india

Updated: Apr 20, 2020 17:15 IST

Alphons Joseph Kannanthanam has more animals than people in his sprawling home in Lutyens Delhi. His wife, Sheela, routinely picks up strays and brings them home. It is not only about dogs or cats but about dogs and cats and parrots and rabbits.

Therefore a common sight in their home is a cat eating out of Alphons’ hand or a puppy jumping up and down the couch that Alphons relaxes in. Therefore, to say that Alphons and Sheela love animals would be an understatement. For them animals, all species, are family. It is, as they say, their way of sharing the blessings God has bestowed on them. As of now, the count is a dozen pets, which includes eight dogs.

Sheela did feed Alphons payasam after he took oath as minister in PM Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. But it has been a journey that he had never planned or imagined.

Ticked off as the “dumbest kid” in school, his headmaster called it “a miracle” when Alphons managed to score 42% in tenth class. That evening he did not celebrate. Instead he sat down and asked himself only one question: “Why am I here? To be called an idiot and mocked at by everyone? Is that what I am made for?” God, he concluded, did not make idiots and he, for one, needed to exploit his talents.

And once he did, there was no looking back. Alphons qualified for the civil services, made news as an officer when he demolished illegal structures, studied law and went on to join politics.

When he was suspended for writing an article against the then Prime Minister about corruption in government in 1996, many thought it was the end of the road for him. But Alphons took it as a learning curve: “Actually I had a great time because I could go for long walks, jog and spend time with my pets.”

Till then life was simple. The obsession with cars happened much later. When his son got his first pay cheque, Alphons told him: “When you become a billionaire buy me a sports car.” That has still to happen. Meanwhile, Alphons is content driving fast cars. Within a span of two years, he has driven some five lakh kilometres. Alphons’ wish-list for his next birth: to be a F1 driver and a rock musician.

An unusual name for a Keralite, Alphons was named after his father’s boss, a British major, who fought the 2nd World War. Eldest of nine boys, theirs was a large family. But Alphons’ dad did not seem to think so because he adopted two more kids: boys from his office. “He was kind of crazy,” says Alphons forgetting that what his father did with kids he does with animals: picks them up and brings them home.

Alphons learnt English by talking to the walls, locking himself in a room for 15 hours at a stretch and mugging 25 pages of a dictionary every day. It wasn’t easy because when he thought he had learnt enough to take part in a debate he messed it all up. “I had 250 shoes thrown at me but that did not weaken my resolve. I was determined to make it,” he says, quite smug that he has not only made it, but made it big.

He went on to top the IAS, pioneered the literacy movement in India and has written many books. He was also listed among the 100 young global leaders in Time magazine.