Outlook – July 28, 2019

R

AMAN Roy finds it hard to recall the last

time he was not recognised in public. As

recently as last week, when he was at a

yoga centre in Coimbatore, a young couple

walked up to him to say they had worked

with him at Spectramind. “They have children

now and it was nice to hear I had a small part to

play in their lives,” says the 61-year-old, known

as the “father of the BPO industry” in India.

Roy still lives a frenetic existence with the day

starting at 7 am sharp, never to end before mid-

night. The man runs his own company, Quatrro,

based in Gurgaon. He is a part of the Indian

Angel Network in addition to having

invested his wealth in over 50 companies. “It’s

immensely satisfying when you sit back and

think about having created 35,000 jobs,” he says.

It was three decades ago when his then emp-

loyer, AmEx, decided that India would do its back

office accounting operations. Roy, a chartered

acc ountant in his early thirties, was enjoying a

career in finance when his boss, Anuroop ‘Tony’

Singh said that he was the chosen one and gave

him a day to mull over it. Roy said yes and that

started the journey into an unknown terrain.

To Roy, it is still a little overwhelming. Quatrro

is the fourth company Roy has set up. After

AmEx, he set up a captive call centre for General

Electric before turning entrepreneur with

Spectramind, which was acquired by Wipro in

2002 for Rs 407 crore. “After Quatrro, I sat down

with a few friends to look at what we could now

do. We decided on looking at high-end work

where clients would not pay us by the hour but

only on outcome,” he says. Though there is a joy

about the present, he finds it hard to forget the

time gone by, especially what he calls that big

moment, when Spectramind was hiring 100 peo-

ple a day. “This was right in front of my eyes and

that feeling was indescribable.”

For many years, Roy was the face of the BPO

industry with his picture regularly splashed

across the media. “I was known to make contro-

versial statements and that earned me a reputa-

tion,” he says. On a serious note, it also meant

that he had to take responsibility for the safety

of the women working in his office graveyard

shift. “The industry has also had its share of

criticism, which has not been easy. Being in the

media also meant I had to be well dressed!”

Roy is pleased India is leveraging its domain

skills and knowledge. “The conversation today

is about AI and big data. That’s a more fun for

sure,” he thinks. For all the ups and downs that

he has been through, Roy is clear he will not

trade it for anything in the world. “I have been

incredibly fortunate to go through it. I had a blast

doing what I did,” he signs off with his trade-

mark guffaw. O

Krishna Gopalan

Business Big Daddy

Raman Roy

Father of Indian BPO industry

He finds it

hard to

forget

the past,

especially

when

Spectramind

was hiring

100 people

a day.

A

S befits a Sufi mystic, burly M.A Qazi

is bearded and has long hair. He

philosophises on his son Qazi

Touqeer’s sudden success as a singer

in the reality show Fame Gurukul in

2005 and then his fading into obscurity. He

has no complaints, nor does Touqeer carp.

Surroun ded by disciples at his Srinagar

house, M.A Qazi says his son thinks

differently. “If he is not in the limelight

today, let it be. Maybe tomorrow he might

rise. Who knows?”

Qazi himself was a lawyer in J&K High

Court when his Sufi master summoned him

to the shrine of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti

in Ajmer in 1989. He remained there for

long. Qazi says he doesn’t interfere in his

son’s car eer. “All I wanted was for him to

have a concert in Kashmir. The government

had approached Touqeer when Omar

Abdullah was CM. But they backed off,”

says Qazi.

Touqeer lives in Andheri West in Mumbai,

where his father visits him frequently. “I

think one reason he is not in the limelight

is that he has devoted himself to writing a

movie script for the past few years,” he

says. After winning Fame Gurukul, Touqeer

acted in a movie called Take Off, which was

never released. “Touqeer is in Melbourne

for a concert,” says Qazi, and then con-

nects his son through a video call. Touqeer

describes how the audience in Melbourne

comprises Indian and Pakistani diaspora. “I

am singing Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo and

other ghazals and songs,” he says. He tells

Outlook: “Fame Gurukul was a great suc-

cess and after that, I did a hit song, Afghan

Jalebi.” The decade from 2005 to 2015,

however, is not mentioned. “I have been

working on a movie,” confides Touqeer. “It

is for a world audience, in English, and it’s

my dream project.” On his family, he says,

“My uncle Qazi Rafi is a well-known

Kashmiri singer; my fat her loves music and

they have always been supportive.” He

finally adds, “I am passionately attached to

my work and I think good days are ahead.

So, I have no complaints.” O

Naseer Ganai in Srinagar

A Decade After Fame Gurukul

Qazi Touqeer

Singer/performer

COVER STORY

48 OUTLOOK 29 July 2019

GETTY IMAGES

TRIBHUVAN TIWARI