Indian-born industrialist Lakshmi Mittal, one of Britain’s richest persons, now regrets he didn’t take up an offer to teach students after graduating from St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata. “I still feel I could have become an assistant professor for some years,” he said, wondering how that would have affected his later career as a steel magnate. He said he thought teaching would have been an alternate career that he wanted to have.
The 62-year-old industrialist, who topped the Calcutta University commerce stream graduation exams in 1969, was offered a teaching job by his principal, Father Paul Joris. He wanted Mr Mittal, who worked for his father’s business in his college days, to teach accountancy from the next session.
However, Mr Mittal didn’t consider the offer as he would have had to teach from 6 am in the morning. “I had had enough of reaching class at 6 am for the last three years,” he said, after accepting Global Xaverian Award from the alumni association of Kolkata’s St. Xavier’s College, where he studied from 1966. The association held its annual meeting at the British Museum in London on Saturday night.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the college, which is now awaiting formal recognition as a full-fledged university.
Mr Mittal, main stakeholder in steel giant ArcelorMittal, recalled how he had urged the college authorities to make the morning session (6 am to 9.50 am, and open only to males) co-educational. “You have to change this, make life easier and livelier for students, otherwise they don’t attend classes. That’s why they have poor attendance in morning classes. If you have girls too, the attendance will improve and you will be able to impart more knowledge,” he said.
Trying to recall his teachers, Mr Mittal remembered that the principal had taught him French, and then alluded to ArcelorMittal’s troubles in France. Father Joris, a Belgian Jesuit priest, used to teach him French. “He taught us French, which I never understood. Still I don’t understand French, and the French don’t understand me,” he remarked.
Mr Mittal credited his college for laying the foundation of his successful career. “I was 16 years old when I got admitted in St. Xavier’s College in 1966. I had done my schooling in Hindi medium, and I faced huge difficulties in getting admission in an English-medium college. I spent some five to six weeks in convincing Father Joris to give me admission. Every day between 2.30 pm and 3 pm, I would go and sit outside his office to persuade him. I had got very good marks and had stood first in my school, but my Hindi-medium education was the stumbling block to getting admission. He finally got tired and gave me admission.”
Mr Mittal, who is helping the college with building costs for the new campus at Rajarhat in Kolkata’s eastern suburbs, said one of his biggest regrets is that “I did not study enough”.