Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (RJP)
Mangaluru, Dec 19: M Gopalakrishna Baliga, founder of the landmark 'Baliga Stores' of Bejai, who passed away recently, was a pioneering businessman known for his benevolence and humane values.
Born in 1925 to Ram and Seeta Baliga in Mangaluru city, Gopalkrishna Baliga had to give up education and start earning at an early age due to abject poverty his family faced. He started his career as a manager at a cooperative store for a meagre salary, but always kept his core values of honesty and integrity in all he did, above everything else.
Recognizing his hard work and potential to excel, his mother Seeta Baliga gave him and his elder brother the late Janardhan Baliga her last two gold bangles to sell and raise capital to start a business. With the money so raised, Gopalkrishna along with his brother bought two quintals of rice and started trading it outside their home on Bhavanti Street near Roopavani talkies. Their business grew at a frantic pace, and soon they bought a shop in Bejai and witnessed the birth of Baliga Stores in 1947.
They soon diversified their business and established Ganesh Hanuman rice mills, and built their homes at Mannagudda. Amongst the many establishments he owned, the one closest to his heart was a fair price shop (ration shop) he ran in Bejai. Though it did not bring him much in terms of the money, he used to be content, saying "All business is not only for profit in terms of money, some are only for the goodwill we earn. Every drop of kerosene oil that burns and brings light in the homes of the poor, produces light in my life by the blessings they give me. By protecting their rights I do them no favour, I only do my duty." Great words indeed.
Baliga found his life partner in Radha Baliga of Karkala who always stood by him through thick and thin.
As a successful businessman, he set an example not only by making good profits but also by ensuring that he fulfilled his obligations towards society by giving bountifully to societal and religious causes. His commitment to the customers to supply the best quality of groceries at the best prices has earned a large goodwill to Baliga Stores and attracted a large number of frequent visitors.
Always enterprising and hard working, Baliga kept up the process of improving quality as a continuous process. But this ‘karmayogi’ found peace and satisfaction only in work and not in rest, and at the age of 75 he ventured into real estate in Bengaluru, which again boomed and showered on him innumerable successes.
In his life of 90 years, Baliga has a left behind a rich legacy on this earth for others to emulate. May his soul rest in peace.