The sprightly 71-year-old Deepak Puri seems very much on the ball when it comes to driving India’s leading global-tech manufacturing company he established in 1983. Starting from a single office, he pushed Moser Baer India Limited to great heights and was soon at the top of his game. Beginning with manufacturing floppy disks, Puri moved on to optical-tech manufacturing; reiterating his interest in a turf new to India.
Puri started his personal and professional journey in a city he fondly calls his own. But he is quick to add that times have changed. What was earlier a city of rich cultural history, has lost its innocence. He says, “In my younger days, my mother would give me eight annas. I would watch the first-day-first-show of Captain Marvel comic movies with my schoolmates. I would ride a bicycle from my house on Pandara Road to my school at Barakhamba Road. Girls could walk around alone, safe and unperturbed. Those were simpler times, where Delhi had a character of innocence to it, which I think, it has lost today.”
His daughter Sabena Puri, who owns an eclectic restaurant, Junoon, in the US, has fond memories of the city. Sabena lived in Delhi for a few years before moving out to the US to pursue higher studies and start her now famous dining destination in Palo Alto, California. “Delhi was old and sleepy and it was known to be a town of bureaucrats and politicians. It wasn’t considered a corporate city,” says Sabena, who has returned to Delhi only recently.
“Our school was near Bengali Market and we often organised after-school trips to the place. I remember a funny incident when my grandfather, who owned a Ford at the time, took me to school and to my horror, the car had no brakes. He would pull the handbrake and give me a heart attack every time,” adds Deepak Puri, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, and is an alumnus of St Stephen’s College and Modern School, New Delhi.
Sabena adds, “When I was leaving Delhi, I could already see the changes in the city, it was already becoming a busier town. One could see old houses giving way to commercial buildings. The evolution of the city was evident. I was in the US for 20 years. I came back a couple of years ago and my goodness—it’s just another city. With the development of Gurgaon and Noida and other areas, major corporate players have come to the city. And that, I think, is good for the younger generation. There weren’t many opportunities earlier and a whole plethora of work has opened up,” says the 42-year-old.
Deepak feels that women’s safety is a big issue in Delhi. “Looking at the past 60 years, Delhi has changed completely. Today, I find it is slightly horrifying, specially in regard to women’s security. We have a lot of women working in our offices. Their security is one of our biggest concerns,” he concludes.