One needs to have a tenacity to fight with diffirrent circumstances!

Q. Tell us about your early days, what was your dream when you were in school, did u think you will be coming to Mumbai from a small town?

Well I was born and brought up in small village, 27 houses, in Rajasthan. My early days were of a farmer’s son who did all the hard worked one does in agriculture and cattle farming. As far as dreams at that point are concerned “Dreams were meant to be seen while you sleep”, and then it was all about real hard work not smart work as most of the people do in our country living in villages.

Coming to Mumbai was never an option till I was 15 years of age and Mumbai for me was a dream without pictures in it as I could only think of it but could not visualize.

But once Ii had shifted to Jaipur and then Jodhpur the dream of coming Mumbai started shaping up as I started hearing, reading about Mumbai, but still it was with lot of fear as I did know anyone here.

And finally on June 24, 2005 I came to Mumbai for the first time with my friends for holidays and that was it, Mumbai stuck so hard in my mind that I was back here to stay for longer period, within 40 days.

Q. What were the problems faced when you started your career in Mumbai?

When you’re in Mumbai without knowing anyone, problems will be countless. Biggest problem for anyone who comes to Mumbai is to have a place to stay. Having not known any one I had to live in a guest house which was a nuisance in itself, a place I still can’t believe I lived in for 4 months. To travel in a city which runs as though there is no tomorrow requires lots of patience and perseverance.

The biggest challenge here is to keep pace with time and the people here; or else you could be among the thousands of people who get lost every day in the city. Hence I had to be careful of what I was doing.

It must have been difficult for you to survive in a city like Mumbai. Tell us about your journey to the current position without any support in this city.

I had my own problems from surviving on Rs.2000 till I got a job, and if I did not get a job, the dreams I started seeing were in danger of being shattered. I got job 20 days after I arrived in Mumbai, faced numerous problems, from having budgeted Rs.10 a day for my daily expenses including my food, to being rejected by call centres companies to getting the job in a shopping mall after 20 days of continuous struggle.

But once I got the first job in the city of dream, I knew I found my track and never looked back.  I have started my career as an associate selling cosmetics product at a shopping mall to becoming Manager of a Cinema.

And I am loving every bit of my current job from working at a cinema which itself is unique in India to meeting thousands of people every day that includes a common man to the big shots of the city.

Q. What lessons can young people learn from your experiences, what message would you like to give them?

I just want to say that “one needs to have a tenacity to fight with different circumstances” or else you will get so weighed down by the circumstance that you lose your way.