How a Mere Rs. 2,000 Sparked a Legacy of Resilience
A 23-year-old man lies in a government hospital bed in Chennai.
Three months. Alone. No family by his side.
He had fallen from a tower at work. A serious accident that could have ended everything.
His parents back in Kerala didn’t know their son was injured. He chose not to tell them. He would heal on his own.
This man was my father, K.V. Thomas.
But let me take you back to where it all began. A teenager with nothing but ambition boarded a train from Kerala to Neyveli in 1960. His qualification – X Std. His first job: store keeper. Whereas others saw a dead-end role, he saw a classroom.
Morning shift: Issue tools. The rest of the day: Learn everything.
He taught himself gas cutting by watching senior craftsmen. He stayed back after hours and learned welding. He mastered drawing interpretation by asking questions others were too proud to ask.
By 1962, Chennai called. As a fitter and fabricator, he honed his skills one project at a time. Then came the fall. The hospital. The long recovery.
And then came a choice.
He received Rs. 2,000 as compensation in 1966. Enough to go back home. Enough to start over somewhere safe. Instead, he rented a small room in Reddy Street, Padi. This was his Entrepreneurship journey.
Later he moved it to a bigger place in Ambattur Industrial estate and called it Fabrimech Engineers. From that one room has since become a company trusted by Indian Railways, Atomic Energy, many MNC’s and exports . We didn’t inherit wealth. We inherited something far more valuable – a culture of learning, resilience, and uncompromising quality.
My father turned his darkest chapter into our foundation story. And that foundation still holds strong, 59 years later.
Some companies are built on capital. Ours was built on character.
– Thomas K Varghese
