Recently, I met a businessman from Maharashtra. He’s an active member of many boards and has been actively promoting entrepreneurship among maharashtrians. He has traveled many countries across the world and met lot of maharashtrian people doing businesses there.
I enjoyed talking to him. He gave me lot of interesting information about big businesses being run by Marathi people abroad (abroad is not only USA, but rest of the world too!). For example, a “marathi manoos” runs one of the big champagne business in London. Another owns a chain of hotels in all countries (except India, uh!) and many others.
He mentioned, over the years, he has met lot of marathi people and has found three adjectives to describe ‘marathi manoos’. Those three adjectives are [ & I completely agree! ] :
- Intelligent
- Honest
- Coward
These three words make ‘marathi manoos’ a perfect combination to be exploited by others. That’s one reason, he said, marathi people mostly work for others than running their own businesses.
What do you think?
-The Big K-
Loading ...
{ 31 comments }
Agree completely. Interestingly, if you eliminate the 3rd … then the 2nd might also get eliminated. Or is it the other way round?
I don’t know for sure. The third is the one we all need to work on
Coward???
Do you know there are so many marathi soldiers fighting at the border of India to save India from enemies?
Oh ok I get it- they are cowards because they do not understand that they should be taking up safe professions and run businesses like the gujratis and marwaris, instead of doing the job of defending the country and risking their lives
Why bother..anyway the entire india loves to abuse marathis, so why save the people who abuse you!
Gujratis n Marwaris do business as of Ambani, Mittal and Tata. Marathis just chew tobacco and try to get bribe from them. They just cant do genuine business. Sharad Pawar is the biggest representative of Marathis.
Yep, ‘coward’ is the word. I sometimes fail to understand why ‘bravery’ is attached only to soldiers fighting on the border. Open your eyes!
I’m a Marathi. I don’t like when someone calls me ‘coward’. “Coward”. However, I agree that a normal marathi man is ‘coward’. Don’t go by the literal meaning of the word. There’s a deeper meaning.
Kai re aye…
This is bang on the middle of the forehead. Beside these ‘qualities’ one thing I observed about the inability of a ‘marathi manoos’ to do business was his lack of risk taking abilities. Look at other communities. Not only they are willing to put heart and soul risking all they have, they also manage to keep their communities closely knit.
I think the views expressed in this post are retartded. Marathi’s are traditionally not traders ( like marwari’s or gujrati’s ) , but they are enterprising and lot’s of them have been successful in building ventures.
Also other communities take derisking measures by helping people from their community.
Marathi’s being intelligent they take risks in ventures which they see can make definite profit.
Coward is a wrong word to use because I can state then the entire working class is coward , and it includes all communities.
Please don’t generalize your cowardice as a community trait since I know many successful Marathi Entrepreneurs.
The fact that you : play guitar, sing songs, do mimicry , states that you are not really on a path to entrepreneurship, businessmen don’t have time for all this !
start reading bloomberg feeds
I have seen Marathi’s have this stupid attitude of kicking their own ass , if you don’t respect yourself , no one is going to respect you , so please take off the coward post , because I am Marathi and I am definitely going to build a successful venture !
Just because you managed to set up an open source php bulletin on a server and gather a few retards like you who call themselves ‘Engineers’ doesn’t give you the right to express your sad views.
I gather that thou liveth in the sad gujrat and yes,the community has started affecting your opinions already.
Grow up and stop generalizing your community by Looking at yourself.Thou art a loser. Maharsathrians already feel ashamed because of Fanatics who bring infamy to the community….Please do not contribute for CHEAP PUBLICITY.
dds
Don’t know why many poeple think Marathis can’t do business at all. Well, you ought to check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marathi_people#Business_and_Industry The list is not that bad. The recent IT boom is something were Marathis are doing quite good, and also in other businesses. South Indians are also intelligent, and they are also cowards!
I dont agree the third point at all!!
bcoz if the marathi manus was a coward he wouldnt have gone abroad, and run the business.
