Without People I Am Zero

STARTING OUT

Mumbai has been my workplace. I came here in 1982 to join the Taj group as a management trainee after being selected through campus interviews in the Calcutta Catering College. Opting for such a course at all after graduating in science had met with tremendous opposition from the family. My father was a research scientist in the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and my brother, too, is there - family roots were strong middle-class with an interest in academics coursing strongly through. I, I just wanted to break a few rules. But after the initial friction wore off, my father was very sporting about it.

I was 23 when I signed on with Taj for Rs 1300 per month. I wanted to focus on the hotel industry and grow with the group. But just a couple of months later, I was not feeling so sure. I was too small for such a large group, my ideas would not be taken too seriously. The input required was not cerebral, the smiles were plastic and my GMs were saying