{"id":162000,"date":"2025-05-01T18:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T12:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electronicsforu.com\/?p=162000"},"modified":"2025-06-06T13:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T07:42:22","slug":"from-survival-to-ceo-story-of-taher-madraswala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electronicsforu.com\/special\/from-survival-to-ceo-story-of-taher-madraswala","title":{"rendered":"From Survival To CEO: The Story Of Taher Madraswala"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Taher
Taher (extreme right) with his colleagues at recent Quest Global Annual Meet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The life of Taher Madraswala<\/a> is a story of an indomitable spirit\u2014a man who survived hunger and adversity to support his family while building himself along the way. Now leading the semiconductor division at Quest Global, his journey stands as nothing short of extraordinary. This is his story as written by EFY\u2019s Yashasvini Razdan\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born into a family with a business at its core, young Taher\u2019s birth coincided with his parents\u2019 move from Madras to Calcutta. The eldest of three boys, Taher was a mischievous child, quite unlike the conventional eldest son expected to be responsible and disciplined. Up until the age of ten, Taher showed no entrepreneurial aspirations, nor any inclination towards academic brilliance. Scraping through exams and spending his time playing gully cricket<\/em>, he relied on grace marks to pass from one grade to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a carefree zest for life, Taher enjoyed his childhood to the fullest\u2014until everything changed when he was ten. His father, Husein Madraswala, watched a flourishing business collapse, plunging the family into financial ruin and putting an end to his innocent frivolities. With creditors lined outside their house and no money to pay for rent or even two square meals, young Taher\u2019s childhood ended abruptly at the tender age of eleven. Abandoned by their fair-weather friends and relatives, Taher and his family were left to the mercy of the creditors amidst misfortune. With no money to pay for house rent, Taher and his family struggled to keep the rental apartment and pay for school fees. Desperate and hungry, it was at this juncture that Taher\u2019s father suggested leaving Kolkata and going back to their ancestral village in Gujarat.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Taher
Three-year-old Taher<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A question of survival<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Taher and his mother, Shirin Madraswala, vehemently opposed this idea. \u201cWe had two choices\u2014either return to our hometown in Gujarat, where my grandfather lived, because we could not afford to stay in an expensive city like Calcutta, or face starvation. My mother, despite being uneducated, was determined to educate her children. I believe that who I am today is largely because of her,\u201d shares Taher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what could an eleven-year-old schoolboy do to provide for a family of five?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mother went around the locality asking for work for me. At 12 years old, all I could do was teach young kids. One kind lady in our neighbourhood gave me my first break and asked me to teach nursery rhymes to her son. She paid me one rupee per lesson, and since I worked every day, I earned 30 rupees in the first month. That was my first salary,\u201d recalls Taher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His income supplemented his mother\u2019s earnings of 100 rupees from stitching and knitting. \u201cOur total household income was just 130 rupees for the first few months. It was barely enough to survive\u2014we could not even afford an egg a day for our family of five. We did not have proper clothes, and we could not even pay our school fees,\u201d he recalls. While survival was somehow contrived, the purpose of this hand-to-mouth living was to ensure that no Madraswala kid would have to forego their education. Taher\u2019s parents approached the principal of St. Joseph\u2019s College in Bowbazar, requesting assistance with school fees or a possible reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur principal agreed and allowed us to continue on the condition that we would pay the fees whenever we could, with an extension of up to two years to clear our dues,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Brother James also warned Taher about his academic performance. \u201cUp until seventh grade, I was just scraping by. If I passed, my mother would celebrate by distributing sweets at home. That was the bar we had set!\u201d he smiles, recalling his youthful idiosyncrasies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This warning, coupled with a mere thirty rupees as salary, forced Taher to rethink his choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBaa Baa Black Sheep was simple, but 30 rupees a month was not enough! So, I started teaching first graders, then second graders, and eventually third graders. Within a year, I developed a knack for teaching, and instead of teaching one child, I started tutoring six or seven. My earnings increased to more than 300 rupees per month. We were finally able to pay our school fees, though we still could not afford rent or proper meals,\u201d he narrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time he reached the ninth and tenth grades, he had established himself as a trusted tutor in the locality. \u201cPeople paid me 100 to 120 rupees per student, and I had 10-12 students, earning around 1000 rupees a month. This was a significant amount at that time, during 1977-79. With this income, we could pay off old debts and slowly stabilise our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Taher
Taher with his school friends in Kolkata<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Choosing duty over dreams<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With a flourishing tutoring business, young Taher had found a way to support his family whilst continuing his education. But as he finished school, a critical question loomed\u2014what next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taher\u2019s first preference was medicine. \u201cI had heard that doctors earned well and were highly respected. Coming from a business community, there were no engineers or doctors in my family, so I thought this would be a good path,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, his father had other plans. \u201cMy father insisted that I pursue engineering instead of medicine. He believed that becoming a doctor would take too long\u2014seven to eight years\u2014whereas engineering was a shorter route. He also worried that if I studied medicine, our household income would drop because I would not be able to earn while studying,\u201d says Taher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, responsibilities presided over aspirations. Taher respected his father\u2019s decision and enrolled in an engineering programme. But even as an engineering student, his mind constantly worked on ways to sustain himself. While his peers were busy forming friendship bonds, Taher was consumed with a more significant concern\u2014survival. \u201cI had no money. My biggest worry was how to earn while studying. Since I joined Aligarh Muslim University late in the academic year, I had to quickly find a way to earn while maintaining my grades and attendance. I needed to find students, but this was a new city where no one knew me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of befriending classmates, he strategically built relationships with decision-makers \u2014 the warden, professors, and school administrators. Within three weeks, he had secured his first tutoring job, teaching a teacher\u2019s child from Lady Fatima School, one of the most prestigious schools in Aligarh.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Taher
Taher speaking at the recent VLSID conference held in Kolkata<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThat was my breakthrough. Once I started teaching her children, she recommended me to others,\u201d he shares. This network of students kept growing, and before long, he was once again balancing a full-fledged tutoring business alongside his engineering studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy classes would finish at 3 pm. I would then return to my hostel and cook dal-chawal <\/em>or quickly gobble a couple of rotis <\/em>and sabzi<\/em> delivered from the kitchen, and by 4pm I was out again, teaching students till 10pm. I did this every single day for five years. When you have responsibilities beyond yourself, you stop making excuses. You just do what needs to be done,\u201d he reflects, pausing to wipe his moist eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His childhood burdens never gave Taher the luxury of dreaming for himself, but dreams have a way of slipping into the mind, uninvited yet persistent. For Taher, a poster of the New York skyline hanging in the college canteen drew stars in his eyes, which up until now hadn\u2019t even gotten a chance to tear up amidst adversity. Every time he sat there, his eyes would drift toward it, mesmerised by its magnificence. \u201cEk din wahaan toh jaana hi hai!<\/em>\u201d he would think to himself. The boy who had once been consumed by survival now dared to dream of the Big Apple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had a dream; he worked for it<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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