My father, my mentor
By Sanjeev Kapoor Joint promoter of FoodFood channel My father used to work with the State Bank of India. He was a stickler for perfection and he used to know a lot of things about a lot of things. He had a very practical approach to life, but would also get into finding out minute details about things. He was keenly into cross-industry learning and he knew about technicalities of metallurgy, galvanised iron, garments, types of cloth, sports material, alternate sources of energy… you could ask him virtually anything and he would have the answer. His core domain was finance, which he knew in any case, but his quest for learning and gaining knowledge was never-ending. This was because he worked at a bank. His logic was ‘if we (the bank) are giving money out on loan, we should know the customer’s business well so that the money is not lost’. He was interested in food, not only in eating, but also in cooking. This trait of gathering knowledge about things and a passion to find out more is what I have picked up from my father. That’s why I could dabble with many things, including the TV channel FoodFood, because I have never been scared of getting into new territory. So for me, understanding the viewers, programmes, the finances, satellite technology was part of the game. In all of this, my father’s values need to be mentioned. In his thinking, there was never any grey – either black or white. In 1988, I had gone to Russia to participate in the Festival of India event being held there. It was a lot of fun, as we cooked for hundreds and thousands of people. As chefs, we were given a daily allowance, only a part of which would be spent. In the end, about 90-odd dollars were left with me. Soon after my return to India, I was discussing with my brother Rajeev how the other chefs who had accompanied me to Russia were saying that the unspent dollars could be sold at a premium. Dollars were selling well in the open market, and that was probably the done thing. As we discussed this, my father happened to be in the same room, reading the newspaper. Without taking his eyes off the paper, he said, “Bahut acchhi baat hai, yeh dollars becho, phir chori karo, daaka dalo, phir murder kar dena. (Very well! First sell the dollars, then steal, rob and finally commit a murder)”. I was quite taken aback at his reaction. When I asked him why he was saying so, he told me, “You have 90 dollars, take it to the bank and convert them. If you sell it in the open market, it is an offence, however small it may be. A small offence leads to bigger offences, and you will keep on justifying smaller offences and not notice when they become bigger in life.” He did not tell me directly not to do anything, but he did make the picture vivid in my mind… so I went to the bank and deposited the money. Even today, if I know that I am about to do something wrong, I think about what it could lead to, and inevitably come back to do the right thing. Feedback: sk@sanjeevkapoor.com
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