Back to Jasubhai, with Indian Auto

Indian Auto had become dull, drab and uninteresting over the years. My aim was to inject some excitement into the magazine with fresh design and vastly improved quality of articles. That said, this cover (March 2001) backfired and we got a lot of flak for not wearing helments for the cover shoot

In an earlier post, I wrote about how I had moved from CHIP to CNET India, lured by the prospects of being a part of the dotcom boom and a big jump in salary. However, things did not work out at CNET and Sridhar and I put in our papers within three months of joining the organisation. Sridhar soon found another job in Bangalore and left Bombay, while I was left to fend for myself and had to think about what I wanted to do next. The story continues here.

After leaving CNET India, I spent a week or 10 days in quiet solitude at home, only venturing out for meals. Sridhar had vacated his apartment in Raval Tower and had left for Bangalore. I had stayed on and had to take stock of my options. Going back to CHIP was out of the question – I never even thought about it. That chapter of my life was over and I had moved on, both mentally and physically. But there was this other thing. The Jasubhai Group had two media divisions back then – one was Jasubhai Digital Media (JDM), which had CHIP, Computer Reseller News (CRN), Network Computing and ZDNet India. This was the cool, new-age media house managed primarily by Maulik, Mr Jasubhai Shah’s son, with some inputs from Gourav, the outstandingly brilliant former editor of CHIP who was now based in Goa. The other division was Jasubhai Media, under which there were some of the group’s older magazines like Chemical Engineering World, Indian Architect & Builder and Indian Auto.

Indian Auto was earlier named Indian Auto Journal (IAJ) and had been launched in 1986 by Business Press Pvt. Ltd. When I was in school, I used to buy copies of this magazine from Kalakunj Bookstore, which was only a 5-minute walk from St. Francis College, where I studied. Indian Auto Journal, along with Car & Bike International (C&BI) were the two automotive magazines that helped foment my deep, lifelong interest in cars and motorcycles. In fact, I used to idolize Gautam Sen, editor of IAJ and Adil Jal Darukhanawal, editor of C&BI, and used to write to them occasionally – and was overjoyed whenever one of my letters was published in the ‘letters to the editor’ section of either magazine.

By mid-2000, when I left CNET India and was looking for work, C&BI had already shut down and IAJ, which had been bought over by the Jasubhai Group at some point and renamed Indian Auto, was somehow doddering along. Adil, who was earlier at C&BI, had joined Tata Infomedia and had launched Overdrive, while Hormazd Sorabjee, who was earlier with Auto India (another automotive publication that had been launched by the Business India Group), had tied up with the UK-based Haymarket and had launched Autocar India. There was also Motoring, which belonged to the Business Standard newspaper group. So, while Overdrive and Autocar India had taken the lead and were clearly ahead of the others, Indian Auto had fallen way behind due to neglect and poor editorial leadership.

I though I had learned a few things about magazines and editorial work at CHIP, under Gourav’s tutelage. I had a deep interest in cars and motorcycles. And thought maybe I could explore the possibility of joining Indian Auto; maybe I could shake things up a bit, change the way the magazine was being produced and bring it up to contemporary editorial standards. I did not personally know Mr PR Ramesh, who was heading Jasubhai Media at that time, but I had met Maulik (Mr Jasubhai Shah’s son, who was heading JDM after Gourav left for Goa) a few times. Maybe I could speak to him, I thought to myself. But in the end, I decided I didn’t really know Maulik well enough to call him up directly. And so, I thought of Sujata, his sister, who had been a part of the CHIP Special Projects team. While she was, of course, the daughter of the company’s founder-owner, Sujata was always soft-spoken and affable – very grounded, approachable, friendly. Mr Shah, in addition to being the founder-owner of the Jasubhai Group, was also the Honorary Consul General of Austria and had represented Austria, in India, for 20 years. He was certainly an important, influential man, but with Sujata, she never made us feel that we were mere employees of her father. She was easy to talk to, always warm and cordial in her manner. And so, I called her up one day, explained to her that I had left CNET and that I wanted to explore the possibility of joining Indian Auto. Sujata said I should meet Maulik and discuss this with him, which is what I’d been hoping for. And sure enough, she set up a meeting for me with Maulik – I could go and meet him the next day, she said.

