Sampa (PGP 1989) & Sanjay Bhasin (PGP 1988)
Interesting topic to be picked up by the institute as there have been so many of us who have journeyed together as life partners from campus. Soul-mate has different meaning for different people, sometimes sounds fuzzy/cliched. For me, it’s the person who helps you grow and become the best version of yourself, understands you fully and with whom you have total transparency and we did find ours at the campus.
Though I did grow up on Mills and Boon, did I go around looking for a soul-mate? Maybe not. However, when I first met Sanjay in September of 1987, there definitely was a connection. For me he was the dorm leader of D17 and I think for him I was the girl who came in to study with two of his dorm-mates KV and Debu and stopped to join the dorm game of carom board. We thought there were no similarities – a Punjabi Delhi boy steeped in maths and commerce and a Bong zoologist from Bihar! Well our “connection” ensured we spent more time together and viola – found common interests. Sanjay quickly realised that in this case “the way to this woman’s heart was through her stomach” especially since the fusion Gujarati/south Indian cuisine of the mess was not doing anything for this Bong’s palate. So, we found our common passion for food in Lutf at Navrangpura, La Bella at Bhadra and of course the most dependable Maggi made in the pantry.
June 1989, he was in Delhi working for Standard Chartered and I was in Bombay working for SBI Caps and we got married, and then began our life mostly between Delhi and Mumbai. When I managed to get transferred to Delhi, he got transferred to Mumbai. I of course followed with a son (Samarth) in tow. Mumbai became home for the next 12 years with the addition of Srishti and we growing in our respective professions – he as a banker and me as an investment banker.
Sanjay went from retail banking, treasury, operations, forex, and stint in getting an investment bank off the ground, back to his love for fixed income with JM Morgan Stanley. I went through different tracks of investment banking leasing, capital markets, IPOs, international offerings, setting up M&A and then just stuck with the exciting world of M&A. In 2006, we both decided to test our fortunes outside India and came to live in this beautiful city of London which is now home.
Sanjay is still a banker and currently heading a bank in Angola and last year I decided to give up the corporate world and now work for myself – still a bit of M&A but more focussed on the exciting start-up space where I mentor and help entrepreneurs. So yes, different geographies as at the start of our life together, persist – the “connection” which got us together, keeps us together.
It goes without saying that, we have grown together in the past 30 years (nearly). The cliches – completing each other’s sentences, not having to explicitly say what is in our minds, comfortably sitting in silence – all work. Are we similar – not at all – the silent Sanjay and the gregarious Sampa is how our friends see us and maybe “opposites attract” worked for us. Our biggest passion is travelling and together we have visited 25 odd countries – it started with trips to Mandu, Palitana, Gir while at the campus. The best bit is that our kids (26 and 21-years-old now) also share this passion and join us. We do thank IIMA for finding each other and it’s been a great and fulfilling journey, which continues.
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