- Have faith, you will succeed.
- Decide goals of your life.
- Never think of defeat.
- Never get disheartened.
- Girdle up your loins.
- Keep trust in yourself.
- Identify the Risks and face them squarely.
- Make service to others your mission in life.
- Institutions based on vocational needs.
- Money making not an aim but a tool for decent living.
Arjanbhai Sadhabhai Kangad was born on September 18,1958 into a middle class Machhoya Ahir agriculturist family at Nagavaladiya, a Village Ten kilometres east of the world – renowned ancient temple city of Bhadreshwar and midway between the port city of Gandhidham (Kandla) and Adani port at Mundra on State Highway no……..
Arjanbhai attended the village primary school till he cleared class IV and then moved to Gandhidham pursue secondary and higher secondary education. Around this time, his father Sadhabhai had setup his Neelkanth Salt Supply office at Gandhidham at Zandachowk (flag square). Young Arjan would attend to sundry small errands of his father after the school hours of his own volition, forsaking pastimes children of his age normally indulge in. He would sleep on the office floor when night set in and rush back to school the next morning, fresh as a bud.
Arjanbhai was not a precocious child, but wasn’t a mediocre either. He was fairly intelligent and industrious. He believed that education was a step stone to success and that genius latent in a person could blossom only it were to get a spurt through exposure and training. Destiny however willed it otherwise for him. Just as he was preparing to take his secondary examination in 1976, his father Sadhabhai took serious ill and breathed his last at a premature age. With a widowed mother at home and several younger siblings to take care of, Arjanbhai discontinued his studies and took over the reins administration of his nascent paternal business of manufacture and supply of salt.
Arjannhai demonstrated a super human will power and a resolve at this juncture in his life. Anyone else would perhaps have collapsed under the weight of this unforeseen tragedy with no peers around to boost his morale. Not Arjanbhai. A Young man of verve and steel in his own inimitable way and with an unflinching trust in his capacity to forge a way ahead of roadblocks, he resolved to get going under the affectionate care of his mother Jamnaben. Arjanbhai never tires talking about the myriad qualities of his mother. He narrates with pride how when she came into Sadhabhai’s house as a bride in early 1950’s , she kept coaxing Sadhabhai not to rest solely on the agricultural produce to meet the ends of the family, but also to set shop or a provision store or a tea – stall to support family income. Running a tea stalls being easiest venture to choose, warranting little expertise and in fractural support Sadhabhai chose to set up a small tea stall at a turn of the spunky village road ahead of his house. The stall soon earned repute for the quality of the beverage it served at an affordable price.
As luck would have it, just around that time Morarji Desai’s Gold Control Order had caused great consternation among goldsmiths all over the country with hundreds and thousands of them having been tendered jobless. To compensate them against their losses and help them tide over their crises, the government offered them salt pans on easy lease terms to manufacture salt. Sadhabhai had nurtured a keen interest in salt business and always looked for an opportunity to own a salt pan of his own. Such an opportunity came his way in 1962. Two partners Bachubhai and Soni Valjibhai had jointly set up a salt pan near Kandla at a stretch of 10 acres of land. A dispute arose between them over share of profits and some other related issues precipitating closure of business. Sadhabhai helped them resolve their dispute amicably. They invited him to collaborate actively in the business as a partner. The joint venture continued till 1975 when Sadhabhai parted company and set up his own in depended salt manufacturing business under the banner of Neelkanth Salt Supply Company .
Arajanbhai, a small village lad when his father was consolidating his hold on salt business actively helped his father by running errands. He enjoyed making salt from silt deposits formed on ditches and small ponds where water accumulated during the rains. Unlike urchins of his age who wasted their time running after butterflies or teasing stray dogs, Arjanbhai ran about keeping account of the mounds and processing them to make them edible.
Later, at the behest of his wife Jamnaben, Sadhabhai obtained a licence from the district supply department to run a fair price shop for the villagers. This further helped him augment his family earnings.
The Kangad clan was firmly on foot now to undertake ventures that suited its taste and leanings. They bought a truck in 1972 to help transporters carry goods from Gandhidham to other destinations and vice-versa. The number swelled to eight in 1982. The fleet included some oil-tankers also. Later, due to the laying down of oil pipe lines by the government and the railways making greater facilities available to salt manufacturers and other traders and businessmen, the Kangads gradually abandoned the truck-transport business.
