Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi - the grand veteran of the hospitality trade  founded  India's first and best multinational even before most of us knew what MNCs were all about.

The fiction-like story began to unfold in Chakwal, a town in Punjab [now in Pakistan] exactly a hundred years ago. The nineteenth century was coming to a close. Mohan Singh Oberoi had barely opened his eyes to the world when his 20-year-old father, Sardar Attar Singh decided to venture to the 'far off' land of Peshawar to earn a fortune for his small family.

Having spent all his youth in Chakwal, Attar Singh found the going very tough in Peshawar. He died of cholera, leaving behind his 18-year-old widow, Bhagwanti and his three-month old son Mohan Singh, who went to live with Bhagwanti's parents in Bhaun, close to Chakwal.

Bhagwanti's father was a rich and a well respected money-lender of Bhaun who welcomed his daughter back. He told her to assist him in his business and promised to give the best education to the little child and make him a man of the world.

At age four Mohan Singh Oberoi was put in the best school Bhaun could boast of. And that's where he stayed till his eighth class. The village school principal told Bhagwanti.that if Mohan Singh wanted to pursue education beyond the eighth class, he would have to go to Lahore or Rawalpindi.

Rawalpindi was like a magical land for the 15-ear-old Mohan Singh. He had never seen such big roads, such fancy markets, such stately buggies and so many foreigners. He had never seen such bright lights and such tall buildings. The one that fascinated him the most was Hotel Flashmans. In fact he had never seen a hotel before and every time he passed it by he would stand and stare at it in awe. Mohan Singh did not know then that one day he would be the owner of this luxury hotel!

After completing his matriculation from Rawalpindi, Mohan Singh went to Lahore and enrolled not only for his intermediate but also for a course in typing and shorthand. But one day, without consulting anyone, Oberoi took a decision which was final and imminent. He decided to quit studying and start earning money.

The only placement he knew of was in his paternal uncle's thriving leatherwear business in Lahore. He went into the welcoming arms of uncle Sundar Singh. His mother was furious but the young Oberoi had made up his mind.

Good times were not to last for long. Oberoi's career ironically fell victim to the Independence movement. The tremors of the infamous 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre shook the country and the shoe factory closed down.

Dejected and crestfallen, Mohan Singh returned to Bhaun. The mother---like many mothers---misread his despondence as a sign that her son had come of age. Without consulting anyone she went up to her neighbour's house and asked for the hand of their 15-year-old daughter, Ishran Devi, for her son.

Before Mohan Singh could settle down to a married life, fate intervened with one of the many twists it was to reveal to this young man who had by now shaven off his beard and let a barber's scissors run through his hair to the shock of his staunchly Sikh family.

Mohan Singh had just been a year into marriage when plague broke out in Bhaun. By now he was the father of a daughter and his mother Bhagwanti, fearing for the baby, took them to the hill-station of Murree (now in Pakistan), where her cousins lived.

The climate of Murree did not suit Mohan Singh in more ways than one. Used to the good salary and position he had enjoyed in his uncle's thriving business, he could not come to terms with the menial jobs he was offered there.

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