Someone I met

So here’s the story of Mr Manu Kapur whom I met recently at a social function. He has studied from IIFT in Delhi and has worked for various coveted companies.  He has been associated with International Trading / Retailing / Sourcing for over two  decades. He has had the chance of working with coveted organizations like the Murugappa Group, Metro AG, Li & Fung, Reliance Retail and IKEA. I currently head the South Asia sourcing operations of a major Department Store in the US.

He has been travelling since 1994. What seemed charming and exciting at first (a phase that was extremely short lived)' over the years has been an absolute nuisance something that he’d gladly give up if he had the opportunity to. The happiest part of his 3 year stint at Reliance Retail clearly was the fact that he wasn't travelling at all, except domestically, which strangely he don't mind as much. His travels have taken him far and wide - Pakistan & Bangladesh several times, since He’s handled the business operations of these countries on several occasions in the past and does so currently too. He’s also travelled extensively in Europe, North America, South East Asia, North Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

Several interesting incidents (some pretty scary at the time) come to mind in terms of travel over the years - being mugged at a sleepy railway station in a small town near Amsterdam, getting into an altercation with a fake policeman demanding money in Prague, speaking through the night with a colleague from Russia that he had never met or spoken with before till earlier that evening, to name a few.

One of the highlights though was this - He was in Bangkok several years back for a Buying Trip. The day went really well and they transacted business worth several million Duetsche Marks (pre Euro days) on the spot. To celebrate, the Chief Buyer of the group He was working with then decided to buy them a couple of rounds of drinks. After guzzling a couple of litres of beer, they decided to walk across to a famous Japanese restaurant for dinner. Each one of them ended up drinking more 'saki' than they could handle. They left the place, hand in hand (more out of support against stumbling than out of affection for each other) and then for some strange reason decided on hitting the hotel discotheque for some champagne. No prizes for guessing what followed - they passed out in our respective rooms. He woke up at noon for an 8 am meeting and doesn't recall getting ready in a shorter span of time. When he reached the conference room at the hotel, he found it deserted. The first thought in his mind was that everyone was probably out for lunch and that he would be skinned alive. A couple of minutes later, on enquiring from a hotel attendant, he found out (much to his relief) that he was the first person to show up for the meeting. Nobody came in for the half hour that he hung around in the room. He happily left after realizing that the others were probably still asleep. They reconvened at 8 am the following morning.

He’s a strict vegetarian so I asked how he has managed that? 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 He’d get to eat in his insipid salads, it would be time for some stuffed 'aloo paranthas' immediately on getting back home. This was a tradition that his beloved mother started years back and even now, every single time He get back from a trip, irrespective of whether He’s hungry or not, purely sentimentally and out of extreme love for his mother, He religiously eats 'aloo paranthas' on his return - generally in the wee hours of the morning. 

Though he travels so much for work Ironically, He just loves travelling with his family. They've done several places in India - beaches, hill stations, wild life reserves et al. The highlight was a fortnight long road trip they did across Rajasthan.

Internationally, They've travelled as a family to Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China, Vietnam and Cambodia. The finest trip that he feels he had was this summer, when they went to Vietnam and Cambodia. It was absolutely perfect - great weather, lots of interesting things to do and great food.

One funny incident was when they drove down from Phnom Pehn in Cambodia to Siem Reap, to visit the famous Angkor Wat temples. They anticipated the journey to be much shorter than the 6 hours it took. As a result, they ended up getting to Siem Reap almost around the time that entry to Angkor Wat closes. They decided to visit the temples the next morning and go to a vantage point to watch the sunset that evening. His 9 year old daughter, who hadn't particularly enjoyed the ride, was very upset that they'd travelled six hours 'just for a sunset' and threw a huge tantrum.