Going North

Ideas start in strange places. The more romanticized ones start in garages. Then be it rock bands or corporates, they do make their famous journeys through garages. We went a step further, took the car out of the garage and had an idea. An idea whose purpose was to do something big and to think different.

Hit the road up north in a continuation of birthday celebrations and decided to implement the idea. The idea germinated in a certain bungalow that had the old Bombay legacy attached to it. You don't make bungalows in Bombay anymore. It had everything that a garage would have. Empty cartons, stockpiles of books, old chairs, dusty and misty ambience, and also rats. There was no disparity, everyone used plastic chairs, and everyone sat close to each other, ate, drank, argued, discussed, and had cup loads of chai both in the office and in the hotel opposite the road that epitomized our nationalist fervor as well, appropriately named 'Jai Hind' (Hail India). Germinated ideas also get branches and that where the fledgling branches were formed. Romance of a different kind, it’s like those courtship days, all happy and immensely volatile.

Couple of months later our team size started going north and so did we. Bid adieu to our ‘garage’ rather abruptly and just vanished one night. We had set our sights on a defunct warehouse and that’s where we moved. The romance continued, because it still had the smell of the classic success stories. The ones that start humbly in garages and eventually go on to own a whole parking lot. We now had a nearly well designed office and adequate seating space. We still argued, discussed, and drank cup loads of chai either in our conference rooms or outside with the trees being silent spectators. From 12 to 60 we grew in this warehouse we called home. Saw happy and turbulent times, made our alias permanent, did business and continued going north. We even faced the threat of having our office sealed on account of our landlord’s bankruptcy. And like Frank Sinatra sings, “We faced it all and we grew tall, and did it our way.” (modified to suit context).

Soon it was time to grow out of the warehouse, so we moved north again. And for the first time our office had the smell of a true corporate. Parking lots, multiple conference rooms, cabins for our senior management, a proper reception area, a swanky board room, and eventually we got fire extinguishers as well. Still a long way to go to having our own parking lot, but we are getting there.

A lot has happened in these four years since the idea and we’re still going north. Maybe someday we will also achieve our purpose of doing something big and thinking differently. The last line in the ‘Think Different’ ad by Apple (our original inspiration) still resonates in my mind, “Because the people, who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” and therein lies my hope for our own parking lot.