PETALING JAYA: It was a rare glimpse into the final months of a reserved and reclusive man who wasn’t into sentimental goodbyes.
The three children of business tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan (pic) sent out a letter to his friends a day after his death on Thursday to inform them of his passing.
“Our dear father passed away peacefully at home in the Swiss mountains, surrounded by his family, at the age of 86.
“He had been suffering from a steadily progressing lung disease for some time now, but did his best to carry on as usual, spending this past summer on his boat in Turkiye, while still taking joy working on his projects.
“On returning to Switzerland, however, it soon became clear that his condition was now advancing rapidly,” they wrote.
Their father, they said, was now moving on.
According to them, Ananda who was known as “TAK, AK, Uncle Ananda, or Krish to his Aussie mates”, had an amazing tale to tell.
“One which began in pre-war Kuala Lumpur and ended up literally spanning the globe.”
As Ananda never wrote his memoirs, according to them, they believed there must be some great untold stories.
Through the letter, it was revealed that Ananda spent the last few weeks and months reminiscing about the people he met throughout his life, how fortunate he felt to have made such good friends, and to have received so much goodwill and support over the years.
“But being a private man, he kept his thoughts largely to himself, and was certainly not one for sentimental goodbyes.”
“So as his children, we would like to take this chance to say a farewell to you on his behalf, with gratitude for your part in his journey.”
The letter was signed off by his three children.
After his death, Bloomberg ran a story about “the elusive billionaire who rose from oil trader to one of Malaysia’s most prolific dealmakers.”
“In a decades-long career that ran parallel to Malaysia’s economic rise, he built a reputation as a savvy, Harvard-trained businessman whose fingerprints were everywhere, but who’d rarely show up in person.”