MARATHI PEOPLE IN INDIA FOR INDIA – - -
1. MRS. PRATIBHA TAI PATIL
HON PRESIDENT OF INDIA, MARATHI
2. LATE. MR. K. V. PENDHARKAR
FOUNDER VICCO LABORATORIES
3. MR. NANDAN NILEKANI
PARTNER – INFOSYS
4. CHITALE BANDHU
POPULAR SWEET AND COOKIES MFG CO. FROM PAST FEW DECADES
5. EXPERT GROUP OF COMPANIES
ALL DIRECTOS ARE MARATHI, RUNNING BUSINESS IN INDIA AS WELL AS ABROAD
6. MR. AJAY BHAT
INVENTOR OF POPULAR ‘USB’ TECHNOLOGY, INTEL INSIDE, MARATHI MANUS FROM SANGLI (WATCH THE TV COMMERCIAL.)
I can give a huge list of prominent marathi enterpreneurs if needed. We just dont know but there are many marathis in business… But the no.s have to increase for sure…
I think people are misinterpreting this post. There are other meanings to coward, its not just lacking risk taking abilities. One meaning is also the Chalta hain attitude.
hi guys..i am very much happy to see the comments of you ppl..that we marathis should enter in entrepreneurship and start our own ventures and apply our skills and intelligence for ourselves and our community..and more importantly we should unite and always help and motivate the ppl frm our marathi community..
you marathis are bloody useless. claiming mumbai to be yours? are you out of your mind? its very much a part of india & shall always be. there are all sorts of people living here sikhs, muslims, north indians, south indian even bloody jamaicans. if you cant deal with that, then dig a deep hole & sit inside. oh, & take that foolish old leader of yours along with you!
@Indian: You sound like like a peanut brained drunken monkey to me. If Maharashtra does not belong to Marathis, India doesn’t belong to Indians. There are so many people from all over the world here.
Stop calling yourself an ‘Indian’. Bloody Useless, huh?
The biggest problem of Marathis is their complete lack of willingness to help each other as is done by other communities. Without it its really a Herculean job to succeed in any business today ! There shows the cowardice of Marathi manus !
and yes last re Mumbai (IMHO names of this city in different languages should remain as they were – Mumbai – Marathi/Gujrathi, Bambai – Hindi, Bombay – Engl, as names of many prominent cities around the world ! Like London – its Londres in Frech, Rome is Roma in Italian, Rim in Russian !
yes we are
Intelligent – and so why we are not working for others instead and enjoying our life to the fullest..
honest : we are accepting what we are doing!
coward: because we letting somebudy else to write something like this about us!
Have a look at this first
Marathi Entreprenuers
. kamath group(HOTELS)
. IRB INFRASTRUCTURE[VIRENDRA MHAISKAR(PROBABLY RICHEST MAHARASHTRIAN)]
. GTL
. CAMLIN
. VICCO
. KESARI TRAVELS
. SACHIN TRAVELS
. JEWELLERY(NOT THAT BIG BUT ARE CONSIDERED BRAND NAMES)
. VAMAN HARI PETHE
. LAGOO BANDHU
. GADGIL JEWELLERS
. cHINTAMANI’S
. KIRLOSKAR GROUP
. HAWARE
. MANTRI GROUP
. PURANIK DEVELOPERS
. DSK
. DISHA DIRECT
. NIRMAN GROUP
. MASTEK(not 100% though,2/3 owners are Maharashtrian)
. SPYKAR JEANS
. GARWARE GROUP
. NIIT(RAJENDRA PAWAR,CHAIRMAN AND COFOUNDER)
. TIBCO(LEADING SOFTWARE COMPANY)
. TALWALKARS
. BANK OF BARODA
. KELKAR GROUP(INDIA’S LEADING PRODUSERS OF PERFUMES )
(OFCOUSE NOT TO CONSIDER KOHINOOR GROUP OWNED BY MANOHAR JOSHI AND MANY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES OWNED BY VARIOUS OTHER LEADERS)
ALSO WHO CAN BE ADDED TO THIS LIST ARE
. VIDEOCON(VENUGOPAL DHOOT CONSIDERS HIMSELF AS MAHARASHTRIAN)
. SANJAY GHODAWAT GROUP(SAME LIKE VENUGOPAL)
But I totally agree that we need to work together to increase this list 100 times.
ugach nako tyanche eikayche kasala ki marathi manasala business yet nahi
i agree with u dear,we can unite all marathi people and make marathi peoples a business class community,our worker class image can be shifted to business class image……………….wake up marathi peoples wake up……………..we r not slaves,we are king of our own fortune and we can be no.1 business class community…………….this is only time to wake up………………..come on lets unite to gether
Not many Marathi people are willing to take risks of forming their businesses.
