay their last respects. The mortal remains of Dhirubhai Ambani were consigned to flames at the Chandanwadi Crematorium in south Mumbai later.

Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the funeral pyre of Ambani was lit by his sons Anil and Mukesh, shortly after 6.30 pm in the presence of the entire Ambani clan, except its female members.

A large number of industrialists, politicians, film stars and scores of Reliance employees and shareholders were among thousands who attended the funeral of the patriarch of the Ambani clan.

Indian President K R Narayanan said: [Ambani's] emergence as a leading figure in the corporate world has been cited as a remarkable example, which needs to be studied in depth to highlight his important role in our country's quest for economic growth and regeneration."

Prime Minister A B Vajpayee said: "In Ambani's passing away, our country has lost an iconic proof of what an ordinary Indian fired by the spirit of enterprise and driven by determination, can achieve in his lifetime."

Not a cosy journey
It was a lengthy story of grit and courage for a man who worked as a petrol pump attendant in Yemen in the fifties to built a corporate empire with investments of Rs 36,000 crore in petrochemical, power generation, telecommunications and ports. Ambani's is undoubtedly the quintessential village boy-becomes-business tycoon story. In over three decades, Dhirubhai Ambani cocked a snook at convention, plodding ahead with sheer courage.

Reliance's  Rs 25,000-crore integrated Jamnagar refinery complex in Gujarat, built in a record 36 months, houses the worlds largest greenfield project, with a capacity to refine 27 million tonnes per annum of crude. In the same complex, Reliance has built the worlds largest paraxylene project with a capacity of 1.4 million tonnes per annum, a polypropylene project with a capacity of 6,00,000 tonnes per annum, Indias largest all-weather port, captive power plants and all related infrastructure.

It also brought home many new innovative financial instruments. It was the first Indian company to offer shares to international investors by issuing global depository receipts and got listed on foreign stock exchanges. It is also the first to raise 100-year Yankee bonds from abroad.

What kept Ambani ticking all the time was his noble idea of sharing the wealth with millions who stood by him in thick and thin. The group presently has one of the largest numbers of shareholders about 50 lakh and solely developed the equity culture in India.

Till date, Reliance Industries has raised Rs 7,495 crore through a combination of equities and bonds from domestic as well as overseas markets. The company, it is learnt, is about to raise some Rs 500 crore from the overseas market soon.

The investors, too, benefited along with Reliance. An investor who put in Rs 1,000 to buy 100 shares of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in 1977 is sitting on a cool Rs 140,000 today as he has 512 shares through subsequent bonuses. And this is without subscribing to any subsequent equity issues of Reliance.

In addition, the investor will also have received Rs 24,765 by way of dividends over this 25-year period. Thus, on an original investment of Rs 1,000, he would have earned compounded annual returns of 43 per cent.

Fierce warrior
Ambani fought many battles and won them all. There was this internecine battle with Ramnath Goenka, the proprietor of The Indian Express, who tried to finish him off. Goenka pulled out skeletons after skeletons from the Reliance cupboard and splashed in his paper. The Ambanis are having the last laugh now as the media group is in a major financial mess and there are even rumours that Reliance may take over the paper.

Then followed the war with the industrialist Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing, an established Indian business house, who tried to cut him into pieces figuratively speaking. But over the last two decades the Ambanis managed to dwarf Wadia, and now the total turnover of the Wadias is only half of Reliances annual profit. The company also suffered during the V P Singh regime when it faced raids after raids; there were even threats that Ambani might be arrested.

There were also scandals about licensed capacities, export manipulation and share switching on the markets. Ambani weathered it all and now the group he painstakingly built looks formidable. He, on the way, developed a great number of friends the movers and shakers of the country. When he was at the Mumbais Breach Candy Hospital fighting for his life after suffering a stroke on 24 June night, visitors and admirers of every hue and cry flowed in from the Shankaracharya to L K Advani.

Despite the worries on the bourses over the succession at the Reliance group, it is felt the group will grow even after the patriarch's death. But one aspect is clear: Dhirubhai Ambani will always be remembered as one of the greatest businessmen India has ever produced. He will continue to inspire millions of Indians to dare to dream big and achieve big. Amen.