Bombay Calling!

Family @ Ram's wedding

A year in Madurai sped away. As trainees there was no leave! In places like Madurai there was little to do for bachelors like me – other than the occasional movie . It worked well for most companies making young recruits go to the hinterland – all like me – had little to do but work.  Work consumed us all and when one occasionally travelled to the Metros it was party time. Batchmates started tying the knot that ensured mini reunions, looked forward to, in the early years out of campus.  A bunch of us landed to surprise J2 (Venkatesan)  near Tirunelveli but I missed Sethu’s in the wake of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. At home my brother Ram got married, the first one off the block and it was time to innovate answers to the question ‘when are you getting married’. 

Bombay Calling happened in Jul 1991. After a year in sales I was called for dabbling in Product Management with PMG (also notoriously referred to as Product Marnewala Group in the field). Bombay was always fascinating with the buzz it had  and the variety of experience it had to offer. My knowledge of Mumbai was till then only from this board game called Trade (monopoly) and a few areas visited in 2 earlier short trips.

Consistently over decades, companies offer just a week of hotel stay within in which you have to find a place to move in to while joining on transfer. It was tricky those days with no internet, mobile etc. You have to land and figure out and there were good Samaritans. The usual Bachelorpad for PMGites – Dreamland at Bandra was out of reach as the landlady had decided not to let it out any longer. Abe (Abraham Mathews) in the finance team came as my savior as he lived alone in a Sher-e-Punjab flat in Andheri .

Satkar shut in 2015 after ~50 years!

I always thought I was Spartan and could manage anywhere, but this phase at Sher-e-Punjab is probably the most Spartan phase in my journey. I don’t remember if it was a 1BHK or 2 but we had a room to each other and a kitchen. The only piece of furniture was a mattress on the floor each had, I think there was a chair and a small immersion heater used to heat water in glasses/ mugs in the kitchen. Occasionally tea was made in the morning with this contraption. As we got ready, we waited to see if the  7 45 bus has come  outside the flat (which was the terminal point), put our shoes got down to take the bus to Andheri Station through pump house. This would make us take if I remember right a 8 03 local to churchgate by 840 or so. A customary breakfast at Satkar outside Churchgate and then the bus from A road or a share taxi outside Satkar ( this place is no longer there and has lost out to a CCD I think) landed at office. For evening we called National Punjab restaurant to leave food and he would pack dal-roti-subzi and hang it in the door handle to eat and dispose. Life revolved around the sleeping pad at Andheri and everything else around office at churchgate, including Air Cool hairdressers at Churchgate on the way back from office or a Dr. Abhyankar at Churhgate if unwell.

At workplace there was great flux. Vikas, Grewal, Tony, Prabhakar left and Nadu was the veteran around. Rudra, Simha, Buch and I under Bharat was the lot through most of this year – running at half the strength. Learning the basics of product management and marketing was fun and a great experience. There was great variety in experience and exposure. At one end to develop an understanding with R&D and not get lost in chemistry was an experience. At the other end was the agency to whom rural meant Andheri.  One got to travel across the country and as a bachelor spent working the weekend as field worked for 6 days while HO was 5 days.

Pongal ad - click link to see it

The year gave some unique first time experiences. A Video on Wheels campaign to be developed in Tamil got me roped in as a resident TN expert (having freshly arrived from Madurai), though I did not handle the product in the campaign. With Nadu got involved in the making of the epic Pongal Ad and the Video on wheels campaign which was like a TV serial episode used in the VOW campaign.

Pongal Ad - a classic

Work was Flexi and life after work was flexi too. Café Mondegar with its draft beer and juke box was the most frequented. It would most often take about 90 minutes for our selections to play and was good enough time to gulp a few pitchers and munchies before heading for a movie at Regal or Eros. The convenience of Mumbai as a city that never sleeps and one could get anywhere any time was great. There were the chumeries of batchmates who worked with banks like Citi and Grindlays, ICICI, P&G and other bachelor dens of friends at Juhu, Takshila etc. which were havens over weekends. There is something about the first few years out of campus that kept the social activity at a high level and notice it is still so even now.

Some 6 months into Mumbai we got the audience with this Lady Mrs. Shroff thanks to ‘we are good guys’ reference from Alka Puri. Mrs. Adarsh Shroff had this 1BHK flat called Dream land in Bandra - a much sought after bachelor pad for PMG guys. It went out of circulation briefly as her conditions were not met – the occupants had to go and handover rent once a month in person. But with Alka’s reference and a discussion filled with courtesies I and Vijay Simha got to move into Dreamland on Shirley Village road, off Carter road, Bandra ...