On 1st September 2021, the students of Mushtifund Aryaan higher secondary school, got the wonderful opportunity to interact with a renowned businessman Mr. Prakash Pereira. Mr. Pereira is the MD of Armarcar Holdings Pvt.Ltd and the owner of Delfino Super Markets and Alor hotel and restaurant etc. Today sir has over 28 shops in goa in different cities like Margao , Mapusa, Vasco etc. With his years of experience as an entrepreneur we already knew that the session was going to be truly amazing.

Sir began the session by telling us the about the hardships he had to face as a young boy who lost both his parents at the mere age of 12 years. Sir talked about his father, a dynamic personality, a great nationalist who always fought for freedom against the Portuguese yet never claimed himself to be a freedom fighter. Both his parents gave him and his other siblings a background of being strong Indians.

Sir faced difficulties of all sorts. His family suffered financial crisis and there was no one to support them. As a family of 10 children, it was now really a question of survival. They took to cultivating vegetables, fishing, selling meat in market etc. Sir passed his SSC with flying colours and subsequently joined the Dhempe college as he wanted to pursue engineering. But he failed to meet the minimum attendance barrier as he was also managing the family business at the same time. In 1977 they gave up the family business. In 1979 he dropped out of science stream having failed to meet the required attendance and he joined polytechnic based on his SSC marks as he wanted to do civil engineering.

The turning point in his life was when a gentleman approached him for a road contract. He had no license of a civil contractor nor much money in his pocket. However, he signed up. And this was the official beginning of his journey. In 1983 came a crucial point in his life. He bought his first shop Champs in Panji. He invested whatever money he earned, on his father’s shop louis and company, formerly known as La Armacar, a hardware shop. Another important aspect sir emphasised on was on winning the trust of people. He remarked that even though they didn’t have much, people didn’t hesitate to give him the money to pay the rental fee. This gave him true pleasure. He went on to establish over 28 shops all over goa ,2 supermarkets ,2 hotels. From then on, they never looked back.

Sir paid major emphasis on the fact that there is no shortcut to success. Everything comes at a cost of hard work. All you need to have is a zeal to succeed. It is important to be truthful to your journey. To believe in oneself. He also mentioned that one should never make money a part of his/her goal and the fact that money is the bi- product of our achievements.

I fall short of words to express what an impact this session has had on us as students. We will be forever grateful to MR Prakash Pereira for his words of wisdom.

Finally, I would like to thank sir Vyankatesh Prabhudessai, our honourable director for giving us the opportunity to interact with such dynamic personalities.

INDRANI KAKODKAR

STD XI