Christian Fabre arrived in Chennai in 1971, a bewildered Frenchman in an alien culture. Today he is an Avadhuta sadhu and owner of a successful textile company
I’m nervous. there, I’ve said it. I’m at the reception of Christian Fabre Textiles Pvt Ltd—a textile buying house based in Thiruvanmiyur, South Chennai—waiting to meet the founder. I’ve met business leaders and CEOs, chairmen and directors, but I’ve yet to meet anyone quite like the founder of Christian Fabre Textiles. When the owner of a profitable and successful company is a sadhu and a French national who goes by the name Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta, it’s difficult to predict how the meeting will turn out.
The walls of the reception are bathed in white, and the décor is definitely modern. The two glass cabins flanking the reception room are filled with company executives and clients. I gulp down a glass of water and talk to his executive secretary. And then the godman appears. A Caucasian man in saffron robes with a red tilak smeared on his forehead emerges from the corridor with glass rooms on either side, the wall behind him starkly white. He’s surrounded by people in ties and suits and polished shoes. I was taken aback by his presence. Later, Swami would chuckle and admit that his appearance has unsettled many an unsuspecting client.
Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta christened his company after his “birth name”, Christian Fabre. On its official website, the company describes itself as a “leading buying house in India ably headed by Mr Christian Fabre, a French national with a business expertise of 22 years”. But you don’t meet Mr Christian Fabre. You meet a sadhu.
A perfect host, Swami introduces me to every employee; his introductions are a mix of warmth and mischief. There is A Jayapalan, Swami’s friend and business partner of almost three decades, and FA Benhur, the company’s first employee who is now its CEO. Most of the employees joined the company in their youth. And very few have left.
As we go through the introductions, I notice the company ID card that dangles from Swami’s neck, holding its own against at least three rudraksha necklaces. It is a sign of things to come.
On his desk, corporate and spiritual totems nudge each other in perfect harmony. Miniature statues of Shiva and Shiva lingams share space with bonsai plants, an iPad and a MacBook. Swami also carries an iPhone. The wealth of religious symbols does not overwhelm, perhaps because equal space is given to ‘management’ paraphernalia, which includes a brand new copy of Thomas Piketty’s recent bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
Swami’s two worlds are seamlessly intertwined. “I don’t see any dichotomy. There is no duality. You can’t differentiate spiritual life and normal life,” he says. The 72-year-old smiles as he understands that I have not yet grasped the meaning of his words. He then tells me the story of how Christian Fabre became Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta in 1988. And the story of how he had come to Chennai from France, only to lose his wife, son and job.
From Christian to Swami
Fabre—one of four siblings—was born in Beziers, a picturesque town in southern France known for its annual bull-fighting event. His mother was of Spanish origin and a homemaker. His father, a staunch Communist, worked in the French national railway company. When a 13-year-old Christian Fabre returned home one day with the local priest, who wanted to ask for the “boy to serve the Lord,” his father shouted back: “As long as I’m alive, there won’t be a priest in my house!” It marked the end of young Fabre’s spiritual pursuit, at least for then.
He completed the Indian equivalent of a BA course in France and signed up for military service. It was the 1960s, and the French were trying to quash the freedom movement spreading across their colonies in north Africa. Fabre was disillusioned by the war. “I saw no fault in locals fighting for their independence,” he says. It was during his time in the army that he picked up the habit of smoking. “We would be given cigarettes for free… to control our libido!”
Fabre returned to Beziers from Algeria, worked for a while with his father in the railways, did a course on fashion in Paris, and then got married. He soon landed a job as a salesman in a real estate agency where a client told him, “I like your selling skills,” and offered him a job in the leather trading division of a French trading company. Soon the owner had another offer for him. “Can you go to Madras to manage the Indian operations?” It was an “exotic” opportunity. To the young Frenchman, India was the land of elephants, snakes and Maharajahs. “These were the only things I knew about India apart from the freedom movement,” he says.
The Hermitage
(This story appears in the July-Aug 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)