The Champagne Supernova

Moet Hennessy managing director Ashwin Deo, has more stories to tell than one would expect of an archetypal man at the helm of an international liquor major. Near demise by terrorism, missed opportunities with tigers and an incessant zest for portable technology. Bhisham Mansukhani unravels the myriad interests of the man, other than mere wines and spirits

Fronting the Indian operations of a legacy Champagne brand can tend to impel the incumbent into a bubble of restraining sophistication. While Ashwin Deo is precisely that candidate, the bubble does not show. Instead, his immediate company is encountered with a man at as much consummate ease in his plush office embellished by some of Champagne's finest snatch as he'd be atop an elephant watching tigers in unsettling proximity. Perhaps, his cell phone, correction, smart phone, which threatens to ring and by default wean him away from his present appointment, absorbs more of his attention than the carnivores. "If that phone rings, this meeting is up," Deo says with an earnest preoccupation of an international conference call. Time is hence of importance.

Ever the frequent business traveller, Deo makes close to 35 trips a year, mostly within the country and to Hong Kong, which houses the regional headquarters. "Once on a trip to Male, I must have swiped in and out of five resorts without a stroll to the pool. Most of my international trips are to Hong Kong. It's all strictly business, there are no 'touristy' spin offs. Conferences do allow for a sightseeing set piece but that's about it," he says without a wince. The ebullience though bubbles to the surface when he mentions Paris where he lands annually for meetings. "I was keen about Paris after all the rant I'd heard going around. I had a good time at the Louvre and Champs-Elysee and walked around the city quite a bit," says Deo. But such sightseeing affairs are quite rare for Deo who says, "The last time I took a vacation was in 2004, the first time in six years. We flew to Singapore and Hong Kong as there is a lot for kids to do and it's close by."

Further probing reveals his rarest of escapes and the fondest being Myanmar. "I was working for one of my erstwhile employers in Myanmar for two years - the best years. It was predominantly a cantonment country, removed from the mass tourism circuit, a continuum by itself. It had the silent pagodas and yet, nightclubs, which back in 1996, far outdid anything you'd have seen in India," Deo reveals, the spontaneity building all the time. The cell phone mercifully refuses to buzz. "Bagan and Mandalay are two of Myanmar's most notable cities. One of the attractions was this lake with a pagoda, 12 kilometers in the lake. I hazarded a boat ride to the pagoda. More than once during the boat trip, I thought I might not return to my everyday life of alcohol marketing. The first holiday we took after I returned from Myanmar was back to that country for Diwali. Moet Hennessy sent me back to Myanmar in 2002. I didn't mind that at all," recounts Deo.

Another of Deo's endearing traits emerge when he bluntly criticises himself for not being an avid explorer seeking out the different cultural and demographic complexions of cities he has been to. He confesses, "I'm just plain lazy. I lived in Delhi for two years and I think I only discovered Delhi recently in the morning, when I saw the sun rise from Rajpath at six a.m. behind India Gate." Travelling for pleasure, as little of it Deo may have indulged, he's been at it for long. "One of my most memorable trips, growing up, was from Pune to Jammu by train and then to Uri, smack on the border with Pakistan where my aunt's husband was an army officer," he beams.

For a man of diverse interests, he learnt the tabla from the age of eight progressing to doing some stints with All India Radio (AIR), the current interest or as he likes to term it, passing fancy is photography; courtesy a Nikon SLR bargained for and bought from a flea market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After a few pagodas captured and most shots now missing, Deo quips, "I've now settled down to an idiot proof digital camera." He shows himself even lesser mercy when he recounts how he encountered eleven tigers in Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. "I saw a kill from the relative safety of an elephant back but only had pug marks to show for the adventure," rues Deo.

Now, the good fortune. No lost baggage, no missed flights, no miserable flights and hassle free stay. "I do recount a good memory of a stay at The Oberoi, Mumbai. I was suffering from a bad back. The hotel staff brought in the doctor and had a caretaker stay up all night as I suffered from a back problem."

