PANTALOONS- PUNE

It was 7:15 a.m. I was standing under the fly-over at Vashi, near the Mumbai-Pune Highway, in Navi Mumbai. Few state transport buses and some privately managed Volvo buses were seen halted at the junction. All buses coming from Mumbai halts here on their way to Pune. I could hear the bus attendant calling for passengers, some from the windows, and some standing near the door of the bus. Representatives from various travel agents could be seen selling the tickets to the travellers waiting nearby. On the footpath there were few vendors selling newspapers and magazines, few selling hot ginger tea, and cigarettes. It seemed they were doing good business looking at the number of people surrounding them.Some people could be seen standing on the foot-path in small groups and talking and chortling. The recently built expressway was a huge excitement for all travellers and I too was eager to travel on the expressway. It was a very cold day; the road around fifty meters ahead could be hazily noticed because of the fog. I could feel the cold breeze around my ear. My nose and ear lobe had gone very cold. I had applied lip-balm on my lips and worn warm clothes to comfort myself from the cold and was waiting for Sadashiv to pick me from here..
Around fifteen minutes later I noticed a cream colour huge vehicle approaching. I saw Sadashiv sitting behind and waved at him. The vehicle stopped right beside me. I opened the door and made myself comfortable.
“Hi Chinmaya, Good Morning, hope I did not make you wait for long.”
“No, Sir.”
We were on our way to Pune to visit the Pantaloon’s store. I still remember it was a very cold day in the month of September, 2004.

It was a wonderful experience to drive on the expressway. The highway reminded me of the ones in Jeddah and Dubai. It had three lanes and the divider was huge with colourful plants planted on them. It was a pleasant climate, and the scenery around was beautiful. I could clearly make out the transition from the colourful buildings situated besides the highway to the colourful, fresh greenery of landscape, and mountains that took over as we drove along. It was a beautiful sight. We were driving at around 120km/hr. A few minutes later we reached the Toll Plaza where we had to pay toll to drive on the expressway. A few minutes later we reached the Food Court situated on the highway.
“Let’s halt here and have some bite.” said Sadashiv.
“Fine with me, sir”
It was a nice open food-court. People could be seen sitting and eating on the chairs and tables placed on the open lawn in front of the food court. I noticed many vehicles parked outside. At one corner there was a small garden, with some swans moving around. People could be seen crowded near it and looking at the swans, some trying to divert their attention, and some trying to feed them. Some kids were also trying to catch them. To the right side there were many small stalls selling many types of cookies, jelly sweets, and chikkies (an Indian sweet made from a combination of grounded nuts, dry fruits and jaggery.)
As the driver of our vehicle parked the car we got down and went towards one of the counters.
“What would you like to order?” asked Sadashiv.
“I”ll go for one plate idli-wada (a South Indian dish) and a cup of tea.”
“Give me one plate idli-wada, and…..”
Before Sadashiv could complete the man at the counter said, “ get the coupons from there” pointing towards his left side.
As I went ahead to the lawn to make place for us to sit at one of the tables Sadashiv approached the other counter.
He came back with the order placed and took one of the seats. Sadashiv had ordered one vegetable sandwich for himself, the idli-vada for me and two cups of tea for both of us. I noticed the steam coming out from the hot plates and tea served to us. We both enjoyed the hot snacks and the cup of tea in midst the cold weather.
We immediately left from there to commence with the remaining journey ahead. In an hour or so we reached the Khandala ghats. It was an awesome sight. The road was carved across the ghat, with steep bends and curves along the way. We could observe from our rear window the region fully covered with green hills, deep valleys on either side of the highway. I could feel the clean crisp air greet us, as we drove our way up the steep ghats leaving the humidity, heat and dust behind.

“Chinmaya, I think we will be reaching Pune in another one hour.”
“Yes Sir.”
“I want you to know some few things about this store that we are visiting. It’s a small store, but the only store doing profits in the Zone. The team is good, but do not have a leader at the moment to guide them.” He then looked at me. I could sense the big hopes that he had from me.
“You will have to understand the team, get them motivated and keep the clock ticking. I do not want this store to go down in numbers.”
“Do not worry sir.” I told him.

We reached Pune around 11:15 am.
For two years I was associated with Big Bazaar –LP . I had the experience of handling store operations in both lifestyle and value formats. Knowing this around the month of August 2004 Sadashiv had offered me a wonderful opportunity to handle the operations of Pantaloons lifestyle store here in Pune. Pune is the second largest city in the state of Maharashtra in western India. It is known for its educational facilities, having more than a hundred educational institutes and nine universities. It is also known as The Oxford of the East, due to the various educational institutions, and also sometimes referred to as The Detroit of India owing to the many manufacturing companies, particularly automobile giants, having their base within the city's metropolitan area.
This store was situated at a prime location near Bund Garden Road in Pune city. It was located inside one of the malls named Inox Multiplex. This store for some reasons was not performing as expected. As Sadashiv had big hopes from me and felt that I could do something about it recommended my name to Ved. I took up this challenge and agreed to shift base to Pune.