In the heart of Mumbai, India's largest city, there is a 173-meter-tall tower. What makes it strange is that it has a height equivalent to 60 floors in a normal building, but the actual floor is only 27 floors. This means that each floor is nearly 7 meters high.
There are many other peculiarities of this building: its staircase handrails are all covered in platinum, and the ceiling of the ballroom is decorated with crystal lamps, as if it were a fairytale palace...
But this luxuriously overlaid palace building has been abandoned by its owners. Its owner, Mushke Ambani, is India's richest man with a net worth of $84.5 billion.
The mansion, called Antilla, was built by The Mushke over a period of seven years and cost $2 billion. Antilla has a total construction area of 110,000 square meters and has all the facilities inside.
Including 3 independent helipads, 6 floors of extra-large underground parking, 2 floors of VIP rooms, 2 floors of health club, 1 floor of prayer room, 1 full floor of home theater, indoor and outdoor heated swimming pool, medical center and other facilities, can meet the needs of 2,000 people to live and entertain.
It was such a mansion that was abandoned by Mushke only because his personal feng shui master said "bad feng shui". This incident also caused a sensation in India at that time, and people could not help but be stunned by Muksh's "trench" in addition to regret.
One
Muksh's lavish lifestyle has long been criticized in India.
India is a country with a huge gap between rich and poor, and many people still live in simple shacks made of discarded wooden sticks and palm trees, so most people are dismissive of Muksh's extravagant behavior, believing that Mukesh originally built the Antela building as a waste of resources, and even Indian Prime Minister Singh has come forward to call on Mukesh to "avoid showing off consumption" and instead strive to be a "model of moderate consumption".
Mukesh has everything he has today, and it should be credited first and foremost to his father, Dirubay Ambani. At the age of 24, the elder Dirubay started the Indian Reliance Commercial Company for $500, starting from the export of textiles such as nylon yarn, and then extending its business tentacles to oil, finance and other fields.
In order to cultivate their son's business skills, Muksh and his brother Anil were taken by their father to deal with some business matters from an early age. When he reached the age of 18, his father handed over the position of general manager of the company to him.
In July 2002, the elder Ambani died of a sudden heart attack without leaving any will. Around the huge wealth left by their father, a great war broke out between the brothers Mukesh and Anil.
Anil graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, successfully completed the tasks entrusted to him by his father, and showed extraordinary business talents in major matters such as the overseas listing and bond issuance of the Ambani Group.
From 2002 to 2004, the brothers' disputes almost never stopped, which became a lace news reported by india's major media, and the brothers' mutual attacks and insults once became the highest-rated "programs" on tv.
While Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Chidan Ahmed Ahmed Balamdu personally intervened to mediate, but with little effect, the brothers remained at odds.
The final stop to the war was their mother, Kochila K. Ambani. Seeing that their two sons had been arguing endlessly, the Ambani family gave a "death order": Mukesh and Anil would reach a settlement agreement before their father's day of sacrifice anyway.
Under the auspices of his mother, Muksh and Anil negotiated a property division agreement: Muksh took over Reliance Industries Limited and Indian Petrochemical Company, which are mainly engaged in petrochemical businesses, while Anil took over the three companies of Reliance Energy, Reliance Communications and Reliance Assets.
After the brothers separated, Muksh caught up with the good times.
Since the Indian government has invested $50 billion in the construction of basic and bottleneck industries such as energy and transportation in recent years, Muksh has also taken advantage of this shareholder wind to complete the exploration and development of more than 40 oil and gas fields in China, and has also extended the pace of oil and gas resource development to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East.
When the Indian government announced the opening of the retail industry, Mukesh once again seized the opportunity to apply for the construction of various special zones in the country, with a total area of 100,000 hectares, ready to engage in the research and development of new products such as biotechnology and new energy, in order to enjoy a series of preferential policies such as government taxes, and to create conditions for the layout of gas stations, retail stores, chain stores, specialty stores and supermarkets throughout the country.
Mukesh never knew what "low-key conservatism" meant, and he even said something that even Indians thought was too "crazy": "There are only two companies in the world that can build large projects from scratch – Microsoft and my company" .
The capital he can be so arrogant is that as India's largest private energy company, Reliance Industries' total assets are equivalent to 3.7% of India's GDP today.
Two
Today's Muksh is an enemy of the country, but he also has his own troubles. This annoyance came from his origins.
