I woke up this morning and felt great about what happened in my life yesterday a sense of another achievement, another milestone added to my life Choice Paradise, the tallest residential structure built in South India delivered and inaugurated on 25th September 2012.
As I started to celebrate emotionally, my mind suddenly dragged me to the past. I usually write about my past rather than of the future because the future is not in my hands and I have nothing to share with my readers; whereas my past has been having been helpful to a few and I enjoy writing about my past even though it has not been a walk on the highway.
Yesterday the celebration started with dignitaries, politicians, movie stars and thousands of people waiting to see the building being inaugurated. I had my well-trained team executing the minutest detail to its perfection. We sat many times in our meeting room and planned out this opening ceremony very carefully so as to keep the quality of the function perfect _ externalizing another dream of mine. As all the dignitaries walked in, the show started. A group of 40 people played a symphony orchestra. People were greeted and then started the function.
As we moved into the building after cutting the ribbon, the dignitaries and I, along with my good friend and superstar, Mohan Lal went up to the 40th floor by the fastest moving elevator that was ever commissioned in this part of the world, traveling at the speed of 2.5 meters/second. As the lift door opened we came on to the red carpet area where media personnel was waiting with their camera and equipment to get a perfect shot of the ceremony, the dignitaries and of course the superstar. The program was so well choreographed by my team and as we came to the area from where the building was to be officially inaugurated, a helicopter hovered around the building showering fresh rose petals and jasmine flowers from the sky. It was an amazing feeling. We looked down and saw the crowd looking up at the sky watching the building and that pilot maneuvering his helicopter perfectly.
As soon as we returned to the ground floor where there was an official ceremony, the orchestra started up and we saw this fantastic scene where the building was lit up declaring that the celebration had begun. The party went on. Many friends of mine not only congratulated me and the group for this great achievement but also gave me the seal of recognition, of which I feel very proud. People from different walks of life surrounded and the entire media covered the story! As all this was happening, as usual, my mind started to wander and I said to myself, “Yes, I have been able to inaugurate this building and dedicate it to the nation –the tallest structure.”
But how many would know what pain and challenges we had to endure and face to get here. I have always believed in doing something different and I tried to do it differently in this case too. When I conceived this project, many people told me that this was an impossible task and that is what I liked.“Impossible, then let me give it a try.”
To do the possible a person like me has no space and with this in mind, I started the journey of breaking ground. Architects were appointed, contractors in place, tons and tons of cement and steel purchased, execution started and the foundation began to go into the earth. I knew this was a huge responsibility in terms of financial commitment and execution. Choice Constructions that built this building is a stand-alone company that comes under the Choice Group and is one of its subsidiaries. In Choice group we always believed in treating each vertical separately, as different profit centers and with this policy in place, Choice Constructions had to be on their own from the word, “Go”. I took on this responsibility seeing this project through its entirety except for the technical side which was very well handled by my strong team headed by my senior-most engineer.
As the building started to progress, we started to face any unexpected situations related to labor issues, a dispute with contractors, escalation of costs and so on. In the past four years, during the construction stage, I had many instances of receiving phone calls and being briefed of more problems than good news. On top of all this, obtaining the necessary approvals from different government bodies wasn’t easy. The bureaucracy that exists with rules to be followed by the book! It was our job to produce all the documents that they wanted for us to obtain the necessary approvals.
While we received most of the approvals in the early stages of construction, there were a few more approvals that had to be obtained. Things were progressing well at this stage including sales which we needed badly. Since today is a very happy day for me after having achieved this, I want to stay more on the positive side and put any negativity behind to make this a story to be remembered.
Many have ambitions and aspirations. My walk on this path was not as comfortable as many thought it was when they were congratulating me and my team. My mind was full of memories of what happened and how we resolved issues at each stage. I knew for a fact that I didn’t have any past experience attempting a project of this magnitude nor did my contractors, nor architects. But as I started breaking ground, what drove me was my self-confidence, the confidence that I could do the impossible. And yesterday when I saw the building inaugurated with a lot of fanfare, I not only felt proud but had this great feeling of having achieved something that I had always wanted to.
I am thankful to God Almighty for having given me the courage and ability to complete and deliver this project. I also want to thank everybody who supported me, the people who worked on this building and the government officials for having helped me deliver this. Lastly, I take pride in informing all of you that we could complete this building without one life lost which I treat as one of the biggest achievements of this project.
I am posting some photographs on this blog for you to see.
Doing the impossible drove me and I hope it drives everyone who stays tuned to reading my blog.
Go try it; it may not prove to be a walk on the ‘Highway but at the end of it, it definitely will give you a ‘High’.