On Saturday morning, an unusual funeral was seen on the roads of Noida. Four women with smiles on their faces were taking their father’s body to the crematorium. A band of musicians orchestrating happy notes accompanied the women and their relatives. All the people in the funeral procession were singing and dancing. noida breaking news
But why the merrymaking on a sombre occasion?
The four daughters have a simple answer. The last wish of their father, 65-year-old Haribhai Lalwani, had been that his death be celebrated with zeal, the same way all his life events had been, whether birthdays, his marriage or his anniversaries. Lalwani, who lived in Sector 40, Noida, breathed his last on Friday in a local hospital.
And Lalwani's life, just as his funeral, was unique.
To many today known as the "Gutkha king", he started out in the 1970s with a small paan kiosk in Old Delhi’s Daryaganj area, helping his father Tikamchandra. But he dreamt big and went on to set up the Prince Gutkha company in 1982 and started manufacturing gutkha products. He was the one who sold the first packaged gutkha, a trend that picked up soon after, and was copied by several other sellers. So much so that by 2002, Lalwani's product was earning a turnover of Rs 400 crore.
Lalwani also became the national president of Paan Masala Sellers Welfare Association. It was in 1990 that was acknowledged as the undisputed "Gutkha king". The same year he went on to become the president of Noida Entrepreneurs Association (NEA).
