Indian hospitality doyen C P Krishnan Nair died in Mumbai on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 92. Nair, founder of the Leela chain of hotels, passed away at 3.40 am at the Hinduja Hospital, where he was admitted recently.
Nair, popularly called Captain Nair after his stint in the Army, had also served under Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. He had handed over the chairmanship of the hotels he built to elder son Vivek last year. He then became chairman emeritus of the company. His younger son, Dinesh, was made the co-chairman and managing director.
Nair’s life typifies the proverbial rags-to-riches story.
The son of a government bill collector, Nair, one among eight siblings, was born in 1922 into a poor family in a Kerala village. Part of his school education was funded by a scholarship from a local landlord.
In 1950, Nair married Leela, the daughter of a handloom owner and started helping his father-in-law in the
business. Over the next four decades he expanded the handloom business and went on to become one of the country's leading personalities in the sector.
In 1987, Nair opened his first luxury hotel in Mumbai.
His inspiration to make a foray into the hospitality business came from his exposure to some of the finest hotels in the world during his business trips abroad. He ventured into a new business when he was 65, an age when many retire from active work and move to a quieter life. Nair named the hotel after his wife and over the years grew the business into a chain of eight properties across India.
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