Setting up Pixels Multimedia in Lucknow: The First Steps

I'd be starting a new life in Lucknow, stepping into uncharted territory, doing things I'd never done before, making mistakes and getting into and out of trouble. Fools rush in... 

In a recent post, I wrote about leaving my job in Baroda and coming back to Bareilly. I had spent a year in Baroda working on a computer and was obsessed with computers and technology. I had developed a deep interest in things like image and audio/video editing, illustration and 3D animation, and wanted to do something in these areas. In the end I decided to try my hand at setting up a training institute for these, in Lucknow. The story continues here.

I was all set to say goodbye to Bareilly and move back to Lucknow, my hometown, where I would start work on setting up my first business venture – Pixels Multimedia, a training institute where people would have access to the latest computers and advanced software, along with high-quality instruction from experts. Despite having zero experience, I would be setting up the institute and handling everything on my own – the belief one has in his or her own capabilities when one is young, is nothing short of astonishing.

Soon, it was time to leave Bareilly. In the two years I’d spent in this small town, I hadn’t been able to make any friends there, perhaps because I did not regularly attend M.Com classes at the Rohilkhand University and mostly studied at home. Much as I hate to say this, my time in Bareilly had been a bit dull and I was excited at the prospect of going back to Lucknow, where I’d once again be among dozens of my old friends from school and college. Once again, my trusty old Yamaha RX100 was loaded on the train to Lucknow and I got into the passenger compartment, which was hot and crowded and smelly as ever. Not that it mattered, because I was going back to my hometown and the prospect of beginning work on setting up the new business was just so exciting! My parents came to the station to see my off, and I was on my way.

The train journey from Bareilly to Lucknow took less than five hours, though because of all the paperwork and haggling involved, it did take me another two hours to get my motorcycle out of the railway station. Once having exited successfully, I hired a rickshaw in which I kept my bags and suitcase etc. and asked the rickshaw wallah to follow me, as I rode my bike to the house where my father had arranged for me to stay. With a clear set of instructions on how to get there (it was 1996 and Google Maps hadn’t been invented yet), finding the place, which was in Indira Nagar, wasn’t too hard. The room I’d been given was on the 1^st floor and was quite large and clean, with an attached bathroom. I was quite pleased with this accommodation and quickly unpacked my stuff and put everything in its place. It was evening already and after a quick shower, I went downstairs in search of sustenance. There were many small restaurants in the vicinity and I found a cheap joint serving Indo-Chinese – one large plate of fried-rice filled me up nicely, though more than the food my mind was on the things I’d need to start working on from the next day. On the way back to the room, I bought some bread, butter and jam, some biscuits, and a bunch of bananas from a nearby shop.

I had brought two sets of clean bedsheets with me from Bareilly, one of which I put on the large double bed (mattresses had also been provided) in my room. Tired with the day’s travel and exertions, I slept off as soon as I hit the bed and woke up at around 7 a.m. the next day. After a quick breakfast, which I put together myself, I quickly went down to find a PCO. No mobile phones in those days, of course, but public pay phones (PCOs) were quite common and were easily accessible almost anywhere in the city. There was a PCO that was just a two-minute walk from my room and it opened up early in the morning and remained open till late in the evening – very convenient for me. I had a list of my friends’ phone numbers ready with me and quickly dialled those from the PCO, and spoke to a dozen of my closest friends. Some of them already knew I was coming back to Lucknow and we were all very happy at that we’d be meeting up soon. Of course, everyone was now busy doing their own thing. After college, life had taken us in different directions. Those of us who came from business families had joined their family businesses. Others had taken up jobs, either in Lucknow or outside the city. And some had even started up their own small businesses. Given that there were no mobile phones in those days, and no messaging or social media apps, keeping in touch wasn’t as easy or simple as it is these days. But, in any case, plans were quickly made and a dozen of us agreed to meet up that day in Hazratganj, in the evening. In the meanwhile, I bought a bunch of newspapers from a nearby vendor and spent most of the day inside my room, reading through dozens of classifieds, looking for commercial premises where I could set up the training institute I had in mind. Made note of at least 6-7 properties that seemed interesting and made a few phone calls to the owners, trying to set up a meeting with some of them.

