I am deeply saddened to inform you that our dear father, Shri Chintala Sreeshylam passed away on June 22nd, 2021 at 9:07 AM.  Our Dad has lived an amazing life of 81 years, positively impacting several lives around him (as detailed below).  We, the entire Chintala Clan, Friends, and Family are forever in gratitude to him, for all the life lessons he has taught us.  He has left us to the heavenly abode, in the presence of loved ones. I have documented the detailed story of our Dad in this blog.

Our Dad is born in a small village of Narsinghi (Medak Dist) in 1941, where he studied until 4th grade.  He later moved to  Ramayanpet village where he studied until his 10th grade.  He stayed at his elder sister’s place during his schooling days in the same village.  He repaired cycles at his sister’s cycle-rental shop and ran all errands for the family as a gratitude for the stay. Giving more than what he receives has been the DNA all his life.  He studied under the street lights late in the evenings, using borrowed books from neighbourhood’s kids, to complete his 10th grade. He was always proud of his struggles even at a young age, which has set the foundation to be not deterred by any challenges life threw at him.

He moved to Hyderabad in 1958, post this 10th grade as he could not afford to study beyond.  However, that did not stop him from becoming a legend in the textile business.  He joined  Textile Shop “Sri Venkateshwara & Company” in 1958 at the age of 17, with the salary of INR 30 per month.  He began his stint as a junior helper, learning the business from the ground up.  Dad has married my mom in 1964, about 57 years ago, who gave birth to 5 kids over the period of a decade.  We are 4 brothers and a younger sister.  Yes, they were keen on having a girl child, hence 5 kids. They were a perfect couple in many ways and were a role model to everyone across the extended family.

He started entrepreneurship post his marriage and ran several businesses in the evenings and weekends, to make extra income for the family, and to support members of extended family in need. He started an innovative scheme to sell fancy Bombay Watches which generated an extra income of INR 500 per month, and started a micro-financing business (known as ‘chit funds’).  He relentlessly worked hard for the business and family, yet kept a hawk-eye on all of us and disciplined us hard, and kept us on our toes. He came to our school only once in 10 years and do not remember him stepping into our college too. However, he was abreast of all industry trends, and always discussing our career trends in his network. He compelled me to switch from Master’s in Civil, to Master’s in Computer Science in the US, which paved way for tremendous personal career growth for me.

Owing to his contribution to revenue growth in SV & Company, his stake in the business increased from 10% in 1969 to take over the entire business in about two decades, and launched “SV Fabrics Pvt. Ltd.”. My three brothers joined him at a very young age. More than 50% of the SV Fabrics Group has always been employing family members from his siblings and more. The teachings he gave to the SV  Fabrics Management Team from his life’s experience, have propelled the SV Fabrics group to historic levels. His business and financial and business practices he embraced and evangelized are found in many MBA schools.

Dad’s trademark has been an obsession with quality, personalized relationships with clients, fair trading practices, honesty and transparency in every transaction, and adoption of technology that ensured on-time delivery, and transparent, fair, and competitive pricing.  Innovative Retail conferences (first of a kind in South India) at locations of all types of domestic, international, spiritual, and tier-2 towns made the entire purchase experience personal, fun, and exciting for 4000 clients. Most importantly, a relationship-focused sales approach, ensured absolute loyalty and SV Fabrics achieved 95% customer retention.

Despite being a small firm with limited backing from the industry and with so many veteran players already in the town, SV Fabrics has achieved immense success. SV Fabrics has been India’s number one dealer for Siyarams in the 1990s and India’s number one dealer of Aditya Birla Linen Club in AP & Telangana in the 2010s. Now, SV boasts of many leading brands in South India and even launched their own brands and marketed them across India.

In our personal lives, Dad has played a terrific role in finding soul-mates for all five of us.  For about two decades, all the four brothers’ families lived in a joint-family mode, with an entire family count was about twenty-five folks, in harmony, in a large mansion which he built from the ground up and customized it to support every family member’s needs and wish.  Chintala Family was touted as one of the successful joint families in town. He was the primary glue to get all of us to stick together. Mom and Dad have set up a transparent and fair governance framework at home (almost like corporate board type of meetings every month to review issues and concerns), that ensured harmony for decades.  His oversight has built terrific camaraderie between next-generation kids too.  Just go through a few hundred stories and a few 1000s videos in my blog, they would display the same.

Dad has taught us the financial discipline in the very early phase of our lives and always insisted on setting up revenue sources that generated passive income for everyone in the family. He also insisted on living within the means of income, taught the spirit of giving to those in need, and encouraged balanced spirituality and the need to constantly work hard and work smart.  He never gossiped about others, or wished ill to anyone, he was always oozing positive energy.  He was financially independent and generating his own revenue at the age of 80 and was a generous giver.  He fought cancer at the age of 70 and came out stronger than ever.

Dad was a foodie and enjoyed delicacies of all types, and Mom used to indulge in cooking something new and fresh every meal of the day. Last 15 years or so, every discussion between Mom and Dad, was about the food menu for the upcoming meal. He was a perfectionist about how a meal should be served, in terms of timing, freshness, combinations, and spirit in which it was served. He was always eager to support and resolve any crisis in the family and in the extended family too. He would get in a car as soon as he hears distress in our voice, and land in front of us to resolve and provide unconditional support and assurance.

We are thankful that he lived a healthy 80 years, with so much love and respect from thousands out there, and got to spend time with his great-granddaughter.  As you can guess, it’s impossible to fill the void left by his departure.  However, we do have tons of memories and many of them are in digital format thanks to my hobby, which will be our solace to reminisce and always keep him in our hearts, mind, and soul.

Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti

At Shravya’s Wedding Few Year Ago

Dad last year !

https://youtu.be/2Y3vdkTuSv4