Someone I met Part 1 continued

I met someone recently and we spoke about lots of things. Although, I am a writer by profession now but I studied to work in the textile industry. My father belongs to this industry and I aspired to grow in it too. Circumstances changed that and I spoke to this somewhat about the industry and his growth and he narrated few instances that I thought I must share. This is the same someone I shared with you before...Mr Kapur, he currently heads the South Asia sourcing operations of a major Department Store in the US. And this is how he narrated few of his tales, some might overlap with the ones I’ve put before, but they have additional information added to them now. I thoroughly enjoyed them.. Hope you do too. And he says

But things are much more different now from what they where say two decades ago in the quota regime, where we had to fight for every contract, each deal was a coveted one. Today if your product is good you get the deal. In those times we had to get the pricing right, packaging right everything right and still lost business. I remember having passed out from the elite IIFT school, I was ready for hard work but for the corporate concept/world hard work. So working with the Murugappa Group, my stint here had been 8-10 months, I remember it distinctly, I was in Aurai, Bhadohi sending a shipment of Gabbeh, shabby and loom knotted rugs to one of our buyers and we were getting pressed for time. We had to send the shipment and the labour to load the consignment was small in number, so me and my friend we just rolled up our sleeves and got along with the labour and started picking up rugs with our hands and loading it so that we could help to make the shipment in time. The labour kept telling us “Please leave it boss”, but we had to do it with them because there was no time and we wanted to all we could do to help and finish the work.

Also I remember in the early years I would go to niche areas in India for cotton sheeting products. I would have to venture into areas like Solapur, Jalgaon in Maharashtra; Bharuch, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Kalol in Gujarat Madurai, Tirunel velli, Tuticorin, Salem in South and we had to keep costs low. So I travelled by second class railways wherever it would take me and by the lowest accommodation to my destination. We would have tea in the clay kullars or local snacks that were available on each station of different state as if it was a delicacy.

In those years I would have to travel abroad to meet suppliers and get orders for my company. Being a vegetarian who has a strict mushroom allergy can be a huge challenge for a frequent traveller. After returning from trips feeling pretty bovine most of the times, what with the variety of leaves I'd get to eat in my insipid salads, it would be time for some stuffed 'aloo paranthas' immediately on getting back home. This was a tradition that my beloved mother started years back, either she would make them and pack them in Tiffin so that when I return at wee hours in the morning I could have them or she would leave a message on the kitchen counter and I would go under the Moolchand flyover(Delhi) and half them there. I wonder if the guy still exists.

I just love travelling with my family. We've done several places in India - beaches, hill stations, wild life reserves et al. The highlight was a fortnight long road trip we did across Rajasthan when my son was all of two years. This we did in the last days of December and I remember it so clearly because I fought with my wife for it, it was New Year’s Eve, and we were in Bikaner without any booking for proper accommodation. There was a complete festive surrounding on the desert and we were on the sand dunes with just 3 charpai’s to sleep on. My wife took my son on one, I was on another and our loyal servant on the third. We somehow spent that night out in the open but the next day we checked in to proper accommodation.

These are few of my sweet memories from my early travel days. In those early days when we had to be frugal and literally save every buck but now things are different.