With the profits he made from the bar, he bought another country liquor bar shanty. Within 25 years, he had created a chain of 6 bars, 2 English liquor shops, 4 country liquor shops, a resort in Khandala, two wives and 2 legitimate daughters and an illegitimate son.
The oldest among the three was Daya Anna’s illegitimate son, Chika, full name Chaitanya Shetty.
Around Mark’s age, tall, broad shouldered and athletic with a Libran charm, Chika had everything going for him except a legal parentage. Chika would often visit the Irani joint to get first-hand knowledge of how to manage a restaurant.
It was there, that he met Roy and Zaheer.
“Indian men have huge egos and small dicks and Indian women have wide hips to accommodate the big ones, and yet, the funny part is Indian women do not crave sex directly, they crave attention. Give them attention and they will give you sex.”
Chika would talk and Roy and Zaheer would listen with rapt attention.
Chika was legendary with the married women of the locality. Though not exactly good looking, he had more than just a charming smile and stylish persona to help him … the 8 inches he carried in his pants. Needless to say, it was a huge hit with the seasoned, bored, attention seeking ladies.
“Why do you go after aunties and not the good looking young ones?” Zaheer asked as he poured out another drink for Chika.
“Simple yaar, girls fuss too much about putting out and they give major stress afterwards.” Chika laughed, “the aunties do it well and offer
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tea and biscuits afterwards. Anyway marriage is too much of a burden to place on two people. Sometimes you need a third person to help out.”
For Roy and Zaheer, Chika was the substitute for sex education that the State Government had promised in every school, but never had the guts to implement. Chika was their sex guru.
Every time Chika would flaunt an expensive gift from a satisfied aunty, the more his admiration would grow in the duo.
Chika loved to drink, but he had a problem. Most bar owners knew his dad and the minute he visited one of the outlets, a call would go out to his dad who would in turn call his mother and the firebrand that she was, she would storm into the bar and drag him out by his ear, much to his embarrassment and the amusement of the other patrons.
Hence, a way out was in operation. There was a fairly large garage cum godown attached to the Irani restaurant where the staff parked their bicycles. The trio had set up a damaged table and a few plastic chairs from the restaurant, to create their own watering hole.
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Chika would easily manage a bottle of cheap whiskey or rum from one of the wine shops; ice and soft drinks were available in the restaurant. Though a bit stuffy, it was cheap, convenient, safe and … pure genius.
Money, chicks, flicks and drinks. Life went on smoothly for the trio till the not so routine transfer of the Assistant Commissioner of Police of their zone took place.
The new ACP, M. Venkatraman was a no- nonsense and upright officer. He was posted in Mumbai’s Zone 2 for these precise qualities.
The black marketing gangs emboldened by the corrupt cops were becoming a menace to the citizens of the area. Gang fights, murders, eve- teasing were becoming rampant.
The concerned citizens had written to the State’s Home Minister and since the State Assembly Elections were on the anvil, the Home Minister had acted and posted Venkatraman to the zone. The very second day of his appointment, Venkatraman conducted a surprise raid at Rajhans and rounded up the blackers. Amongst the ones caught was Zaheer.
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Roy and Chika went to the Chembur Police Station lockup in the evening to see Zaheer, but they were not allowed to. They tried the next morning and again in the evening but to no avail. Finally, after 3 days, Zaheer was released after his father gave a written bond that he will not partake in any criminal activities henceforth.
Zaheer could hardly walk and had to be helped into the waiting taxi. He was in excruciating pain but there was not a single injury on his body. For 72 hours, he was sleep deprived, hung upside down and beaten systematically and scientifically in such a way that not a single bone was broken and not an inch of skin torn.
That was Venkatraman’s specialty.
Zaheer was never the same again. The pain subsided in a few weeks but he would wake up screaming in the middle of the night, would be afraid of darkness and could not perform with the chicks.
The last part depressed him most and he drank to get over his depression. The more he drank, the more he sank.
Fearing Venkatraman’s wrath, Bhuria and the senior members of the gang had gone underground and Roy stopped his black marketing activity at Rajhans.
It was funny, how just one bold, honest cop could single-handedly make such a difference, in a country besieged with corruption.
