Bobbie Ghosh - RIP

During the two years when Aditya and I were hunting for someone who could sponsor our activities at Indicast, or just hear us out for that matter, we met a few interesting people. Bobbie Ghosh was one among them.

I remember our first meeting very vividly back in 2007. He had called us in his office a week after browsing through our presentation on Indicast. It was a small room: call it a cubicle with enough space for a laptop and a couple of cups of coffee. One look around the room gave you a slide show of one of the most famous bald men in recent Indian history – Pritish Nandy. Bobbie worked for him at Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC). The four of us: Bobbie and his colleague along with Aditya and me made ourselves comfortable. Aditya flipped open his Mac for getting our power point presentation out. Bobbie gave us a look which told us that he wasn’t a man of PPTs, but more of a “Let’s talk” kind of guy.

For a 35 year old to be the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a galloping production house which had produced gems like Hazaroon Khwaishein Aaisein was pretty commendable, yet he didn’t sound like one and hardly dressed like one. Heck, if you saw him in a crowd, you wouldn’t notice the man. But if you did manage to catch his glimpse, you wouldn’t forget the glint in his eyes…childlike and that’s what we discovered in our first meeting.

We played him a few of the snippets of our podcasts and he was bouncing all over the place serving us ideas on how we could take this ahead to the next stage, how we should be moulding our business plan so he could pitch it to his superiors – Pritish Nandy included. The meeting lasted for two hours and I remember walking out of that room smiling. He had made our day. From the minute we had walked in there to the time he cordially and jovially “kicked us out” (He had said, “Look folks, let’s leave on a high and not ruin it by brainstorming any further.”), he gave us an adrenalin rush which is still running hard and strong in our blood.

We got to know him better in our second meeting where he greeted us in his pot bellied shirt, talked to us about the film industry and the demands of his job. He seemed to love his career; while he acknowledged how the industry reeked ethically, he spoke fondly of the medium of film making. And yes, he was a dog lover. We found out that he was a huge fan of Mithun da, not of his acting skills, but probably because Mithun had more dogs in his house than people.

Early this morning, I read a tweet from Pritish Nandy – “My ex-colleague, Bobbie Ghosh, 37 died in his sleep. He lived alone with two lovely dogs.”

That was a big shock. We had met Bobbie just two months ago at the same office after finishing an interview with Pritish Nandy. It had been two years since we had met him last. He sat us down at the reception couch and enquired what we were up to. We told him, “We just got done interviewing your boss, Pritish Nandy,” and pop came his reply, “Aare wah, tum log bada ho raha hain!” When he asked us about who was funding us, we pulled his leg, “Kya Bobbie, you didn’t help us. We have our day jobs now and do Indicast at nights and weekends.” After hearing that, as if on cue, the glint in his eyes was back. True to his modest sense, after praising us for the next 30 seconds on how we had the balls etc, he helped us get to Rahul Bose, his good friend. Rahul was kind enough to join us on a podcast later that month.

I can’t say how good a man Bobbie was since I met him only twice, but he told us something that I guess will be etched in my mind for a lifetime – “You are sitting on a time bomb. Someday, it’ll explode with opportunities. Just put your head down and keep at it.” Whether we are sitting on a time bomb or not is another story altogether, but this post is dedicated to our biggest well wisher and one of the most vocal supporters of Indicast – Bobbie Ghosh. We love you mate!

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