The Closet Musician

An interesting article in the NYT caught my eye : it mentioned that staff at Goldman Sachs are required to keep a low profile about their extra-curricular activities.  Several Goldman staffers who gave public performances in music during their leisure hours have been "encouraged" to leave the firm as this was not in line with company policies.  "Bankers should behave like Bankers. You are not supposed to be known for anything else or stand out for anything besides your work" was how industry observers interpreted this stance by Goldman Sachs towards what their employees did during their leisure hours.

Several years ago at the beginning of my career in MR, I was in a similar predicament.  I was very keen on learning music during my leisure hours, and I actually enrolled for music classes after office hours.  Unfortunately I did not bother to keep it a secret, and very soon I started getting subtle and not-so-subtle messages that pursuing extra-curricular activities was not in line with what is expected from a junior Market Research executive - unless of course he is not serious about his career and lacks ambition. All serious and ambitious MR executives should be slogging away in the office late into the night as an indication of how seriously they took their career.  I seemed to have unfortunately sent the message that I had the time to pursue a hobby - and was not keen to sharpen my professional skills.

Managing one's career is a lot about managing perceptions - especially during the formative period in the career when a person is expected to be dedicated only to his career.  After the person has made his mark, then of course, one has slightly little more liberty in openly doing what one wants to do in his leisure hours.

I quickly corrected myself therefore - and made my affair with music such a closely guarded secret that not even my close colleagues were aware of it - and all because I was worried about being perceived as "non-serious" and uncommitted to my career.

Much has changed in the MR industry since then - and I am glad to say that the industry has become a lot more relaxed, and does encourage diversity in its talents.  I came out of the closet a few years ago - and am no longer embarrassed about talking about my passion for music and the fact that I play the harmonium.

So, I felt a bit strange reading the NYT article - I had expected the banking industry (especially investment banking) to have evolved a lot more quickly than the MR industry - but then life is always full of surprises.

Janki Nivas

My PG room over-looked the busy Ambedkar Road.  From my balcony I could see Parsi Gymkhana and the beautiful "Five Gardens".  From the window I could see bits of Ruia college.  Dadar TT was a 5 minute walk, and Matunga with its host of South Indian Restaurants and second hand book stalls was a 10 minute walk.  I could not - and still cannot - think of any place more centrally located than this in Mumbai.

My land-lord, Mr Abhyankar, was a kindly old gentleman.  The entire Janki Nivas - comprising of 8 apartments originally belonged to his father - but because of the tenancy act had passed on to various tenants.  Mr. Abhyankar therefore constructed a pent-house atop the building for himself.  None of his 3 sons lived in Mumbai - and hence it was more for the sake of companionship that they decided to rent out the  spare bedroom as a PG accommodation.

On the ground-floor of the building was Savur's X-Ray clinic.  There was always a queue of people with broken arms and legs waiting patiently for the doctor's appointment. One other notable tenant of this building was the very famous musician and music guru Pandit KG Ginde.  Whenever I passed by his door on my way to the 4th floor, I could hear his sonorous voice carrying out riaz.

My land-lord and his wife treated me with love and affection - something rare in Mumbai where people barely have time to speak to others.  There were times when I had fallen ill, and it is my land-lord and his wife who had taken care of me.

However, despite the over-whelming advantages of my new PG, it had one strong disadvantage - and that was the noise of the traffic on Ambedkar road.  It is one of the broadest roads in Mumbai - and one of the busiest.  Throughout night and day, the snarl of traffic will reverberate in my room.  My land-lord and his wife were both hard of hearing - and I suspected this was because of constant exposure to the traffic sound.

The first couple of nights I could not sleep - but then I got used to the sound and started sleeping soundly (forgive the pun).  Or perhaps, I thought, I was going deaf already.

Paying Guest in Mumbai

"Watch out for land-lords trying to palm off their daughter to you" was the advice given to me by my aunt when she heard that I am shortly headed to Mumbai, and will be looking for Paying Guest (PG) accommodation.

My first PG accommodation was in an old ramshackle villa called Norman House in Agar Bazar, Dadar near the Portuguese church.  The land-lord - a crafty old Anglo-Indian - charged me Rs 500 per month for a bed in a twin sharing room (this was in the good old '80s).  The "twin sharing" room soon accommodated an extra 2 beds which made for indeed very crowded living.

Wanting my own private space, I briefly moved into my own separate room in another PG place near Kaboothar Khana in Dadar.  The experiment was short-lived as I realised that I was living in a house that had a drug addict (and with all its attendant problems) - so soon I was sheepishly back at my old PG in Agar Bazar.  The land-lord triumphantly told me "I told you so" - and increased the rent to Rs 600 as punishment for my treachery.

One met varied people as room-mates in the PG.  In fact it was like a railway station - with people coming and occupying a bed for a month and then moving on. In the course of a few months I befriended a team of encyclopaedia salesmen, a steel salesman, a telephone salesman, a chemist, and a mystery man who used to sleep throughout the day.  One of the room mates was an estate agent, and he told me about an excellent PG facility located in Hindu colony in Dadar TT.  It was a single occupancy room (a real luxury in Mumbai) with a balcony, and the land-lord only wanted Rs 800 per month as rent.  However, apparently the owners - an aged Maharashtrian couple - insist on carrying out a detailed interview with aspirants, and had rejected several aspirants to the room.  I anyway decided to try my luck, and went to meet them at their house.

I had tea with them on their terrace over-looking the busy Ambedkar road.  Something in me must have clicked - for soon they told me that I can move in.  A room to myself - finally!