Money was tight. Roy and Zaheer were used to the good life and there was a limit to what Chika could hustle for them.
One evening, while they were getting drunk on
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 39
cheap whiskey in the garage, Chika opened a packet of peanuts wrapped in a paper that he had bought from the hawker outside the restaurant.
It was a pamphlet which Chika read out loud in jest.
“RAJU CABLE NETWORK”, he read “Bored of watching only a single channel on TV? Now you can watch the latest Hindi and Hollywood movies every day for just Rs 50 a month! Call Raju Mhatre on 5226034 for details.”
They had a hearty laugh and went on drinking into the night. The mood soon turned sombre and they cursed Venkatraman and their financial woes caused by his clamp down.
“We should start a legit business” slurred Chika.
“Yeah sure,” replied Roy, “but what? We neither have the expertise nor the money!”
“Why not the Cable TV business?” jested Zaheer.
It seemed like a great joke and all of them laughed uncontrollably. But the conversation continued the next evening. This time Chika took the lead; he had obviously thought about it and being his father’s son, had spotted an opportunity.
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“Listen,” he explained enthusiastically, “this business is made for us! We could spruce it up and use this garage as our office. Roy, you have excellent knowledge and understanding of movies, both English and Hindi. Zaheer, your brother has a video library with the best and latest collection of films.
“It’s perfect!” Chika concluded.
“What about equipment and cables?” asked Roy. “I have enquired. We will need Rs 30,000 initial
investment for the equipment and cables and if we can paint and do up the office ourselves, we could be in business,” Chika had the answer ready.
There was another perk for Chika which he did not share with his prospective partners. He would get the opportunity to get friendly with hundreds of aunties and he was sure he could get into the panties of quite a few horny ones. The thought made him salivate.
By the next week, the trio was convinced that this was the business they were born for. They started visiting other cable operators and finding
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out how things were done. Chika, then, came up with the master stroke!
One of his friend’s friend worked as a manager with Raju Cable Network, which was the leading network in Chembur. The boy, Prakash, knew the business inside out and had recently had a fall out with his boss Raju Mhatre. Chika had managed to convince him to join their fledgling outfit.
Now, all that remained was the matter of getting the finances in. Chika offered to put in Rs 15,000; he had already spoken to his dad, and being an astute businessman, Daya Anna had seen the opportunity. He also allowed them to use the garage as their office and though he could have easily invested the whole amount, the wily man wanted Chika’s partners to not have it too easy.
The next afternoon, when George was away, Roy went through his cupboard and found a jewel
lery box in which, tucked neatly in satin, were gold bangles that belonged to his mother. He uttered a silent apology to the mother he had never met and took the bangles. He knew that George would be too drunk to notice.
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That evening when they met at the garage, he showed the booty to Zaheer and Chika. But having the gold was one thing and selling it was another. The Central Gold Control Act was still on in India and no jeweller would buy stolen gold ornaments from a couple of teenagers, without completely ripping them off. Chika again was the life saver.
“My mom is a Koli and everybody knows that Koli women love gold. Once I convince her that it belonged to Roy’s late mother, I am sure she will buy it.”
It worked. Rani loved the old Malabar artistic workmanship and gold quality of the bangles and after interrogating Roy sternly as to who they belonged to and why does he need to sell them, she gave them the Rs. 15,000 they wanted.
Friends Cable Network (FCN) was thus born.
The garage was painted, a couple of ceiling fans fitted and a carpenter called in to fix some cabinets. Apart from the few tables and chairs, most of the wood used was from the damaged and extra furniture lying idle in the restaurant, so it hardly cost them anything.
Daya Anna also allowed them to take an extension from one of the phones in the restaurant to the garage. A signboard painter was given the contract to paint an 8 feet x 2 feet signboard that said “FRIENDS Cable Network, Tel: 5229854” and was put up outside the garage.
Prakash knew suppliers of cheap VCRs, smuggled transmitting equipment, enhancers and overhead cables and had poached a team of four young tech savvy school dropouts from Raju. Within a week, the equipment and manpower was totally organized.
Friends Cable Network started operations on 18th September 2005 which was also Roy’s 20th
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birthday. Daya Anna, Rani, Zaheer’s parents, Bhuria and a few other friends were present. Roy had not bothered to call George, and George wouldn’t have bothered to come even if Roy had called him.