I did not suggest that Marathi manoos can’t do business. I can add 1000 other names to the list.
I only wrote about what someone else thinks about Marathi manoos.
PS: I’m a Maharashtrian – running a business.
I agree with many users comment that Marathi people should go help each other. I am staying in bay area and amazed that the way Telugu peoples are helping each other. Most of managers posts are occupied by Telugu and they will make sure that any new opening comes, it will be filled by their community. The consultant will be supported by their brothers if he come across any technical issue or personal issue. They will make sure that they will speak to each other only in Telugu.
On the other hand, Marathi people will try to distant themselves from other Marathi people with fear that they may labeled as supporting Marathi people.
I dont agree tht marathi community is coward/// if thts the case thn they wouldnt hav ruled india fr 300 yrs. indian history tells tht..
mumbai belongs to marathis and india.. if anyone hav problem with first one then fk u cause ur not a indian…. bastards..
marathi people are frontrunners in enterpreneurship and also in doing jobs…
marathi people need to cooperate more with each otr.
The latest big name to add to the successful & big Marathi entrepreneur’s list:-
“Persistent Systems” CMD – Dr Anand Deshpande, Director – Suresh Deshpande. It just went public with great success (I believe with 93 times subscription).
I thank Big K for this blog, to at least start a discussion that can stir the community to look into their own pitfalls and improve upon them. We definitely need to help each other esp. in business field.
Guys, just so we all know there are around 10 crore Marathi people in the world.
(Reference – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathi_language)
Marathi is the 4th most spoken language in India (after Hindi, Bengali and Telugu).
(Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India)
I am sure we can do better in the field of “Entrepreneurship” also, as we are already doing in all other fields like Science, Music, Politics, Cinema, Arts etc..
Happy blogging
I have been wondering about this topic for some time now. Here are some prominent Marathi corporates.
1) Vikram Pandit: One of the biggest names in I banking, CEO of Citigroup, formerly worked at Morgan Stanley
2) Girish Paranjape: jt CEO Wipro
3) Jatin Paranjape: CEO, HUL
4) Paresh Sukhtankar: ED at HDFC
5) S Joshi: CFO at BPCL
6) A Naik: Chairman, L&T
I have just listed names at the biggest companies in the country. There are many more especially at smaller companies.
The chariman of Emerging Media Group which owns rajasthan royals is Mr. Badale, who originally hails from Dhule. Sula Wines in Nashik is another great example.
I dont really think coward is the right word, maybe lazy at times (chalta hai attitude is spot on) is more pertinent. Im sure you have all been to government offices/banks and wanted to eat your hair out.
We also need to keep in mind that we are comparing an “average” Marathi with an “above average” person from the other community. A person from another state who is here to work, is in many cases amongst the best and most ambitious from his community and as a result will be better than the average person stayng in Maharashtra.
A better comparison is to compare the average person here with other states and we wont feel so bad. Non-Mumbai Maharashtra is growing at a great rate. We have more cities here (Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, Solapur, Kolhapur etc.) than anywhere else in the country.
But, all said and done I agree that we need to learn to work harder/have more risk appetite from others.
Here’s my response. Further comments to this post are being disabled:
http://superblog.crazyengineers.com/2010/04/12/marathi-manoos-discussion-continues/
well our system was based on work system and marathi's were doing everything except buisness…….but time has chenge now business men are important bez its Era of money…….marathi's are new to buisness but i am sure they would crake it…….well my whole life i spend out MH all most all buisness community are coward but maratha specially are/were very brave…..marathi are somewhat coward truth to be told………
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 3 trackbacks }