Jan 22: Few people in the wine community have known Subhash Arora as well or as long as Sourish Bhattacharyya, the well-known food critic, author and blogger, who volunteered to share a bit of Arora’s history, geography and sociology for the 800th edition in which he reminisces some of the experiences perhaps forgotten or never highlighted.
OF ALL THE friendships I have struck in my life, the one with Subhashji (as I insist on calling Cav. Subhash Arora as a mark of deference to his age and wisdom) started at the most unusual of all places -- at the immigration counter of the Mumbai International Airport. We were both in the long queue and he was obviously bored, so he struck up a conversation with me. I generally do not get drawn into polite chatter with fellow passengers, but I found myself listening very carefully to Subhashji. It transpired that we were both from Delhi and were headed to Vinitaly in Verona.
By the time our turn came, and later, as we were waiting for our flight, Subhashji said he was travelling at his own expense to get an in-depth knowledge of Italian wines and to meet living legends such as Angelo Gaja. His passion for wine impressed me and I wondered what he was gaining from it, except adding to a fine personal wine collection and impressive array of books. Here I was, going on an all-expenses-paid trip sponsored by the organisers without a clue about Italian wines, and there he was, Subhashji, who was spending a part of his lifetime's savings to immerse into the wonderful world of wines. I respect passionate people and I knew at once that Subhashji would be a good friend to have. That was in 2002 and I haven't had any occasion in these many years to even once regret our proximity.
Subhashji is a rare bird in the wine world. A product of the egalitarian education system seeded and nurtured by our country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhashji, through sheer academic excellence, was admitted to the first batch of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (IIT-D), and his subject electrical engineering, was reserved only for the leaders among the toppers: he had stood 11th in the entire Delhi state in his Board exams. He belonged to the crème de la crème of the student elite of his time. At IIT-D, he also fronted a rock band named Off-Beats, which performed on television, in the days when it was a rarity in India. His band played on first edition of Youth Forum, a popular magazine programme anchored by Aftab Seth, who later became India's Foreign Secretary.
Right after IIT, Subhashji hitch-hiked all the way to West Germany (of those days) with the princely sum of $24 in his pocket (yes, the world had open borders those days!) and then he spent time in the land of the Riesling doing internships in engineering companies. While in Germany, he managed a tourist visa to go to the United States, and settled down as a Master's student at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis. He earned an MS in Industrial Engineering and later an Executive MBA by attending evening classes while working as an industrial engineer. In all those years, ironical though it may seem today, he did not imbibe alcohol in any form. In that sense, he was the archetypal Indian student working overtime to be successful in an alien society.
On his return to India, to his home city Delhi, as Subhashji transitioned from being an Operations Manager at Delhi Leasing & Finance (now famous as DLF) to becoming an entrepreneur distributing modems and routers (remember Multi-tech and CISCO?), he found himself to be the odd man out in parties because he was a teetotaller. Just to give company to his male friends, who would be knocking back copious amounts of whisky and vodka, Subhashji started having wine, which was generally kept for women at parties, and before he knew it, he had fallen in love with it.
So, when he joined the Rotary Club of Delhi Chanakyapuri, he insisted that wine must also be served at the fellowship Club where gin was the only drink served other than whisky, vodka and beer, and was kept in stock for then a lone woman member who drank alcohol. Within years the same club started consuming over two cases of wine in each such event. In his inimitable style, Subhashji converted a bunch of whisky drinkers into wine aficionados.
Coming back to the time of our journey together to Vinitaly, I discovered then that Subhashji had a website called Delhi Wine Club and it was a treasure trove of information for wine novices. At the point of time, Asit Chandmal, Reshmi Ray Dasgupta and I used to write on wine, so I was delighted to find another person who was pursuing the same passion. But then I thought, why not push him to use his Rotary International organisational skills to promote Delhi Wine Club outside the virtual world? During a wine-addled lunch where I remember I discovered the Nero d'Avola, we decided to promote the Delhi Wine Club together and on our return, we flagged it off at a raucous dinner at one of the city's finest yet short-lived restaurants, Spirit. The dinner taught us many things -- the first and foremost being to throw out four of wannabe members who gave two hoots to wine etiquette.
Today, Delhi Wine Club is 17 years and 288 dinners old; delWine, which I pushed Subhashji to launch essentially to provide a summary of international wine and food news, has grown into a power to be reckoned with -- its readership of 33,000 in 71 countries, includes the top honchos of any wine company or merchant you can name, from Simon Berry, former chairman of Berry Bros & Rudd, to Kapil Grover, Rajeev Samant and Ravi Viswanathan; and Subhashji has established himself as an internationally acclaimed authority on the subject -- he has judged 65 international wine competitions, including 14 times at Mundusvini, 10 times at Concours Mondial, and on 9 occasions at the HKIWSC, Hong Kong.
I am certain Subhashji no longer has to pay for his travel and accommodation at international wine events -- and even if he does, his frequent flyer miles must take care of his travel (and that of his able photographer -- and son, Adil Arora!). What Subhashji has achieved, not many people can claim to have done. He is a bank vault of wine stories -- but not all get published. I look forward to the time when he will unload the contents of this vault and enrich us further.
May God grant him a very long life; may his spirit remain undiminished by the passage of time. Jai Ho!
Sourish Bhattacharyya
If you Like this article please click on the Like button