The obituaries section of yesterday's The Hindu had twenty-one identical anniversary inserts. Well, twenty were identical and the twenty-first had the same photograph as all others, but covered a much bigger area of the page. All of them paid homage to Janab Haji S. Madhar Sha on the fifth anniversary of his passing away. The largest one was from the firm that he founded - Madhar Sha Group - while all the others were mainly from textile wholesalers from various cities, including a few from as far away as Surat.
It is still difficult to think of Madhar Sha as a person. Radio advertisements in the 1970s and 80s kept throwing the name of the firm at us so often that it took on a larger-than-life image. In those days, it was probably that large, being one of the very few retail textile and garments showrooms in the city. It was certainly the largest in Purasaiwalkam and continues to be a landmark in the area.
But for all that, it has been very difficult to find any information about the Janab. Even finding another photograph of the man seems to be impossible. Help out, anyone!
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