Subbiah Shanmugam

Subbiah Shanmugam
“Meticulous planning, means, honesty and above all perseverance, coupled with Divine grace..”
- Satish kumar
 
Meticulous planning, means, honesty and above all perseverance, coupled with Divine grace have propelled me forward in life,reminicises Subbiah Shanmugam, Asst. Director of MushrifTrading and Contracting Company, Kuwait, echoing his late father’s principles. 
 
His parents hail from Karivalamvandhanallur village in Tamilnadu and settled at Rajapalayam, a nearbytown,from 1940s to 1990s. His father, owing to his family’s dire financial situation, could not study beyond 7th standard, but took a vow that he would make his childrenexcel in education and worked tirelessly in providing just that.
 
His father started his career as a Helper in a textile mills and retired as a Supervisor. His unlettered mother provided all the love and nourishment, who is 82 years old now and healthy. She is a vegetarian culinary specialist and can reel off sayings, adages at will, including singing lullabies, folk songs and has an uncanny memory for tamil devotional scriptures/works, all learnt by word of mouth, during childhood.
 
He is the youngest of four children to his parents, eldest sister – GomathiMuniandi, now enjoying retired life since two years,after three decades of work with HR & CE Dept., Tamilnadu, next sister – RajamSivasubramanian, is a homemaker and elder brother – GovindanShanmugam, is an Addl. Director with CW & PRS, Govt. of India, Pune.
 
Born in the year 1958, a hyperactive boy, he was admitted in school at a very young age. His elementary schooling was at Kalingaperi village near Rajapalayamand high schooling at PACM High School, Rajapalayam, where in,he was the 1973 topper in SSLC. He could repeat at least 90 % of an hours’ class lecture, verbatim, so good was his memory retention due to his father’s prepartions, discipline and drilling of his children in studies.
 
All children were coaxed to learn multiplication tables up to 16 x 16, including top down. The father got good key tutoring freely from a young neighbourhood friend so that he could in turn teach his children.
 
Any Report card not within three ranks meant big trouble to be approved by his father. He continued his studies at PACR Polytechnic and secured a Diploma in 1976 and worked there, as a Junior Instructor for 1 ½ years.
 
His teachers and lecturers were simply superb and he praises them lavishly for their professionalism, dedication and he is in touch with some of them, till today. He moved to Pune, Maharashtra State, Indiaand from 1978 to 1980,worked as a Junior Engineer, with Central PWD and during 1981 & 1982 as a Technical Assistant with Indian Oil Corporation, at Belgaum, Karnataka State, India.
 
Since then,he has been in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar) with numerous Companies and Consultants (Alsarif Corporation, Alfanar Company, Jamjoom Consultants, NesmaAlFadl Contracting, Saudi Binladin Group in consortium with GE, Raytheon, Mushrif Trading &Contracing Co., Lindenberg, Aljaber Engineering etc.), holding responsible and progressive positions.
 
He was one of the founding members of the Indian Engineers Forum, Saudi Arabia and was its Seminar Committee Director for over three years. His former (2005 to 2007) and present employer, Mushrif is a Public Limited Company with 2000 plus multi-national work force and is a heavy Engineering Contractor who handles infrastructure, EPC and Oil & Gas Projects for mostly Government Authorities, Kuwait, with branches in Qatar, UAE.He regards safety, quality and cost, highly in personal and professional life. He has been involved in land mark projects and a mega single project value of US $ 1 billion plus.
 
Amidst his professional career, he secured an AMIE degree in Civil Engineering in the year 1986 and MBA in 1996. He has always had ambitions for higher learning but an Executive Doctorate (Ph. D) in Business Administration which hecommenced in the year 2002,through distance learning, remains elusive, due to guide and logistic issues.
 
 He tried his hand in entrepreneurship as a partner with another Contractor in 1989 at Pune and surveyed the Chennai real estate market to be a Builder in the 4th quarter of 2004, but a lot of years spent away from India, red-tapism, mess in Indian real estate market, dampened his business ambitions. He has a passion for details and trains budding and young engineers in engineering, contracts and commercial disciplines of Contracting business.
 
Analytical mind, team building and scientific approach to issues and delineating responsibility have held him in good stead for over three and a half decades of professional work and he adds value to companies, efficiently and effectively. He is easily approachable and goes out of way to help the needy.
 
He strives for perfection and believes in bench marking and excellence. His mother, he and his wife are trustee members of theJeeva Trust hospital, Tanjavur, Tamilnadu.
 
He got married in the year 1989 and his wife, Savithiri Subbiah is a MBBS Doctor. Upon her graduation, she practiced medicine for about three years at Madurai and Chennai, but gave up the practice since moving with him to Saudi Arabia, in 1989.
 
She has been taking care of their two adorable daughters.His wife’s immense contribution in rearing the children and support to his mother allowed him to dedicate his time to work and studies. Presently, hiseldest daughter, Janani is pursuing a Mastersdegree in US, after her schooling at Padma Seshadri School, Chennai and completing a degree at Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering and Technology, Chennai.
 
The youngest one Harini is in Padma Seshadri School and aspires to pursue bio-tech.His next generation relatives are spreading their wings in India and internationally in Middle East, North America, Europe and Australia in engineering, medical and financial fields.
 
A damn good swimmer since the age of 1 ½ years, yoga, arts, music (old Tamil and Hindi songs including Carnatic), reading, sports etc. are his passion.He firmly believes that “Entropy” will catch up with human beings, who’ll be forced to revert to village life style in about a century.
 
He wishes and fervently hopes that we all endeavour to leave as small a foot-print as possible and pass on the mother planet for future generations, with environment, ecology, diversityin-tact and naturally balanced.
 
The purpose of our life, in his opinion, should be to catch a glimpse of the Universe with its intricate workings and fathom the Infinity. Man will be man so long as he tries to raise above the level of nature, said SwamijiVivekanananda and Subbiah is an avid admirer of the Swamiji and associates with Saradha Math, Pune, since 1978.
 
Humility should be every human being’smiddle name, expounds Subbiah. His message to fellow human beings – question everything but with respect, eat in moderation and take sufficient rest, exercise moderately, take hold and care for your health, help the not so previleged and laugh (just for laughs, gags is one of his favourites) often. Work life balance will be what he would like to pursue in the future. Change is the only constant in this Universe, hence embrace it, he quips.
 
 
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IFL  - Kuwait 2024