I owe all my success to La Martiniere, says Vijay Mallya

KOLKATA: From the predominance of bright red in all the brands that he owns to the way he leads his businesses, Vijay Mallya admits he owes everything to his alma mater — La Martiniere for Boys. Mallya passed out of this school in 1972 and was back on campus on Tuesday for the institution’s 176th founder’s day. He spent a long nostalgic while moving about the campus and looking into the nooks and crannies where he spent some of the best times of his life with his classmates.
Among the large number of old boys present to greet Mallya on the campus, were some buddies with whom he exchanged bear hugs. Some, like Anil Mukherjee, the COO of Tollygunge Club, said that Mallya hasn’t changed a bit. Mukherjee was captain of Hastings House before passing on the baton to Mallya. "I remember pulling his hair and often sending him back home for keeping long hair," Mukherjee recounts. The two chatted for a while and were soon joined by well known surgeon, Darius Ankelsaria, another close schoolmate.
"The flag of Hastings House is red and it is from here that I developed a passion for red, the colour that you see in all my brands," Mallya told the audience. Thanking his school for teaching him to communicate well, Mallya said, "The gift of communication has helped me reach where I am. Please remember that all those extra curricular activities that I had participated in here, built enough confidence in me to go out and face the world," he said.
Mallya was a regular at dramatics, elocution and debate and won many laurels during his school years. He reminded the boys that in LMB, extra curricular activities were just as important as studies and this is where the magic lay.
While humbly remembering all his teachers in school, Mallya mentioned the legendary teacher, John Mason, who taught for many years in LMB and became the vice-principal of the school before moving on as principal of St James’. Mason thereafter moved to the Middle East to head a group of schools affiliated to the Indian school leaving boards. It was indeed an emotionally charged moment for both Mallya and Mason, who was in the audience to be part of the founder’s day programme.
A divine service was read out by Bishop Ashok Biswas and a silent toast was raised to the spirit of the founder of the school, Major General Claude Martin. Thereafter all those present feasted together.
Principal of the school, Sunirmal Chakravarthi said, "Mallya was among us not as chairman of the UB group but as an old boy and it was a touching experience for all of us. He was extremely respectful of all the teaching and non-teaching staff here, just as he was friendly with the past and present boys."