Nikhil Kamath’s question, ‘If Mukesh Ambani’s is...’ puts a smile on Nita Ambani’s face

As Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DAIS) sends off its class of 2025 in a graduation ceremony, Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath attended the function as its chief guest to inspire the newly graduated to take up the right career paths in their life and make healthy decisions. He talked about his professional journey, rich life experiences and lessons he learned from his life and career, and he even revealed his first salary. Zerodha is a stock brokerage company which has earned billions of profits due to which 38-year-old Kamath is now among India’s youngest billionaires. However, he also asked a casual and quirky question about Mukesh Ambani which Nita Ambani, the school’s founder, very sweetly replied.  

Nikhil Kamath's question about Mukesh Ambani

The question was both interesting and humourous. Nita Ambani, chairperson of Reliance Foundation, founded Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DAIS) in Mumbai. While delivering his speech Nikhil Kamath revealed that his first full-time job was at a call centre which he joined very early, when he was only 17. The job’s nature was such that Kamath was left with ample time in the morning to juggle stock trading as call centre jobs are meant to be worked from evening to night. He said, “This is when I first got introduced to the stock market. Back then markets used to open at 10am, now they open at 9am.” 

While talking about himself, he casually slipped Mukesh Ambani’s name and cleverly directed a question at him with an innocent doubt. He stated, “I don't know how much Mukesh bhai is into stock markets.” The video shows Nita Ambani’s instant reaction to Kamath’s statement where she shook her head and smiled which shows that Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, does not trade in stock markets. However, his statement sparked light laughter among the audience. “I don't know how much Mukesh bhai is into stock markets but if anyone here knows what will happen tomorrow, it's probably him,” he said. 

Nikhil Kamath himself did not complete his schooling and dropped out of it at the age of 15. This irony of a high school dropout giving speech at a convocation ceremony was als not left unnoticed by him.  

DAIS is for students from primary to higher school which offers the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) for classes 8 to 10 and International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) for classes 11 and 12. Nita Ambani founded the school in 2003 which is one of the top international schools India.