Bombay (1999-2009)

I will always have a soft corner heart for Bombay¹. Ten years ago on Aug 2, 2009, I landed in Bombay and that made all the difference. On that very same day, I accomplished two of the best things I wanted to do a relatively long time;

1. I browsed the Internet for the first time at an Internet café and created two of my first email IDs: brajeshwar@hotmail.com, which I still own, and brajeshwar@yahoo.com, which I lost.
2. Visited Juhu Beach² — this was a big deal for someone who had never seen the ocean, sea, or any water body except rivers.

Bombay was a fascinating city for that boy from a small town in the extreme corner of India. Bombay was nowhere in the plan to migrate; it was New Delhi, which had all my relatives, friends, and everyone else I knew. In the last week or so of the plan, my friend got selected to be part of an Arts Scholarship program by Essel World in Bombay. I thought, why not?

For the first few months, we lived at the University of Mumbai in Santacruz, where my friend and I even attended a few classes without getting admitted. We ate cheap but good food at the University canteen.

First Job

I started working right away in odd places but with computers. I remember an old, dilapidated building in Colaba where I worked as a computer designer to help design packaging prints. It lasted less than a week. I also had a similar stint at a Desktop Publishing House in Dadar.

After about a month, I landed my first job as a Computer Graphic Designer in a Comic Magazine Startup, Rainbow Books. As part of the job test, they gave me a Floppy Disk, which contained the files to complete a graphic editing task. I had no access to a computer. I went about an hour early for the Interview and finished the job at an Internet café nearby. They were impressed with the task and my story on how I completed it. That’s how I started my professional career in Bombay.

Internet

However, the Internet boom was happening in India then, and I wanted to be part of the wave. I applied to a few jobs related to the Internet.

One such company was Mega Motion. On the day of the interview, while I waited, I did some graphical design trickery with the computer left open where I was seated. I picked up Photoshop, grabbed the Easter egg picture from the About screen, did some masking, and finished it with an interesting design. It was interesting enough that the Boss, walking around, saw it and asked, “Did you do that?” No more formal interviews; I got hired there. That’s how I got the job and into the Internet world.

Unfortunately, I have yet to do work for the web. I did a lot of designs, helping others with eCommerce websites, film screens, etc. It was also the time when I stumbled on Macromedia Flash. It was magic, and I was able to learn programming to make things happen right in front of me.

By then, I had booked my website and had a web presence. That actually led to my getting hired at Peerless Software. There, I built Pocket PC Software Applications for physicians in the USA. I built tools for clients such as Copaxone, Cipla, and many other Healthcare Industry leaders.

A fascinating freelance job I did in the early days of learning Macromedia Flash³ and Director⁴ was doing a pilot demo for SBI. It was a demonstration kiosk to showcase how ATMs will work. I saw it installed at the Wockardt Tower in Bandra, Bombay. I remember the effects coming to life, and you can tap on the screen to see the steps, etc.

I vaguely recall being contacted by an Indian-American doctor from the USA who introduced me to a few senior folks in Bombay. I’ve forgotten the names of all of them except for the person I met once at Wockardt, Dr. G. B. Parulkar.

First Company

In early 2003, I resigned from a very lucrative job and started freelancing full-time. During those freelance days, I did many exciting work and enjoyed every moment. I learned a lot from those experiences, made many friends, and hitch some of the most rewarding relationships.

By 2005, I took the plunge and started our first company - Oinam Software. We undertook some of the most innovative, sometimes very experimental work for clients, such as Adobe, Cambridge University Entrepreneurs, Disney, Macromedia, Obeo, Pearson, STARZ, Tata Consultancy Services, et al.

We also worked for many contractors who sub-contracted their work to us. We were, in fact, one of the best ghost developers to many successful Contractors.

In 2006, Mixercast, Inc acquired the Oinam Team. It was an exciting experience, being part of a Startup and learning from it.

Family

I got married in 2007 and got registered in Bombay on 07-07-07.

Goodbye Bombay

I learned many life lessons in Bombay. I loved its fast-paced, non-nonsense lifestyle.

My family and I left Bombay in 2009.