For all his seemingly carefree attitude, Satish has a very serious agenda in life - to learn, to excel, to be the best he could be (which he tried to hide under a carefree facade, something which I believe I did too). I saw a glimpse of his competitive attitude by the complete attention he gave to Marketing which he had decided as his career early on (I was telling his son Rahul, he should have been in films, not marketing). But then, the film world's loss was the business world's gain, and Satish decided to be an avid student of Marketing - that was one class he would attend like his life depended on it. He seemed to have a connection with our marketing Professor C Shyam Sundar (CSS) and he had long chats with him on the subject in the corridors - they were both on an IIM level - the guru seemed to have found his perfect student and vice versa. Satish was especially interested in Market Research, and true to his decision, that's what he built his career on - one of the few people I know who was clear about what he wanted to do and did that. The rest of the classes were of no interest to him and he made it amply clear that he was not interested in those.
So Satish would come to college on his Bajaj Cub scooter (I think), head off for a smoke at Liaquat's Cafe, announced his arrival by singing some song loudly in the corridor as he made his way to class akin to a hero's entry (I remember Starship's 'Sarah' being one of the songs he loved to sing in the corridor). He quickly made friends with everyone, but his thickest pal for the two years was PV - both enjoyed a smoke and a tipple, enjoyed music and careers in marketing. In class we would always be privy to his one liners, jokes, repartee and endless gaalis. Blessed with a heartbreakingly sweet smile, a charming manner, a great sense of humour, finesse, he was perhaps the most popular of the lot for sheer energy. Over time he made friends with seniors like Ramesh and Partha, all of whom loved a drink, a smoke, laughed a lot and sang their hearts out.
He and I had a good relationship - one based on mutual respect - and somehow we came to address each other as bhidu, the Mumbai term. I think I used that term once and he found it amusing and forever after that he would always call and say 'Kya bhidu'. We would discuss music a lot - he loved the same music that I did - English pop and Kishore Kumar or just anything nice. I think we enjoyed each others sense of humour as well - a bit on the irreverent side it was. With Sunnie, Bijju, Pankaj, Vijay, Sudhir, Shobha, Sanjay and others we would play TT, step out for chai etc. It was not an intense course and we had a lot of time for other activities.
When our Inter collegiate cricket tournament started in our first year in 1989, we all somehow came together a lot more. Vijay, Sunnie, Sanjay, Ramanand, Sridhar and me were part of the team and everyone else from the college came to cheer us, the loudest being Satish and PV. I think they coined some slogan that went like 'Whisky, soda pop, OUCCBM on top's' or something like that. Thanks to all the encouragement and cheering, our rather bits and pieces team made it all the way to the finals and Satish was very much part of the wins and the celebrations after.
The farewell party for the seniors required us to wear some formal kind of attire like a white shirt and a tie etc if I remember right and Satish came dressed in jeans and chappals just to prove a point. I remember how our Principal BGR's face fell when he saw Satish's version of formal attire. Obviously we would not expect any less from him.
Exams and stuff and we were all planning for our summer internships - only Satish did the internship seriously - he got one with ITC Bhadrachalam and spent a good part of his summer visiting small retail shops in the boondocks in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and learning the basics of Marketing the hard way. That was one thing he was most serious about. Apart from having a good time in life of course.
Handsome and charming as he was, Satish had a good female following. But he was most respectful of women and treated hem well, was impeccable in his manners and address. I remember the endless verbal bouts he would have with Shobha - both having sharp wit and both quick to retort and both not holding back - and it would be fun just listening to them.
By this time we had all become good pals and college was much more fun. We were a little more serious about jobs, careers and did some work in that area. Sometime in the second year, Satish, who normally stayed off the sports arena except for perhaps carrom, started taking TT seriously and I could see the competitive streak in him - he was a beginner and was low on skill - but high on competitiveness and desire to win. He would try his hardest, rub the opponents the wrong way, never took a back step even when there were tougher opponents and really enjoyed giving a fight till the end. Many times we would team up for doubles and give a good fight to better opponents. He really enjoyed that. I am sure he would have made a great sportsman if he had picked up sports - wonder why he never did. He was competitive as hell and fought every inch of the way. I would have loved to have him in my team just for that any day.
By the time our two years came to an end we had all become god pals - a trip to Pune to participate in a cultural festival that Symbiosis organised which was a lot of fun, then a trip to NAARM for a 3 day pre-placement course organised by BTV, Balaji and HR which was an in house thing. We stayed over, drank rum over bonfires, listened to Satish sing 'Nadiya de dariya', 'Main Shayar badnaam' and such other songs soulfully and then we knew it was exam time and then into the wide world of jobs and careers. I got a job with BPCL even before placement season, a few of our pals got into ITW Signode, some made it to Onida and so on and on. Satish, true to his sales and marketing focus, joined ITC if I am not mistaken, perhaps the best placement from our batch.
Jobs and onwards and we kept in touch over phone on birthdays and kept track. I remember calling him from Patna in August 1991, on his birthday and chatting. On odd occasions we would meet in a pub over a drink. At some point he shifted base to Dubai after giving the US a shot. Then he stayed in Dubai for a long time, married the love of his life Mickey, had two wonderful sons Rahul and Nikhil, of whom he was very proud and loved them to bits. He was a complete family man, worked in Market Research and looked like it was the perfect life he wanted.
Of the many trips he made to India we would meet at my place over a drink and dinner and music certainly. One evening I remember it was raining and after a late night that went on till the wee hours, Satish went walking barefoot in the rain because he said it was rare to see rain in Dubai. It was beautiful - some 4-5 of us just walking in the rain in my colony at 3 am, music in the air. Meetings with Sunnie in pubs and more meetings at my place were the order of the day.