As we all know, India is a country with a caste system. The caste system covers all aspects of Indian society and is the most important social system and norm in traditional India.
Although the legal status of the caste system has been officially abolished since India's independence in 1947, the caste system still plays an extremely important role in the actual social operation and life.
India has four major castes, namely Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vedas, and Sudras; in addition to the four castes, there are a large number of "untouchables" known as the "untouchable" class.
The four castes are the highest of the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas, who have various privileges and have a high status in society. These two upper castes account for 5% of India's total population and have traditionally been the ruling class of India.
The third class of Vedas is mostly the lower middle class in India, including peasants, craftsmen and merchants who had to pay taxes. The fourth level, The Shudras, consisted of landless people and slave groups.
The Ambani family, to which Muksh belonged, belonged to the third of the four major castes, the "Veda" caste, whose members were mostly peasants, craftsmen, and merchants, and belonged to the group that served the Brahmins and the Shatili.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Indian "Brahmins" and "Kshatriyas", even if the Mushkes were rich, they could not get the status of "nobles".
The caste system has been in existence in India for more than 3,000 years. According to this system, the upper castes are born noble and engage in decent occupations; the lower castes are born lowly and can only do what is considered lowly and dirty work.
Previously, intermarriage between different castes was prohibited in India. But since India's independence in 1947, the government has been trying to eliminate the caste system, so from 1955, Indian law allowed inter-caste marriage.
In India today, this marriage pattern of high-caste men marrying low-caste women is called "smooth marriage" and has been allowed by Indian society. After a low-caste woman marries a high-caste male, she can rise to the same caste as the man, and the children born will become a high caste.
However, the price of this "smooth marriage" is that the man will generally knock on the dowry of the woman's parents. The dowry of a daughter married in India is originally high and bizarre, and it is very common for the woman's family's half-life savings to be swept away in this kind of "smooth marriage".
But in India, the act of high-caste women marrying low-caste men is known as "reverse marriage" and is still not accepted by most Indians. Most Indian women still marry only people of the same caste to avoid persecution by relatives "in the name of honor."
Every year in India, there are many criminal cases caused by the marriage of women in the whole family with low-caste men, and a few years ago in Mumbai, a man named Dilip Tiwari was "honorably executed" for his sister marrying a low-caste man.
Since the caste system has lasted in India for thousands of years, the identity of Indians is determined as soon as they are born. To change this bad habit, the Indian government has made various efforts.
India's Ministry of Social Justice and Rights has even introduced a policy of rewarding intermarriage between different castes in the hope of breaking the practice of not allowing inter-caste intermarriage: the Indian government will award 50,000 rubles (about $1,087) to "high-caste" people who intermarry with "lower castes".
The bonus is a lot of money for Indians, as india's per capita annual income is only $528.
Mela Kumar, Minister of Social Justice and Rights of India, said: "I know this is not the only solution to eliminate caste discrimination, but there must be a beginning. "Any plan will initially run into resistance, but that doesn't mean we're going to give up." ”
With the efforts of the Indian government, people in India's big cities have become accustomed to "smooth marriage", and their attitude towards "reverse marriage" has also changed, and they are no longer so resolutely opposed.
Three
Thanks to this change, Mukesh was able to marry his wife, Nita Ambani.
Nita was born in 1963 to middle-class Indian parents.
Gujarat is one of the major ethnic minorities in India, also known as the Qujura. They believe in Hinduism and belong to the two branches of the earliest first caste "Brahmins" in India, the Rajput and Gujar, which mean "descendants of the royal family" in Sanskrit.
Many influential figures in Indian politics are Gujarati, such as Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian national movement, who is a full-fledged Gujarat.
Nita's mother was a dancer, so Nita learned to dance with her mother from an early age. Growing up, Nita became an elementary school dance teacher.
On a Children's Day, the elder Ambani went to Nita's school to offer condolences, and the school organized a dance performance for the elder Ambani. The protagonist of this dance performance is Nita.
Nita's outstanding performance made the old Ambani feel relaxed, and at a glance, he decided that this woman was his daughter-in-law!
The next day, Ambani the Elder called Nitta himself and asked her to visit his house. But Nita was very vigilant and did not believe it at all, but instead thought it was a scam call, so she hung up immediately.
Old Ambani was not dead-hearted, and called Nita several times in succession, but Nita still did not believe it, and replied in a bad way: "If you are Mr. Ambani, then I am Elizabeth Taylor!" He said and hung up the phone.
