Mum has the last word

It began like a soap opera and ended much like a feel-good Bollywood potboiler.

In 2002 India's richest man Dhirubhai Ambani died and before long his two sons started to feel friction while running the empire their father had built up from the scratch.

First came a gossip in media and then Mukesh, the elder of the two, admitted in November 2004 that there was some "ownership issue".

What followed next could not have remained a family affair as millions of Reliance shareholder and indeed the entire nation watched with bated breath.

Next couple of months saw corporate war like no other. Mukesh had a go with an assertive e-mail to all RIL employees. His aides quit companies within Anil's ambit and Anil's men followed reciprocated.

Mukesh gave up 50 crore sweat equity in Reliance Infocomm, Anil quit IPCL boars, blasting key Mukesh aide. He alleged phone tapping and refused to sign RIL accounts, etc, etc.

Finally Kokilaben, the Ambani matriarch, initiated the onerous and painful task of dividing the conglomerate worth 110,000 crore among her sons and daughters. In time, Kokilben had pulled through the crisis on the prospects of the empire her husband is said to have built up by the dint of his hard work and the luck she brought him.