“I graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) – the 6th Batch of 1971 – much before the lay public was even aware of its existence. That explains my entry and more surprisingly (at least to me), my exit. Those were the days of the Naxalite movement when industry moved out en masse from Bengal. Our temporary location was at Sinthee Mor in North Calcutta, virtually the heart of the movement. We had an excellent faculty, library and a band of gifted students, a majority of them engineers, some from the IITs.

The next 25 years were spent with Dunlop in increasingly responsible roles in different parts of the country, interspersed by a brief stint with an American freight-forwarding company and two eventful years at Nairobi with a rubber-products manufacturer. An overseas exposure is something I would recommend to everyone for the varied challenges one faces. Mine included two life-threatening incidents and the challenge of getting members of the sales team from different African tribes to work together.

After my corporate stint, I spent eight years setting up and running a trading enterprise with a British investor in construction chemicals. It was challenging, taking on large MNCs at a time when working capital was under intense pressure and the cash flows of even large, reputed corporations were adversely affected.

The big question that confronts us when we near retirement, is what next? For me, this was a no-brainer. Having led an active sporting life, I knew I wanted to learn martial arts. Having hesitated for nearly two years, I finally mustered up the courage to walk up to the Nepali Sensei who taught karate at the park. He had one look at my balding grey head and said “Aap ki to umar ho gayi hai” – you are past the age for karate. It took a display of my muscular arms to persuade him to take me on. Five years later, aged 65, I was presented a black belt.