…. But Vada Pav can never leave you….”Pradeep Kar was a name synonymous with entrepreneurship for Mumbaiites even in Mumbai local trains…. When I used to take a local train from Dombivili to V.T halting at Ghatkopar in the early 90’s….
Ghatkopar had two successful role models those days… one was Atul Nishar … Apple… and then was Pradeep Kar… computer point…. Microland….
The initial days of LAN and WAN… much before the internet days… most of the boys from Ghatkopar would dream of becoming Pradeep Kar…. The post internet era I lost track of him … I heard he shifted to Bangalore…. Then suddenly I bumped into Pradeep Kar at Tie Summit 2009….
He still looked the same…. as he looked in the early 90’s… His face and personality reminded me of Shekhar Kapur…. Handsome debonair…
He was gung ho about Goli Vada Pav from day1 at the summit… I saw him munching vada pav’s… introducing Goli Vada Pav to every one he knew in the summit… With a lot of enthusiasm and passion ….. Mostly corporate head honchos… IT czars ….
In fact, in Pradeep Kar’s introductory address…. he said… “We had such a wonderful two days at Tie summit…. And the highlights of the summit he said were Ratan Tata… Narayan Murthy… K.V Kamath… Nandan Nilekeni… Chanda Kochar… and lots of Vada Pav’s…. 
In the green room on the third day… as I had gone to meet somebody.. Pradeep suddenly looked at me and then casually said…” Kishoreji meet Venky … Goli Vada Pav…. Have you heard about Goli?”…. I was stumped for a moment…. As I offered Goli Vada Pav to Mr. Kishore Biyani….In all this I could see in him a passionate person… trying to help a budding entrepreneur… And on the last day as I left the summit… I saw Pradeep with his trade mark beard standing at our Kiosk…. Munching Goli Vada Pav’s passionately… I summarized………
“You can leave Mumbai and Vada Pav…. But Vada Pav can never leave you….”
The basic necessities of life : food ,clothing and shelter would be transformed to vadapav, cargo's , caravan and bisleri for the future.
ReplyDeleteChanges in lifestyle is a welcome change if one gets imbibed with the changes otherwise the changes and resistance would be in the opposites.Great things happen around if like minded people meet taking the direction of thoughts to a new summit. Nice to read about the things happening around
This is so true...every time I used to get nostalgic when out of bombay for long periods of time, it was the taste of vada pav that kept coming back to me.
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