“I don’t have time for an interview,” says a clipped voice belonging to Ashok Mehta, the just-retired founder of The Agency Source, arguably the largest media-monitoring firm in Southeast Asia. For someone who had just given up a full-time job, he sure was busy. But spend an hour with Mehta, and you know why.
He’s helping a friend set up a photography school in Delhi; he’s mentoring young MBAs plan their careers; he’s advising his company now that he’s no longer at its helm; he’s working on organising cycling events with like-minded Delhites... phew! The list goes on.
“I have so much to do that I cannot find time for my other interests: music and swimming. I had promised myself that I will practise on my drums for two hours every day once I retire. I haven’t done that even once since April,” says an exasperated Mehta.
Amidst all this, he has to find the time to sort through 350 boxes of personal papers, stored in a warehouse that has to be given up by July 31. He had collected all this material through the years to write his memoirs when the time came. But today, as he looks around him, Mehta realises he would spend that time doing all the things that he wants to do, rather than write about all that he has done.
And he’s packed a lot into his 49 years. After giving up advertising in 1993, Mehta got accustomed to his new lifestyle that was a complete contrast to his earlier one involving long hours, working on weekends and returning home in the wee hours of the morning. In fact, being a “house husband” and looking after his first-born child suited him so much that he never returned to a regular job. Trying to find things to do out of home, he started The Agency Source in 1993 to provide competitive advertising information, and painstakingly built it into India’s largest media monitoring firm. Mehta also built a consortium of international firms in the media-monitoring business, called AdFinitum. During the dotcom boom in the early part of this decade, he consulted with jaldi.com and helped a friend set up AgencyFAQs, an advertising-related website.
As if this wasn’t enough, he also found time to pursue many passions “in bursts of 2-4 years”. So, he followed drumming for a few years, gave it up for photography, and then moved on to chess, video shoots, badminton, swimming, and so on. For the last 3-4 years, his passion has been cycling.
Part of two cycling groups in Delhi, Mehta has been on a few adventures on his mountain bike – one of seven in his collection. He cycled 320 kms in three days from Bhimtal to Munsiary in the picturesque Uttarakhand. In the first week of May, he went to Leh on a trip that involved riding along the Pangong Lake. “It was about sheer survival – who amongst us would be fit enough to finish the ride,” recalls Mehta of the five-day cycling trip. For him, it was a double challenge: he wanted to shoot pictures as much as cycle. Sheer willpower helped him achieve both, the results of which he proudly shows off on his Mac Book Pro. The photographs were also edited into a video for a friend’s company.
Ask him about cycling and he enthusiastically recalls how as an 8-year-old schoolboy in Mumbai, he would use his pocket money to rent a cycle instead of buying lunch. He would miss his bus back home to get an extra hour to ride his rented bike. The interest stayed on, even though he couldn’t do much about it during the years that followed.
But now, he intends to make up for that with a vengeance. He’s preparing for the MTB Himachal 2009 race in September, which involves cycling 700 kms from Shimla to Manali, along with 120 riders from all over the world, in nine days. However, he is not satisfied with cycling alone. He intends to build it up as an organised sport in north India. Taking cue from several cycling clubs in south India, which are better organised and hold races every 3-4 months, Mehta intends to stir up some action in Delhi as well. With the help of a bunch of other cyclists in the capital, he plans to set up some events for the winter months, along the lines of the “Tour of Nilgiris” held in December every year. “We might even hold a duathlon, which combines cycling with running,” says the enthusiast.
In between all this, he hopes to find time to start playing the tabla again and learn the skills required to shoot photographs, edit them and publish them in the many different ways that one can today –YouTube, blogs, etc. And, of course, there is the training he has to undergo at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, to reach the Mount Everest summit – a trip he has planned for 2011.
He may have a rather diminutive frame, but nothing is a tall order for him, not even the highest mountain on this earth!
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