Indian businessman owns 22 apartments in Burj Khalifa!

Dubai, Sep 11 (PTI) An Indian mechanic-turned-businessmanowns an incredible 22 apartments in the popular Burj Khalifa,a media report said today. George V Nereaparambil says he is not stopping at 22 andwill continue to buy more if he gets a "good deal". "If I get a good deal, I’ll buy more. I am a dreamer andI never stop dreaming," he told Khaleej Times. The Kerala-born is believed to be one of the largestprivate owners within the Burj Khalifa, the world’s talleststructure. His stake in the property came about when a relativeteased him about the 828-metre building. "A relative of mine jokingly told me: See this BurjKhalifa, you cannot enter it," he said. After seeing an advertisement in a newspaper about anapartment for rent in the building in 2010, Nereaparambilrented the apartment the same day and started living in itfrom the next day. Now, six years on with 22 of the 900 apartments atperhaps the Gulf’s poshest address under his belt, he saidfive are rented, and as for the rest, he’s "waiting for theright tenant", the report quoted him as saying. In an incredible sounding rags-to-riches story,Nereaparambil realised there was huge scope for an airconditioning business in the hot climate of the desert afterfirst touched down in Sharjah back in 1976. Nereaparambil, who helped his father trade cash crops andmade money from waste at the age of 11, then went aboutsetting up the beginnings of his now mini empire, GEO Group ofCompanies. "People in my hometown used to trade cotton, but they’dthrow away the cotton seeds. Not many people knew at that timethat you could make gum from those seeds," he said. Sifting through the dirt and sand to gather up thedisregarded seeds, he said he would often make a "90 per centprofit selling them on". "I’d do the same with tamarind seeds too. I’d sell theempty shells on as cattle feed," he added. PTI SAI AJR AKJAJR