Gill Thadani and his wife, Vicki, pause for a photo in their Sparta business.

Thadani recalls his journey from India to Sparta by way of Hong Kong

Growing up in India, business owner Gill Thadani has had the opportunity to travel; but when it came time to settle down, he chose Sparta.

Thadani commented that life in India is “not much different than the U.S.,” he said. “The only difference is here, mostly everybody owns their own transportation. Over there, mostly everybody uses public transportation. We have good schools, good universities; actually, in some ways whole lot better universities over there. The education system in India is really, really good. When you graduate from college that proves that you know something, that you are capable of doing something.”

Attending college at Lacknow University in Northern India, he focused on business, chemistry and mathematics.

“I wanted to be an engineer when I was in college,” Thadani said.

“I was going to pursue to be an engineer, but the family responsibilities made me quit college and go back to work to take care of my family in India. That’s the biggest responsibility when you are not married, you have your parents to take care of. When you get married, you have your family to take care of. That’s the Indian custom.”

“Over there (India), the parents are the responsibility of the oldest male child, or the male child period,” Thadani explained. “Here, they send (the parent) to a nursing home. Over there, the son has the responsibility to keep them. That’s what 99. 9 percent of them chose to do, to keep their mom and dad with them. It works out great for them if they have children, Mom and Dad take care of the household duties and baby-sitting, whereas here, you have to find baby sitters.”

Further explaining the culture differences, Thadani added, “I think it’s how you’ve been brought up.

“That (India’s) culture appreciates the parents living together,” he said. “This culture is different. It’s a difference of culture. It’s how you’ve been brought up, that’s what you expect, that’s what you’re going to do, it’s automatic. Nobody pressured me to leave my college to make money to support my family. It’s the culture. That’s how I was brought up, it’s automatically, hey, this is my duty, I’m going to do it.”

Thadani’s mother passed away about 13 years ago, while his father died in 1970.

In 1966, Thadani left India for Hong Kong.

“I lived over there to work in clothing, tailor-made suits... everything’s customized,” he said.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News! Back