Sadhabhai was always an entrepreneur in a hurry. It was perhaps this spirit to keep going despite obstacles and hindrances that Arjanbhai inherited to the profoundest degree from him. In 1982 a maternal uncle of Arjanbhai’s set up a civil construction group, although he had neither had any exposure to such an activity nor had any experience in it. But the company was dead honest and sincere in executing work entrusted to it and by 1986 earned goodwill and reputation that others take years to acquire. Sadhabhai helped him very actively in executing the project undertaken by him and in due course of time joined it as an active partner. This association proved very help full to young Arajabhai in acquiring necessary technical knowhow in architecture and civil construction work.
The NeelKanth Salt Supply Company that Sadhabhai had founded in 1976 was growing steadily all these years. It had carved a niche for itself in salt industry. However, two major events took place in 1986. One was that a number of partners parted company on one pretext or the other. The other development was that the government permitted private salt manufacturers to iodise salt. The Neelkanth Company started manufacturing iodised salt in 1986 under the trade name DIAMOND. Fifteen more private salt manufacturing companies entered into the business of making iodised salt. The going got tough as time passed. Arjanbhai’s brother Samjibhai with little technical skill at his command, continuously experimented with new devices to lower the cost of finished goods. Luckily for the Company, the crushing/processing mill that he designed brought in a remarkable reduction in cost from 7.5 lakhs to 1.5 lakhs.
By 1992 the Neelkanth Salt Supply Company had around 205 acres of salt pan land, which included 105 acres of land at Joganinar. However, a number of unscrupulous traders and manufacturers entered the industry, manufacturing iodised salt of lesser degree of purity, and also faking DIAMOND, the Company’s trademark. The desperation led Sadhabhai to discontinue the manufacture of iodised salt and instead divert to manufacturing industrial and alkaline salt in 1994.
It was during the 1990s that Arjanbhai’s personality started blossoming phenomenally. The Machhuva Kangad Ahir Samaj Trust was founded in 1989 setting in motion a number of developmental programmes for the uplift ment of the community. In 1994 the Trust initiated the process of acquiring land to set up an independent school at Adipur for education of the Machhauva Ahir girls upto secondary/higher Secondary stage. The Trust acquired land in 1998 where there now stands a full-fledged residential higher secondary school for girls of the community. The school has earned kudos from the state government and social organizations for its excellent results and programmes for all-round development of the girl students.
Arajabhai set up a trust The Karma Niketan Trust in _____ to jointly administer and monitor the miscellaneous activity and developmental programmes of the groups, and also to plan and initiate philanthropic and educational activities. In addition to running a primary school at Nagavaladiya and a higher secondary school for girls of the Machhauva Ahir caste at Adipur, the Trust set up a prestigious centre of higher education The Sadhabhai Ramjibhai Kangad Institute of Management and Computer education at Sapeda on the state highway mid-way between Bhuj and Gandhidham on 15th of November,2005. The foundation stone of the building complex was laid by Pujya Bhaishree Ramesh Chandra Oza.The institute as a affiliated to Krantiguru Shyamji Krushna Varma Kachha University, Bhuj, the Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad and the Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University for undergraduate courses in Business Administration, Computer Education, post Graduate courses in Business Administration, Information Technology, Labour Laws and Welfare(MLW),Social Work(MSW), and Diploma/Certificate courses in Tourism & Hotel Management, English Proficiency etc. It is also a nodal centre for teaching of English under the state government sponsored SCOPE programme (Society for Creation of Opportunities through learning of English).Also the institute has the distinction of working as a centre for CMAT on behalf of All India Council for Technical Education. In addition to the institute has been also concurrently running a Gujarat Board Higher Secondary School in science and commerce streams since 2014.
There is no end to human knowledge. The frontiers always keep widening. Arjanbhai’s dream is to equip the young generation with as much knowledge as can be provided within the constraints of resources available to him. His mission is to equip the youth with such skills as may take the country forward towards total self sufficiency. Arjanbhai’s eyes are wide open to encompass such a future.