Thank you,Indira

The brothers renamed their small tailoring shop,Shailesh Trading Company, the Garibi Hatao Tailors. The name made it stand out among the 200 other cloth shops in the bylanes of Dadar’s Hindmata area.

Curious people and customers began thronging it. Customers went up three-fold. “The slogan was everywhere,radios,newspapers and any part of the city. I knew if we adopted the name,it would win over customers,” says Kantilal Desai,who had decided to rename the shop taking younger brother Chimanlal into confidence.

India was then facing difficult times,struggling to find its feet. The war with Pakistan was won but the economy had taken a beating,inflation was high and the average Indian was reeling in poverty. It was then that the Indian National Congress came up with Garibi Hatao (abolish poverty) programme,aimed at rural and urban poor votes. “To go with the name,we reduced prices. Though we were not financially sound,we took a risk. It paid off,” says Kantilal.

The brothers charged Rs 16 to stitch a pair of trousers and Rs 18 for bell-bottoms,a fashion fad in the ‘70s . Others charged Rs 35 or more. Shirts at Garibi Hatao would come for Rs 12. Kantilal says his aim was to cut profit margin and earn more customers. “We ended up earning more by keeping costs less.”

Their fame spread beyond Dadar and two other shops run by other tailors came up in quick succession in Chembur and Pune.

In 1966,when Kantilal and Chimanlal started the Shailesh Trading Company,a readymade apparel store with a small tailoring section,they were banking on their experience in the wholesale garment business to take them through. For the first five years,things did not work out as planned. And then came the change in name. “We advertised in local trains,put up posters at railway stations. People would read it and come to us,” he reminisces adding his customers came from Pune and Nashik,besides Mumbai,then Bombay.

He thanks Indira Gandhi for the profits. “That woman (Indira) had some power in her,” says Kantilal,an ardent Congress supporter,who is now 80 and has never missed casting his vote. He says things have changed in today’s Congress rule. “Sonia Gandhi is also a good woman but other party politicians… are to be blamed for today’s inflation and dismal conditions,” he says.

Today,the Garibi Hatao signboard has lost its sheen and the tailoring section is on the verge of being dismantled but Kantilal never forgets to thank Indira Gandhi for the profits he made. “We became rich in the Garibi Hatao wave.”