One unforgettable meeting of ours was when he read my first novel 'The Men Within' which was a tale about cricket (a game he did not much like). He read it carefully, caught all the finer points of a champion mindset and how to make a team win, made exhaustive notes and said we would discuss it when he came to India. We found a nice pub near Road no 12, got some beer and started discussing. I was amazed to see how carefully he had read the book, underlined the parts he liked. That discussion we had, about the ideas in the book was perhaps the best discussion I had with anyone about that book. No one got that book and it's ideas as well as he did. I can never forget that.
I always felt that he understood my state of mind, that leap of faith when I left a secure job in banking and started writing which to most seemed like a crazy decision, and in his own way, encouraged the crazy idea. He would always ask what I was writing, what was happening in my life, and always said, 'Wonderful' to whatever I replied. Never one to say that I should have kept my job etc. Always that supportive vibe. We had several discussions on some of the ideas I had for books etc.
He was always asking after Shobhs and Anjali and would end any conversation with 'give me love to them'. The verbal spars between him and Shobha did not lose their fire, just mellowed slightly, over the years. Now, he smiled more often and let her have the last word. I could see he was changing, more secure, peaceful with himself.
When we had a 25 year reunion of our MBA class he came from Dubai just for that despite some chest congestion. Visa, Sunnie, Radha, Madhu came from the US far as I remember. Sridhar from Bangalore, Nishi from Mumbai. We had great fun and he revealed the love he had for his family, his kids as the greatest joy he had experienced. In a conversation about the most important thing that happened in our 25 years after college He said 'I learned so much from my kids, that I want to write a book about them'. He loved them to bits and was crazily proud and protective of them.
He had put on weight and he had this cough which slowly became a case of pneumonia after that reunion. He bore that normally and laughed it off though it must have been painful. He never changed is lifestyle though - ate heartily, smoked his cigars and drank his whiskey.
More meetings. He moved back to India, having sold his business in Dubai. We would meet at Pankaj's house where there was music and singing, with him and Shrini on centre stage, at my place sometimes. He started studying a course in Data Analytics - with the same seriousness as a college student and told me that it was the future and he was into it. For some reason he switched from Data Analytics to Law and said he was enjoying studying law and wanted go practice it now. Both Rahul and Nikhil had grown up and were doing well. Once we both went to attend the funeral of our Principal BGR. We caught up after over lunch.
So many more memories. When I was preparing to teach a short course in Marketing and had forgotten a part where Kotler specified how to see the 'need' behind what the customer wants, I called Satish. After a hearty laugh at my vague question, he told me the right answer, checked again and called me to confirm and was chuffed that I called him to ask a question from a book we studied thirty years ago. I told him that he would always be my first go-to person for anything on Marketing. He was pretty amused with that though. Once he gifted me a perfume and gave me some explanation for why. I still have that bottle though it got over. I think he felt I needed some grooming tips. Once he told me to use hair gel - very gently of course. I gifted him all my books.
For his 50th birthday we made videos. I made one long, convoluted one which was made with the right intent but wasn't executed well. He appreciated the effort and we all had a good time.
A couple of years ago he called me to discuss how to go about a book that Mickey was writing - a cook book. We met for dinner at his place and discussed how to go about it. I gave him whatever info I had and they both put together a beautiful book and launched it well at Akshara Book Store (where I had launched my book as well in 2007). It was a work of love by both of them, and certainly for Satish. One could see that he wanted the best for Mickey. He would surprisingly be very careful not to trouble me too much during that book production phase and I had to tell him that it was no trouble and the least I could do. He could be very sensitive and vulnerable that way, very conscious of not bothering others. He spoke very well at the launch and became the MC.
Last year I asked him to show me his old neighbourhood, Mallepally, and he came and picked me at home. We went to his favorite bakery near JNTU where we ate egg puffs and drank Thums Up. Then to his old house where he showed me the places he would go to. The plot which his grandfather had got as a soldier in the army. He told me how they stayed inside Golconda fort where his grandfather had a house being a soldier with the Nizam's army (need more details of that). His father was a Professor of Chemistry at Nizam College. He loved his father, mother, sister and brother dearly. We drank lassi at some spot, bought a couple of beers and then ended the afternoon with a biryani at Chichas. Of course, with promises of meeting soon etc.
And then some calls here and there, plans to meet and so on. he started to work at a law firm. When Ramana was unwell, we all visited him at KIMS. He insisted on meeting Ramana in the ICU and perhaps gave him some advise which only Ramana will know. Soon after Satish was diagnosed with some heart issue and he was admitted in the same hospital. I went to visit him and he was rather sheepish about it - however he got me coffee and introduced me to his niece Priyanka and her husband who are into media work.
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I heard he had a fracture of his shoulder bone a few months ago and spoke to him. I told him I would visit and planned one with Vijay as well. But before we could meet, he developed some other issues and passed away rather unexpectedly on July 1, 2026.
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I look at his pictures and can see the openness, the love, the compassion, the vulnerability and humour - almost in all pictures. Truly they say that the eyes are the windows to the soul and I could clearly see that with him. That was who he truly was under the surface.
Here's a glimpse into his life, through an av made by his niece and others, Really captured it well.
I will miss our conversations the most, the sharing of ideas, the humour, the songs and the appreciation and love for life.
It's been a great ride Satish, and I am just so grateful and happy for that.
