Bookstrapping: Letters to Hira by H.T. Parekh, founder, HDFC

On 18th March 2024, Deepak Parekh stepped down as the Chairman of HDFC Life. Before this, in June last year HDFC merged into HDFC Bank, creating India’s largest and the world’s fourth largest bank by market capitalisation. When the identity of a company and its leader are synonymous, such as HDFC and Deepak Parekh, naturally, it will take us a long time to not rattle off both in the same breath. The founder of HDFC, H. T. Parekh must be smiling in his resting place.

Fittingly enough, three days before the merger of HDFC Limited, Deepak Parekh personally oversaw the inauguration of the H. T. Parekh Legacy Centre. ‘Hasmukh Kaka’ as Deepak Parekh calls him, was his uncle.

Visitors to the legacy centre can ask for a copy a book titled 'Letters to Hira,’ a sentimental compilation of epistles written by H. T. Parekh to his beloved wife Hira, ten years after her death. College sweethearts who met in Wilson College, HT Parekh and Hira Parekh present a simple love story that tugs at your heart strings.

This is not just a book, it has history written all over it! Imagine if letters written by the legendary Dhirubhai Ambani to his wife were to appear suddenly; how priceless would they be!

Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:

1. The logo of HDFC Limited is so ubiquitous that connecting a homely treatise like ‘Letters to Hira’ to the mind boggling worth of the corporation can be a stretch of imagination. H. T. Parekh and Hira Parekh’s story is like the comfort food cooked by mom- simple, wholesome, loving.

2. In the letters, H. T. Parekh offers information about life in London, where he was studying at the London School of Economics. The language of the letters is purposeful and detailed; its almost as if HT Parekh wanted to share every moment of his life, again with Hira.

3. He recounts his career, his work life in detail to Hira, as if informing her for the first time, even though she has lived every moment with him.

4. HT Parekh and Hira never had any children. Many anecdotes in the book are about how Hira was the favourite ‘masi’ to their sibling’s children. There is a reference to how families that shared values with them, had become an integral part of their lives.

5. The tasteful illustrations in the book, give it a feel of a collector’s item. These letters were originally written in Gujarati and are now available in English.

The book stands testimony to what old timers at HDFC know- an intrinsically humble person, H. T. Parekh never consciously set out to create a business empire but by dint of hard work and a visionary mind, he went on to become a formidable force in Indian business. His analytical approach shines through in these letters. In his own words, placed at the Legacy Centre dedicated to him, H.T. Parekh says, “"I seem to enjoy sitting at the feet of Saraswati more than worshipping Laxmi, though it is Laxmi I have served all my life."

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