Taking to a quick chronicling of his formative years, Deo recounts how he left hometown Nagpur in 1985 for Symbiosis, Pune. "Coming together with a bunch of people I related to from completely different backgrounds socially was the turning point for me." In hallmark style, Deo charges up the tempo. The cell phone could just as well been on a pagoda. "From a well protected Maharashtrian family, I dived headlong into Punjab at the height of terrorism. My company made me area manager, northern region, and sent me, then 24, on a very cold winter morning to Bhatinda. I found an unwilling policeman as my impromptu escort to the hotel. The marketing footprint I was given to handle was immense, covering Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh. Those days, all I had was the local bus network. Thanks to that. I got to see Punjab like most people didn't and at a time most people outside Punjab didn't want to. I did have my brush with terrorism. Half an hour before I reached the Haryana Bus Station, there was a bomb blast," narrates Deo.

"In those days, come six p.m. and we had to head back to our hotel rooms - a self-imposed curfew as we didn't know what was coming and when. Incidentally my Faridkot distributor was shot at the time I was there. The most intriguing experience was an evening journey from Patiala to Chandigarh, when we were followed by a black Ambassador. I was on my way out, poised to ship out to Kolkata, orienting the incoming area manager. Both of us panicked. His first day wasn't exactly his best. To put our fear in context, the terrorists had no love for those in the liquor business. This was much before Moet Hennessy. The costliest product I sold at the time was priced at Rs 80," he reveals with a chuckle. His current portfolio includes the Dom Perignon, which comes for a mere Rs. 9,145.

Leaving Punjab, Deo says, was an odd combination of relief and longing. "I can't yet get Punjab out of my system." Insurgency on the other hand, was on to him irrespective of his consent. "I was next in Naxalite country - Telangana in Andhra Pradesh. Yet, after escaping without so much as a mosquito bite, I was faced with the prospect of being lynched on an innocuous train journey from Nashik to Nagpur in the two tier air-conditioned compartment, of all places! A group of people got on board at Manmad station and word was out that they were carrying a lot of money. Six men got into the compartment, and as I got off my top berth to go to the `loo,' in mid stupor, this man placed a gun on my head. Like one of the bravest pulp fiction heroes, I did the back flip to my berth and slept off the living nightmare. With a reputation of surviving Punjab and Telangana, two and a half hours away from home would have been an embarrassing way to go," reflected Deo.

Maybe it is the experience in marketing but Deo sees the positive in about everything including a packing syndrome. Following college, Mumbai to Delhi to Kolkata to Pune to Nagpur to Myanmar to Mumbai to Delhi and back to Mumbai can only be described as the itinerary of a travelling band's more forgettable touring season. Deo cites otherwise. "The greatest aspect of this is that I have friends everywhere. I think my wife and son are still with me because I travel, otherwise I'm not the easiest to get along with. I want things my way. I want my room to myself, to work at home etc.,' Deo divulges. Those with an other world aversion for compulsive reading can find themselves in Deo's club. "In my personal space, it's either music or television. I don't read much. Mostly email. Yet, I do consume the occasional hardback, pressed on me by a friend," informs Deo. What hits the proverbial chord with him is contemporary Indian art. Deo is evolving into a collector and takes pride in adorning his walls with painted volumes of expression.

Gadgets are another serious preoccupation. The subject unfortunately draws needless attention to the mobile phone that could still hand this candid extempore interview a sudden death. "I earlier used a Sony Ericsson P900 Smart phone. When that was stolen, I got myself a Palm Handspring Treo for a bit before upgrading to a Sony Ericsson P910i. It doesn't exactly hand me the best user experience so I'm pondering the OII XDA, which is phone cum PDA cum camera," says Deo. For Deo the next target is the Apple iMac. His reasons, "It has a certain wireless appeal and works like a breeze with i-tunes and the choice is Hindustani classical, ghazals and a drizzle of English retro."

Finally, we veer to his favourite subject, liquor. "Right now, my quintessential tipple is red wine -- Australian and Chilean Merlot and the Argentinean Malbec." Stopping and reflecting, he suffuses his eloquence with laughter, quipping something not too many living beings can quip without fibbing. "I think I've had favorite liquor for each of my working years. But now I've settled down to Moet Hennessy." The menacing cell phone has belied its reputation. Time to let Deo settle back to work on an inconspicuous Tuesday noon and dwell on his growing dilemma: To Egypt this November or save the break for next summer in Scotland? The cell phone is probably switched off.