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25 years ago, a daily-wages worker in a Mumbai factory earning Rs.5 per day could hardly afford to buy a ticket to hear the concert of Yesudas. Although he tried to enjoy the musical feast from outside the auditorium, organisors curtly forbade it.

But 25 years later, the same young man built a 3-star hotel in his native village of Ezhukon in Kollam and invited the singer for a concert there. Somarajan, the proprietor of Kailas Cashew Exports is the one who thus came up from hardships through hard work and diligence.

10^th child of Paramu of Cheerankavu, he had boarded the train to Mumbai at the age of 19. Although he worked hard for 3 years at Mumbai and another 2 at Pune, life there did not hold much promise. Somarajan came back and joined his elder brother Natarajan in the cashew business which the latter was slowly building.

With the guidance and support of his brother, Somarajan started his own venture in a small way. By 1995, he had expanded the business with a bank loan and started procuring and processing cashew on his own. By 1997, he had turned his effort to export too and secured a business of Rs.1 crore in the 1^st year itself. The same year he opened the 2^nd factory.

A period of growth followed. 4 years ago, his wife's venture 'Nila Exports' hit the market and by 2004, both companies had registered turnover of Rs.110 and Rs. 30 crores respectively.

Even today, his guide in the business matters is his elder brother, who too has registered considerable success in the cashew business.

There is another women, besides his wife, behind the success of Somarajan. Mani Natarajan, the late wife of his elder brother, was like a mother to him and used to inaugurate all his ventures.

He considers it a decree of God that he could build a 3-star hotel at the same junction where his father had once run a tea shop.

Courtesy: B.Santhosh Kumar, Mathrubhumi, October 3, 2005
Contributed by: Administrator 

"Happy is he whose friends were born before him."