At the age of 72, Engineer Ratna Hirani is not ready to slow down. As a Director at Mangat I.B. Patel (MIBP) Limited, Hirani is often among the first people in the office, a tradition he has maintained for many years. In fact, for the 48 years that he has worked for MIBP, having joined in 1973 as a Graduate Engineer, Hirani is the personification of dedication to his job.
To a large extent, this emanates from the fact that being an engineer was always a childhood dream. Consciously, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father who was a contractor. One of the big jobs his father implemented was the construction of the magnificent Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi.
For Hirani, the dream of becoming an engineer was nearly derailed when he completed his ‘O’ Levels education at the Nairobi Technical High School (today Nairobi Technical Training Institute) but could not get a place at the University of Nairobi despite qualifying because the newly established institution could only admit 30 students in its engineering department.
Determination to pursue engineering saw him join Bombay University Science College in India for one year before joining the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology for a five-year engineering course. Upon graduation, universities in the United States were willing to offer him admission to pursue his masters. “This was not possible because my parents could not afford. I opted to come back to Kenya,” says Hirani.
Luckily for him, his father was in the building and construction industry, something that meant finding his footing was not a big challenge. Through his father’s associates, he got a job at MIBP as a Graduate Engineer. “Back then the pay was not that good,” he recalls. However, being in an indigenous firm that was already sending shockwaves in the industry with some iconic projects including the International Life House was reason to be proud.
More importantly, Hirani was under the tutelage of I.B. Patel and H.S. Mangat, two distinguished Engineers who not only trained him but had great influence on his life. “They believed in building a firm whose reputation could not be put into question,” avers Hirani who over the years has managed to climb the ladder from a Graduate Engineer to Assistant Engineer, Project Engineer, Associate then to a Partner and Director of MIBP.
Though work is important, Hirani believes in the wholeness of life. In particular, family, spirituality, philanthropy and fitness are of great importance to him. A father of four, Hirani is proud that all his three sons have opted to follow him in the engineering profession. Two are Technical Directors at MIBP while one works in a Consulting Firm in New Zealand. His lastborn daughter is an Ecologist.
On spirituality, he’s part of an institution that imparts spiritual knowledge and teaches spiritual matters. He’s also involved in a children’s organization that engages in activities for children to bring them up in a certain way. Part of Hirani’s philanthropy includes being a Rotarian.
While shaping his inner soul remains paramount for the veteran engineer, he has not neglected his physical being. Practicing Yoga, running marathons and mountaineering are his favourite sports for keeping fit. Until Covid-19 came to disrupt life, Hirani had never missed the annual Nairobi Standard Chartered Bank Marathon. He has also participated in and completed the Safaricom Lewa Marathon six times.
Yet for him, the hallmark of his determination to push his physical being was 10 years ago when he climbed the torturous Mount Kilimanjaro to the peak. He has also climbed Mount Kenya. “Mountaineering is a lesson in endurance,” he says.
Some of these lessons have impacted his work. A case in point is a project involving Lornho House, a commercial building at the heart of the Nairobi central business district. The project entailed the expansion of a three storey building to a 19-storey skyscraper including car parks. The difficult part was that the project was to be undertaken while tenants remained intact and went on with their business. “Technically this was a very difficult project but we succeeded,” noted Hirani.
Despite working for the same firm for close to five decades, Hirani says it has been the best decision going by the reputation of MIBP and the fact that the firm is highly regarded not only by peers but also by clients, both locally and internationally.
