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Q&A What was it like growing up printed in our national newspaper, they cut the clipping

and kept it in a frame and shared it with every individual
in India and what can you tell
us about the country’s rela-
barrassing but way more motivating, as they would cele-
tionship with coffee back when you were a child? they knew on WhatsApp. This could be borderline em-
brate the smallest of the achievements.
I grew up in the west of India, where the existence of
Also looking at my parents I learnt two important
coffee in people’s daily lives was very limited. The coffee
things, which I realized only later that they were not so
that most of us knew about was nothing but instant coffee.
common: First, in my house, chores were not gender-based,
And the way it was supposed to be made was to add one tiny
and second, being content and happy was very important.
teaspoon of instant coffee to a whole cup of hot boiling milk.
These two things helped me make future decisions in life.
This made it seem more expensive than brewing “chai” for
which we would usually boil milk and water together with
tea powder and other spices. So, most people made coffee We would like for our readers to understand the context
only when there was a special occasion. of the times you were growing up in India. Can you tell
Since my parents are from the south of India, closer to us a bit more about any events or changes that you
where traditionally coffee grows, in our house a cup of experienced?
“Kaapi”, which is our south Indian version of brewed coffee, I was born in the late 80’s so I am definitely a 90’s kid.
was often a thing my parents used to indulge in. Whenever It was a time when India was just about emerging in a lot of
visiting Kerala, where my dad grew up, south Indian filter things, we were getting to explore the things the world al-
coffee was as common as tea or “chaaya”, and I used to ready had had, like for example McDonalds came to India in
wonder why this isn’t as common in the north-west of India. the mid-90s. And it was nothing short of a “gourmet” expe-
All I remember was the smell of coffee that came from rience for us as kids and pretty darn expensive too. Mid 90s
the jar of instant coffee, which was so amazing, I remember were also the time Indian coffee chains started opening, a
my mom used to roll up open sachets of instant coffee in the place that was beyond reach for most of us. reasons I wanted to work in the hospitality industry was to Oh lots, I don’t know where to start! There are few that
fridge. On occasions we as kids used to mix that with cold With the IT boom starting in the 2000s and then ex- travel, to a lot of places, meet people and enjoy different are bigger than others I feel which need to be mentioned. If
milk and sometimes ice cream, and that cold coffee taste periencing one of the worst earthquakes in 2001, and even cultures. But being an Indian, there were challenges to get- you take coffee as a whole, the biggest challenge is the way
stuck in my head for a long time. worse – having to experience and see probably the worst ting work visas. I got tired of that in 2015. we as a coffee industry communicate to our customers. It
communal riot of my lifetime, the “2002 Gujarat Riot”, I
I was already good at training people, I loved training, creates a lot of challenges and confusion and mistrust.
How has your upbringing and background led you to learnt as a kid that the world is messed up, and things can and my forte was to train people in beverages and alcohol. For example, there might be a generic chain of coffees
become the person that you are today? go wrong in any given moment, both by nature and by us. My personal favorite was to work with whiskey. I remember that might be serving a sub-par quality of coffee but be-
As a kid all I wanted to do back then was to grow up
Like most people I know, my parents came from a very while in the USA and UAE, I used to design whiskey pairings cause it’s famous it will boast about using 100% pure
humble upbringing, and they did everything they could and get away from all those bad times, it was too much to with food, do whiskey tastings and towards the end of my Arabica coffee. Then, there will be a few good shops that
possibly do to give to my brother and I every luxury possible. go through. I didn’t know politics could do so much harm career in hotels, I was training people to be bartenders. I will be serving let’s say an Arabica/ Robusta blend, which
I remember there were times when I used to feel that my amongst people, I knew my friends who were forced to was brought up in Baroda, Gujarat in the West of India, and might be better quality than the sub-par coffee by the
parents were having a financial crunch, but they never leave their houses in the middle of the night just because Gujarat is one of the states in India, where alcohol is illegal. chain, but the customers automatically consider this shop’s
showed it to us. My dad always used to say, “do what you they belonged to a minority community. As a kid I was So, when I got fed up with the visa issues and decid- coffee as lower quality because they have been bombard-
like but do it well” and my mom always supported me in not able to properly comprehend those things, police si- ed to come back to India in 2015, I knew I couldn’t work ed with marketing communication that only if its 100%
everything I ever showed interest in. rens, blood stains on the street , mention of killings in in the alcohol sector in Gujarat. I remember looking for Arabica it’s good coffee.
I remember right after tenth grade in school, we had newspapers, houses being burned down, people walking a job and I found one in the coffee sector. That’s how I What’s more, many roasters and coffee shops con-
to pick a course direction for the upcoming college years. I with swords all became a thing of norm. As a kid who was got into coffee and my first job in coffee was to work with tinuously diss or look down upon instant coffee, or people
was mostly an above average student, and everyone at school twelve, this was challenging. a chain of cafes, headquartered in Gujarat. I was respon- who consume instant coffee. But now the specialty coffee
expected me to take science and do something most people Later, the 2008-09 economic crisis started, just as I was sible for training the staff, setting up and opening new industry is coming up with instant coffee solutions, and
would want their son/daughter to do. But I never had this out of school. It was tough to push through and get into the cafes, and handling the operations. It got me to deal with we are asking the customers to like the same thing we
discussion with my parents. Since I was around eight or nine hospitality industry and work in the kitchen. We had to do people, beverage menu making, operations and most im- frowned upon some time ago, just because now it comes
years old, I liked being in the kitchen, making a mess, trying it for less money, less dignity, as in India hospitality workers portantly traveling. I loved it. with a few fancy words and is super expensive.
to cook something. are not always looked upon with respect, and less personal Slowly I got to know there’s something called special- Even the cheaper instant coffee companies now
So, when the moment came and I had to choose, I time, but I still did what I wanted to do. ty coffee and figured there was a huge gap in terms of infor- promote themselves saying the product is made from
realized my parents were not only giving me freedom to mation, learning and communication of this coffee, so I dived 100% premium arabica coffee. So for the everyday con-
follow my will but also supporting me in whatever I want- What inspired you to pursue coffee as a career? into that void later on. sumer, who “just” wants a cup of coffee, it has become
ed to pursue. One of the reasons I could pursue learning This is funny, I never thought of getting into coffee. It hap- too confusing. It’s a challenge for me personally as well,
about culinary and hotel management, which basically pened by chance. I worked in hotels for almost 9 years, in What have been some of the biggest challenges for cause my main motto concerning coffee is – TO MAKE
shaped my future. I remember the first time my name got India, Switzerland, USA, UAE and Azerbaijan. One of the you in this industry so far? COFFEE SIMPLE.

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