The sky is the limit

And his wife Arti agrees. Originally from Lucknow, she spent over a decade in Delhi and escaped to Mumbai. While she was a sales manager for the Hyatt Regency, in 1986, she met Shanta at a party, who was then at Contract. They fell in love, got married and put down roots in a city that belongs largely to migrants.

Mumbai is an unique tabula rasa of dreams. An upward graph of mobility and achievement. And today, the city is incomplete without people like Shanta and Arti. He at 47, sells dreams to the masses. She at 39 has mastered selling style, at affordable prices.

Arti runs OMO (On My Own), a boutique in Bandra that boasts of clientele from the age group of 12 to 55. And her USP is her own style. Combining rustic ethnic with Western chic, her trademark chunky silver jewellery speaks of an individuality that OMO reflects. "I offer no set ensembles.

Just simple down-to-earth everyday fashion. If you think you look good, then you are highly fashionable," she says. OMO gives the customer the chance to put together outfits the way they want, or just pick up one item.

"It is a fun shop. The client has complete freedom to mess around," adds Arti. Does Shanta have the same freedom or are his outfits dictated by his establishment position? Neither.

He is always in such a hurry to get to work that he pulls on the first thing that comes in to his hands. Schooled in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and Jamshedpur, he was a Physics graduate with a love for literature. However, he ended up doing a MBA. "I still love science, but the way it was taught killed my love for it," he says.

Initially Shanta was true to his MBA and worked in Madras and Madurai as a marketing man. In the early ’70s he came to Mumbai to join Levers but was lured by advertising. He even started his own agency, Source, but preferred to be a company man. A decision that reaped rich awards.

A little more than ten years after his foray into advertising, Shanta is heading Sista’s. Wooed by Bobby Sista himself, 43-year-old Shanta was not nervous about stepping in to the big man’s shoes.

So confident is he about his ability that Shanta spends 10 hours a day at work. No more. But he thinks the reason for that is the city and its professional ethos. "People here usually deliver what they promise.

In Delhi you can never be sure," he says. "In spite of the pollution, overt poverty or the grind, it is still one of the safest cities to live in. It is egalitarian the way it treats its citizens." Arti seconds his opinion. "People accept you for who you are. You are not judged by your clothes or your address."

For them, Delhi is a city of soot and snoot. Not one they would go back to. Shanta still shudders at the memory of a party they hosted in Delhi. Keeping with Mumbai tradition, he made rum punch for the guests. But they ended up being the only ones to drink it. "Rum was too down market for them. It’s the Scotch they wanted. That is the way Delhi is," he says.

Similarly, eating out is also a high profile undertaking in the capital. "No takers for a Mahesh Lunch Home sort of restaurant," says Shanta.But they did adopt the Delhi way of partying inviting guests home instead of heading out to pubs. Their parties are generally an open house with a traditional setting and menu — puris, aloos and jalebis.

"It is an ambience in which a modern, wild party takes place," adds Shanta. Their guests are usually designers, ad guys and television wallahs. People like them. Or us. Not necessarily from the city but very much a part and parcel of the pulse of Mumbai.

Do they ever spend quiet time together, away from the demands of work? There are days when they are like a young, courting couple. There are other days when they don’t speak two words to each other. "Even then, things are perfectly comfortable," says Arti.

But when they do talk — about their future — Mumbai doesn’t figure prominently on the map. Shanta’s post-retirement plan is to be a beach bum in Goa. Arti would rather be up in the Himalayas. "She is a mountain person and I am a sea person. We have been searching for this magical place where we can find both," says Shanta. Mornings would be spent on beach and evening on the peaks. Or the other way around.

Mumbai will remain a place to come back to for a quick charge and a bit of stress. "You need tension in life. Unless, of course, we go to an ashram, which is another possibility," says Shanta.

But giving it all up is a distant dream. Right now, their ashram is their spacious yet spartan ground floor flat in Santacruz.