Chika and Zaheer also bought a small cake for Roy which he was made to cut in front of the guests. Roy bashfully had to comply.
Pamphlets were printed and one of the trio would wake up at 4:30 am to cycle down to the newspaper distributor’s office with a bundle of letterpress printed pamphlets and ensure that they were inserted in each and every newspaper for a week in succession. As the next step, the four man early-teen army went door to door to every building in the locality and explained the benefits of having a cable connection.
It was an idea whose time had come. Colour TV had been introduced in India only three years ago and had made major inroads into the homes of the well to do and upper middle-class during the Asian Games of 1982 which was telecast in full colour by the Government owned Doordarshan channel.
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That apart, a daily soap called Hum log and a sitcom called Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi had gained tremendous popularity and colour TVs were going off the shelves like hot cakes. The only difference was that the well to do homes would have imported Sony Trinitrons whereas the upper middle-class would opt for cheaper Indian brands.
VCRs were relatively new and pricy. Video library owners usually kept a couple of players and colour TVs which they rented to people on a 24 hour basis. To hire VHS tapes from the library, one had to register and pay a deposit of Rs 300. The popular movies were all pirated prints and not very easily available because of the huge demand for them. Fortunately for them the anti-piracy movement had not started and piracy was hardly considered illegal.
All these factors augured well for Friends Cable Network.
Just when they thought everything was in place, they encountered a problem they had not anticipated. Their target was the upper middle- class and well to do owners of colour TVs,
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but many of the upscale housing societies had security guards and strict instructions not to let salesmen, hawkers and unauthorised vendors into the compound. This meant that they could only tap into the unorganised and smaller building societies which did not have many residents who owned colour TVs.
They deliberated over the issue and it was Prakash who came up with a brilliant solution.
“Why not go to the Police and get police authorised photo ID cards for our operators?” he suggested.
Scared as they were, they decided to go to Chembur Police Station and seek an appointment with ACP Venkatraman. This was the first time Zaheer was going to the Police Station after his painful ordeal and started shivering and sweating as they neared the station.
Though Zaheer was reluctant to come, Roy had talked him into coming as he had analysed the ACP’s psyche and felt that he would get an ego kick to see that his 3rd degree treatment had worked on Zaheer and had made him go legit.
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As it turned out, Venkatraman was busy and in a foul mood. He kept the trio waiting for a couple of hours and called them in during his lunch break. He was a staunch vegetarian, and his food came from home in an insulated hot box. The sight of his wife’s scrumptious cooking instantly elevated his mood.
As Roy had analysed, Venkatraman recognized Zaheer and chided him, enquiring if he had learnt his lesson well. Zaheer nodded vigorously.
Roy and Chika explained their new venture and their problem to the attentive ACP. After musing for a while, Venkatraman agreed to help them.
“I am helping you only because you are trying to make an honest living, but if I find you or any of your employees misusing my trust, you know exactly what will happen…” he looked directly at Zaheer who went white under his gaze.
“Also,” he continued, “I want you to be my eyes and ears in the streets, if you see or hear anything that I should know … about any crime that has happened or is going to happen, let me know. You should know, you don’t get anything for free from the Bombay Police!”
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The next day, Roy bought a dozen readymade, clip- on identity cards. He then neatly pasted passport size photographs of the operators and wrote their names, the company name and address.
The entire team then went to the Police Station, where a constable interrogated each one of them and made a note of each one’s name, age and residence address in a register.
The constable was rude and it was clear that he thought they were the scum of the earth. But what pissed him off the most was the fact that he was made to work without being paid a bribe. For a brief moment, he thought of asking for a bribe, and then quickly decided against it … he didn’t want to rub the tough ACP the wrong way.
Grumpily, he rubber stamped “Verified by Chembur Police Station” on the ID cards and passed it on to a Police Inspector who signed on the cards.
Roy and Chika went to Venkatraman’s cabin to thank him.
“These ID cards are your responsibility. Keep them under lock and key and give them to the
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boys only when they go out in the field, and make sure they return it immediately thereafter. If any of your boys leave the job, you will destroy the ID and inform the police station. And remember what I said about being my eyes and ears” warned the ACP.
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