In the evening, I first rode my bike to my grandparents’ old house in Mahanagar. My grandmother had passed away three years ago, during my B.Com final year exams, and my grandfather was now with my Tau ji (father’s eldest brother) in Jaipur. The family – my father and his brothers – had decided to sell the house shortly after my grandmother passed away, since my grandfather couldn’t possibly have managed such a large, old place on his own. And so, on that day when I rode from my room to my grandparents’ old house, it stood there just as it had always been but was now empty, and locked. It looked quiet and forlorn – a far cry from earlier years, when it had always been full of hustle and bustle, family members sitting and talking in the courtyard at the back or the verandah at the front, noisy children playing and kicking up a racket in the lawns. In my mind’s eye, I could see my hardworking grandmother toiling away in the kitchen and my grandfather sitting in his room, which was at the back of the house, quietly reading a book or the day’s newspaper. My grandfather was a very kind and gentle man. The minute he’d come to know that I liked something – biscuits from a specific shop, or jalebi and samosa from a nearby halwai called Mathura Wallah, he would walk down to these places and get the things I liked. And whenever I said that he should just tell me, and that I’d go on my bike and get these things, he’d only smile in his quiet, gentle manner and not say anything.

Hordes of my friends used to assemble in my room in this house, during my graduation years (1990-1993) and there were often half a dozen scooters and motorcycles parked outside the main gate. I had many, many happy memories associated with that house, and seeing it locked and empty on that day made me indescribably sad. Standing outside the gate, I could see the lawns, where I used to sit during the winters and read my books and magazines. I could the door that led to the room that used to be mine, where my friends and I used to sit and talk for hours. I could see the driveway, the length of which I used to wheelie up and down on my RX100, whenever my grandfather wasn’t in the house. Now, the house was no longer in the family, and the locked gate keeping me out might as well have been a portal to a distant, inaccessible planet. I’d never again be able to go inside the house that was ‘home’ for so long. On that day, It seemed to me that an era had passed – a time that would never come back again.

After standing outside the gate and just staring at the old house for a few minutes, I realised it was time for me to leave – my friends would be waiting for me at Rover’s, near Hazratganj Chauraha, where we’d decided to meet. It was like the old days again, my RX100 zipping and slicing through traffic, accelerating hard past slow-moving cars and with me pulling wheelies at every opportunity I got. This was my city, my Lucknow, and I was just so happy to be back. My friends had already reached when I pulled up outside Rover’s and a thunderous cheer went up – there was much hugging and backslapping as we were meeting up after a long time. Out standard order at Rover’s used to be chicken or mutton rolls, along with a chilled Coke or a Pepsi. And damn, did everything taste good! My friends asked me about my time in Baroda, and about what I intended to do next, here in Lucknow. I told them a bit about my life at GSW, in Baroda, and about my plans for setting up Pixels Multimedia. On their part, my friends had also gotten busy with work; Shobhit was in the process of setting up a small manufacturing unit, Sharad had set up his own desktop publishing business, Anil, Arshad and Manish had joined their family businesses, and some others had taken up jobs in various companies across the city. Some, by that time, had also left Lucknow and had taken up jobs in other cities. One of my best friends in college, Ashish, had left with his family and had gone off to Calcutta. After hanging out for two hours, we dispersed in high spirits, with promises to meet again soon. I rode back to my room in Indira Nagar and with nothing much to do just then, went to sleep.

The next day, I decided to call up Tabrez, who had been one of my best friends in St. Francis College. We had been really close when we were in school but had lost touch over the years. I got his phone number from a common friend and called him up. Tabrez was surprised when I called him up – it had been a few years since we last spoke – and both of us were happy to reconnect. He promised to drop by my place the next day and, sure enough, he did. It was the same old Tabrez and it was as if we’d never been away from each other. I told him about my time in Bareilly and Baroda, and he told me he had been away in Delhi, from where he had completed his graduation. That we’d been the best of friends but had failed to keep in touch after school may seem a bit weird to the smartphone generation, but you have to remember that without mobile phones (most people just had one landline phone at home), messaging apps and social media platforms like Facebook etc., it was difficult for our generation to keep in touch.

Anyway, I told Tabrez about my plans for Pixels Multimedia. He heard me out and said that if I needed help with setting things up and running the business, he’d like to get involved. I wasn’t really expecting this but was secretly quite happy about the fact that Tabrez was willing to work with me. Gettings things done all by myself – and there really was just so much to do – would have been incredibly tough. And while Tabrez wasn’t computer-savvy and had no business skills or experience to speak of, I was sure that having him around would be of great help to me. Without giving it a great deal of thought, I worked out a deal with Tabrez right there and then – I’d be paying him a modest sum of money every month and he’d be helping with anything and everything that needed to be done. That this was perhaps a misstep, I would only realise much later. Given my lack of experience in setting up and running a business, I’d make many mistakes along the way. This, perhaps, was the first of those mistakes. But at that time, both of us were quite happy with the arrangement that we’d worked out, and looked forward to getting started the next day.

The story continues here