The next day, I landed up at the Jasubhai office in New Bombay – a 15-minute autorickshaw ride from my house in CBD Belapur. Maulik and I had met very briefly during my time with CHIP but we’d never really had a chance to talk to each other. But on that day, I shed any inhibitions that I may have had earlier, rolled out some of my favourite foreign car and motorcycle magazines, which I thought were some of the best designed and produced automotive publications, and started explaining my thoughts on how we could change, update and improve Indian Auto, and hopefully do great things with the magazine. While I don’t really think Maulik paid too much attention to my chatter, he did agree to hire me on the spot, right there and then. I believe Gourav may have said some good things about me to Maulik – either during the time when I was with CHIP, or maybe the day before – it seemed likely that Maulik would have called up Gourav and taken his feedback on whether I might be a suitable candidate for Indian Auto. In any case, I was asked to speak to Mr PR Ramesh and finalise things with him.

Mr Ramesh – who was, I was to discover later, a thorough gentleman, kind, patient and soft-spoken – called me up and asked about my expected salary etc. I requested that, if possible, he should pay me as much as I was getting at CNET India, and he agreed. And so, I was hired as executive editor at Indian Auto and was asked to report to the Indian Auto office the next day. After CHIP had moved from Balarama, in Bandra Kurla complex, to Taj Building on DN Road, the Balarama building had been taken over by Jasubhai Media’s publications and hence that’s the place where Indian Auto was now based. Within just two years, I was back at the location where I’d started from!

During my time at CHIP, I used to be in office at or before 9 a.m. sharp and did the same on my first day at Indian Auto – I was at the door at 9 a.m. One person was sweeping the floor outside the main entrance and nobody – not one single person – was in the office yet. I walked inside and sat down on one of the chairs in the small reception area, and waited. People started trickling in at around 10 a.m. and seemed to be in no particular rush to get to their desks and start working. Everything seemed to be happening at a slow, unhurried pace, without any sense of urgency whatsoever, which was in stark contrast to how things used to be at CHIP. The Indian Auto editorial team – all of three people – wafted in at 11 a.m. There was Biswajyoti, who was doing most of the car road tests and reviews, Edsel, who mostly handled two-wheeler stories and Norman, who was in charge of news. A fourth person, Lopa, who was an editorial coordinator, was absent on that day.

That first meeting with the trio was a bit of a shock, I have to admit. They seemed to be listless, aimless, directionless. I spent the entire day talking to them at length and nothing much came of it. The three gentlemen did not seem to have a clue about why they were there in the first place, and seemed completely disinterested in Indian Auto and in anything that I had to say about the magazine and its future direction. Biswajyoti was a skilled driver but his writing skills left much to be desired. Norman was difficult to talk to – he seemed unable to understand whatever I said, and I couldn’t understand any of what he said – and this despite the fact that we both spoke plain, simple English! Edsel was simply disinterested – he just did not want to work in the new framework that I would try to implement at the magazine, and he left the company shortly after I joined.
 
Edsel’s leaving seemed to have a sobering effect on Biswajyoti – or Joe, as he liked to be called – and Norman. Both were now willing to sit down for a discussion on how we could start working in a much more organized manner, with some systems and processes in place. They realised that the earlier free-for-all, do-what-you-want scenario had come to and end and for whatever it’s worth, they were willing to change their ways and see how things panned out.  

Up until then, Indian Auto had been functioning without an editorial calendar and without any planning for what stories would be done for which issue. There was no photographer on the team – surprising, for a magazine where photographs were such an integral part of the package. One of the freelancers who used to contribute to the magazine – Nivedita – helped me get in touch with Subir, a photographer she knew and with whom she had worked with in the past. I called Subir to office, spoke to him, saw some of his work and was convinced he could work for us. He was hired. Lopa, the editorial coordinator (who was absent on the first day when I landed up in office), seemed to be efficient and dependable. She had a list of contacts, could call up people and get things organized. Between Joe, Norman and I, we drew up a basic editorial calendar and slotted in stories for the next three months. We started keeping track of all new car and motorcycle launches, tried to ensure that Indian Auto got an invite for every new vehicle launch and media test drives, and started work on a much-needed design revamp for the magazine. Designers Anmol and Ganesh, who also worked on other magazines that belonged to Jasubhai Media, took special interest in designing a new look for Indian Auto and put in extra time and effort in their work. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the air – the long-neglected Indian Auto was finally getting some attention, and there was a renewed sense of purpose within the team.

Joe was still a bit of an eccentric, communicating with Norman was still a major challenge and hiring new freelance contributors was tough due to budgetary constraints. But despite these limitations, things were looking up. And then, at the worst possible moment, tragedy struck.

The story continues here