The story of Mahashay Dharampal Gulati of MDH

‘Mahashay’ Dharampal Gulati, the owner of the popular spice brand Mahashian Di Hatti or MDH, passed away early morning on December 3. Gulati was admitted to the Mata Chanan Devi Hospital in Delhi recently.

Gulati was born in Sialkot and migrated to India with his family after the partition in 1947. His family spent some time in Amritsar, before moving to Delhi. He started a spice shop in Delhi, where he later built his spice empire. Conferred with the Padma Bhushan in 2019, Gulati stayed involved in the business.

l He started with a humble beginning and bought a Tanga for Rs 650 which he ran from New Delhi railway station to Qutub Road.

He has been the face of the spice brand, MDH, appearing in many of its advertisements over the years. He tried his hand at several other businesses too with the help of his father, and then started with soap, carpentry, cloth, hardware, rice etc, but nothing worked.

Soon, he started working in his father’s shop named ‘Mahashian Di Hatti’, popularly known as the “Deggi Mirch Wale” people.

Later, he went on to purchase a property at Delhi’s Karol Bagh where he opened a spice shop. He stayed the CEO of the company even in his late years and earned a salary of over Rs 20 crore for his position.

According to DNA, He donated 90 per cent of his salary for charity under the Mahashay Chunni Lal Charitable Trust, which operated a 250-bed hospital and another mobile hospital in Delhi. The trust also runs four schools and offers financial support to people in need.