दो साल baad

namaskar mandali,

much time and water has passed beneath the bridge that connects 17th may 05 to 19th may 07!!! i've been itching on n off to write on this blog, or rather should i say itching to blog here...."blog" has now become a verb in itself....

so i guess this write up will have to be dedicated to try n explain where on earth was i....

well, going back in time....almost a month after watching DDLJ in b'lore, on 26th june 05 i was given my 1st job posting in life....to become the AREA BUSINESS MANAGER for Rest of Maharashtra for channel sales, located in Pune. The stint lasted for 13 months, till August 2006, post which i moved to Mumbai in the same capacity.

this posting required me to handle sales of UPS, DMP, Retail (POS) printers, networking products right from Jalgaon to Sindhudurg, from Pune to Latur. I had 4 big distributors contributing between 6 to 10 lacs of business and others that i appointed. United Peripherals, Suntech Computers, Microdot and Aditya Peripherals Pvt Ltd located in Pune, Aurangabad, Nasik and Kolhapur were my bread n butter. I was lucky to have the opportunity to appoint budding distributors like Viren Infosystems in Latur, Yash Computers in Ahmednagar and Mithicomp in Sangli.

Business grew during my stint and the average more than doubled in 13 months. The biggies were sufficiently stocked, keeping company perspectives in mind, and their channel retailer width was sufficiently expanded, keeping in mind their rotation of money. I had a very faithful and hardworking salesman in Mohsin, who excellently developed North Maharashtra for us. Pune remained underachieved and underdeveloped as a totally wrong resource (a fresh young girl - who never wanted this job) was deployed by the company for this market.

March 2006 was a highlight, with me achieving my AAKRAMAN target for the DJFM programme of selling DMPs. 555 was the figure i clocked!!

Parallel to i was going the whole hog on the roller coaster of personal life, with Ashita's parents suddenly denying and then 2 days later announcing our marriage plans!! I plan to blog snippets of my love life (till date!!) in another blog, with due editing and permission from the Mrs.!!

I missed the Mumbai floods of 26 July 2006, but was forced to declare a holiday even at my Pune office as Mula-Mutha had flooded some of Pune's bridges. By august, i was threatening to leave wep, had they not moved me into the ABM vacancy at Mumbai, my favourite city yet and a common 1st destination for both Ashita and I.

She moved into Mumbai late August 2006, and thus started a very interesting phase of pre-marital love life for both of us. Planning to meet only on weekends, and ending up doing so during weekdays, with me having to travel back home to Thane (during bachelorhood, i stayed with my aaji - nani for hindi readers - in Thane) very late in the nights, we both had a good time.

Mumbai was a tough posting as WeP had historically messed up in that city!! And much as i was trying, there was little cooperation from company's side and the distributors had started switching to other businesses one by one.

By January things became evident कि दाल नही गलने वाली. My old boss - who was my 1st in life and best till now - Rasti Shroff - had left and so had the next, Jayant Kaup. Many others in the organization were in a state of flight, and so i was left with no other career option than to choose the way out.

Sumit Mittal came up with the option of StanChart having openings for Sales Managers in Personal Loans, which is where i ended up promptly 22 days before i was wedded to Ashita!!

And here i am today, staying at J-16, Jalvayu Vihar, Powai....happily typing this blog away from Nikhil's lappy....

Do look forward to my next blog, which if all things fall into place will be my love story!!

Signing off for now....अलविदा