Tomorrow, I will be sitting with people from entities with a market capitalisation of Rs 30,000 crore. Today, you have just seen me with people who do not even own Rs 30. This is to ensure balance and retain my sanity," says Devendra Raj Mehta or DRM for short.
At any rate, Business Standard won't complain, since this lunch with the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) cost a princely Rs 26.
But I wasn't that happy _ not initially. The quid pro quo for this lunch was to visit a foundation for cancer patients and the handicapped of which DRM is part. It wasn't the visit I minded at all; it was being pulled out of bed at an indecently early hour on a Sunday morning. "You must come to the Veerkotwal Park at 10 a m sharp to see how our camp functions and then I promise to have lunch with you," he said.
I walked in still dopey, but as I entered the park, a five-minute walk from the crowded Dadar railway station, DRM was already at it. To be fair, the early morning start was worth it.
This is DRM in a different mien. Every woman is mai and every man baba as the six-foot- plus Sebi chairman bends over to hear their woes. Three hours later we walk out of the park and he says, "I am recharged now for the next week."
So where would he like to go for lunch? We decide to grab a quick bite at a small restaurant, Visawa, near the station. A quick look at the menu and it is a Rava dosa with curd. He also orders an uttappam but retracts when he sees the size of the dosa.
I settle down with an uttapam and asked him about his social service and why he went in for it. "It was the family atmosphere, I guess. I lost my father when I was barely five years old. My uncle brought us all up, a total of nine children, including cousins. He had to mortgage our house to pay for our education. Ultimately, the house had to be sold. He was a great man. Even today when in Jodhpur I am known as Jaswant Raj Mehta's nephew and not Sebi chairman. He taught us one thing, to share with others what you have and this is what I have been trying to do," he says.
Did he want to be a bureaucrat? "No, not at all. My uncle was keen that I became a lawyer and I did read law. But I proved to be a failure; I was a briefless lawyer. I argued two cases and won both of them. But still no cases came my way. This drove me out of the profession. The experience that I picked up here, however, helped me at my stint in Sebi as there were several orders including the famous Hindustan Lever insider trading case where I had to put my legal background to good use," he says.
What changed DRM's life was a serious accident where he almost lost his life. "On January 7, 1969 just before Pokhran became famous for the nuclear blasts, I met with an accident where my leg was crushed into 40 pieces. Doctors had given up on me but I survived. I still cannot bend it fully. I had to stay in hospital for six months and then undergo physiotherapy for a year-and-a-half."
It was around this time that Mehta came into contact with some handicapped people and resolved to start an organisation that would provide limbs to people free of cost. This organisation is the Mahavir Viklang Sahayata Samiti. Today, Mehta says it's the largest in the world and fits 14,000 artificial limbs absolutely free of cost every year. "My biggest achievement to date is the setting up of this organisation and I will die with this satisfaction," he adds.
The accident also indirectly played a role in Mehta joining Sebi. After the accident, he sought a posting in Jaipur to continue with his treatment and he was posted as secretary, department of industries, Rajasthan. This stint led to further appointments like director general of foreign trade, deputy governor, RBI and finally Sebi chairman.
People say DRM has a streak of madness in him and once he has made up his mind to do something he can't be persuaded to change. The question doesn't irk him, instead he laughs out loud. "Out of religion I have been taught that no one can harm you and why shoul
