48 My Business Journey begins

So, with my new business partner and erstwhile neighbour, Sailesh my business journey began and what a journey it has been! Our family friend, Mr MP Agarwal had offered us his Mill address which was in Mogul Lane, Matunga to operate from. Using this address, I quickly printed our visiting cards and as mentioned earlier, I had decided to call my Company Argosy which means a ship laden with goods since I was planning to be in the exports business. Also, I wanted a bit of the Greek touch as I remember reading about Jason and the Argonauts from Greek mythology!

Next, I opened my first business account in the Canara Bank which my ancestors had founded – for this I had to go to the Fort Area in Tamarind Lane, and which happened to be one of the oldest branches of the bank in Bombay.

As we did not want to sit in the Mill premises, Sailesh and I spent most of our time visiting various Chambers of Commerce and export promotion agencies trying to meet as many people as we could who could help us in our export business. As Mr Agarwal was a Mill owner and in the textiles business, we decided to focus on textile related products like cotton yarn, grey fabrics, power loom lungis, hosiery t-shirts and cotton made ups as these items had an export market.

During our visits to the Fort Area of Bombay, we accidentally one day entered the office of a travel agent and as it happened, we got into a conversation with the young men in this office who were very friendly! We discovered that they too were engaged in the export business and very soon this common interest made us meet regularly. Two of these people, Pesi Amroliwala and Cyrus Captain soon became our good friends and one day they invited us for a meeting in the Volga restaurant in Churchgate where they used to gather often in the mornings as they knew the owner of the restaurant and they were allowed to sit there till lunch time. Soon this became our impromptu office, and we spent many a pleasant hour drinking coffee and having a sandwich or two!

One day I met my old St Mary’s schoolmate, Brian Alexander and when I told him I was in the export business, he quickly told me that there was an Arab importer currently visiting Bombay who was interested in importing fresh vegetables from India. I discussed this idea and opportunity with my Volga gang of friends, and they immediately said that I should explore this opportunity! My friends had contacts with certain chartering companies who could provide us with charter flights that could airlift fresh vegetables to the Gulf. 

Thus began a new adventure……!