There’s something inherently charming about Indian enterprises that have built themselves brick by brick, long before ‘start-up culture’ became a buzzword. In an era obsessed with unicorn valuations and funding rounds, a business that has quietly thrived for over five decades feels like a story from a different time zone, and that’s precisely what makes S.I.S Story by Prince Mathews Thomas so refreshing. It is from the era when businesses were built without venture funding or flashy pitch decks.
The book tells the story of Ravindra Kishore Sinha, a journalist in Bihar earning a meagre monthly salary of Rs 250, who quit his job and set up SIS (Security and Intelligence Services), a private security firm aimed at helping ex-servicemen get employment as private security personnel. Today, SIS is a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate and ranks among the top ten private employers in India with more than 3 lakh employees, and over 22,000 clients across various sectors, including security, facility management, and cash logistics.
India in the 1970s was politically charged with the JP Movement, Naxal unrest, and the Emergency. Not the easiest time to be a young reporter, especially for one who is teekha (critical), or perhaps the perfect time, depending on how one looks at it.
The early chapters of the book are soaked in that era, with references to Indira Gandhi’s whims and the charged mood of the country’s streets. You can sense how a restless young journalist, seeing the churn around him, would channel that energy into something bigger. SIS actually started as a placement initiative that didn’t even charge for its services.
As the book progresses, we see SIS evolve into a massive conglomerate that we know today. Delightful is the chapter on demonetisation, when SIS provided security to thousands of ATMs and cash vans across India. For the cash logistics industry, demonetisation was a real coming-of-age moment, and the book captures that rush well.
The narrative shifts as the next generation steps in, Rituraj Sinha, the Doon School and MBA-educated son, who modernises and scales up the business. While his perspective adds a professional polish, I found myself missing some of the rawness of the first-generation story. There’s something about those early, uncertain days that always feels more real.
Since the book is written in the third person, you sometimes feel a sense of emotional distance as a reader, not getting into the head, thoughts, and mind of the person.
For instance, at one point, the author writes how the person woke up at 4 am, and “performed the Vedas”. No one performs the Vedas! These small things get lost in translation when the writer isn’t part of the subject’s lived experience. Still, it’s a well-written book, and the intent shines through.