The more Nitta did this, the more Ambani the elder liked it. After much trouble, she finally got Nita to agree to come to Ambani's house.
This visit also made Muksh fall in love with the beautiful Nita at first sight, and then launched a crazy pursuit of Nita.
Nita didn't immediately agree, because she was worried that Muksh was a stupid boy, so she decided to test him. Once when the two of them went out to play, Nita said: Can you not drive your luxury car and take the bus with me?
Everyone had heard about the environment inside the bus in India, but Muksh did not hesitate and pulled Nita to squeeze into the bus.
After a few weeks of dating, Muksh decided to propose to Nita. For a rich man, this speed is almost unimaginable.
Nita once revealed to reporters that Mukesh proposed to her: contrary to everyone's imagination, Mukesh did not prepare roses or diamond rings, but drove his limited edition Ferrari around, carrying Nita around.
Driving, Muksh suddenly stopped the car, began to propose to Nita, and "threatened" Nita, if he did not agree, he parked the car in the middle of the road and did not leave...
Nita was still hesitating, but at this time the other normally operating vehicles behind their car had been lined up, and the drivers who were blocked by other cars that could not move forward were angrily honking their horns, and Nita was fierce, nodded, and agreed to Mukesh's marriage proposal...
Four
After marriage, Nita did not focus only on her husband and godson like traditional Indian women. Before the two were married, Nita had made a request to Mukesh that she wanted to continue her teaching career after marriage, and Mukesh agreed.
The year after the marriage, Nita was diagnosed with infertility. At that time, everyone thought that the marriage would not last long, because for a tycoon like Ambani, passing on the generations was the top priority.
At such moments, Muksh always stood by Nita's side, still did not abandon her, and repeatedly took Nita to the United States for medical treatment.
After 5 years of waiting, Nita is finally pregnant with Akash and Isha. After the birth of her child, she did not continue to work as a teacher, but devoted herself to charity, becoming one of the most famous philanthropists and social activists in India.
Dhirubhai Ambani International School, a private school founded by Nita herself, has produced many outstanding students for India and has also played a positive role in India's international education.
Nita, who came from a "Brahmin" background, is also very business-minded, and in the years when the Muksh brothers competed for her father's inheritance, she used her identity to assist Muksh many times and help her husband actively expand the company's industry.
It is said that the strategy of the "Reliance Industries" retail chain is from Nita's planning.
After so many years of marriage, Mukesh has always been devoted to Nita and has not had any peach scandals, which is particularly valuable. For any request of his wife, Muksh will find a way to meet it, as for what luxury cars, bags, private jets, luxury villas and other things, it is even more important to have whatever he wants.
When receiving gifts, Nita also asked Mukesh why she was so good to her and gave what she wanted.
Muksh laughed and told his wife: Doesn't Hinduism say that those who often give gifts to brahmins will be rewarded in the next life? I give you gifts to repair the good rewards of the afterlife!
Of Mukosh and Nita's three children, the eldest son, Akash, graduated from Brown University and daughter Isha graduated from Yale University, both of whom now hold key positions at Reliance Group.
In December 2018, Mukosh's daughter Isha, willing to marry into the magnate, married the son of the founder of the "Brahmin" caste, the Piramal Group.
A few months later, the wedding of Mukosh's eldest son, Akash, was held in a luxury hotel in Switzerland, where former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Brian Monihan, CEO of Bank of America, the largest commercial bank in the United States, came to congratulate him.
Akash's bride, the daughter of Russell Mehta, the owner of Rosy Blue, one of the world's largest diamond jewelry manufacturers, comes from another high caste in India, the Chatilly.
Although it cannot be said that Mukosh has realized his dream of leapfrogging the class since marrying Nita. But their next generation has basically entered the high castes of "Brahmins" and "Kshatriyas". Without Nita's "Brahmin" ancestry, Mukosh would have a hard time doing this.
With the development of society, the hierarchical concept and social discrimination brought about by the Indian caste have been weakened in many places, but the influence of caste is still huge.
As the richest man in India, Mukosh can say that there is no shortage of anything, except for the caste, and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot rise from "Veda" to "Brahman".
You must know that Singh, who is the prime minister of India, is still a "veda". Perhaps it is precisely because of her desire and admiration for the high caste that she has pampered her wife for 35 years!