Sajidarjuna Peerbhoy Karmajyoti and Niloufer Patel - Alibaug

Peace At Nyasa

Sajidarjuna Peerbhoy Karmajyoti and Niloufer Patel left their rushed corporate lives back in Bombay only to achieve corporate nirvana in Alibaug by marrying work and pleasure, culminating in an unhurried pace of living, says FARZANA BEHRAM CONTRACTOR, who shared the company of two very real people

And what was Sajid Peerbhoy thinking when he moved to Alibaug full-time, 12 years ago? He was thinking of setting up an ashram to assist people with problems. Help ease their mental discomfort through spiritual growth. And he succeeded in doing so too. Except, at the end of three years of running his free home ashram he was out of pocket! Roughly Rs 2000 would be spent on each person and he would receive a dakshina of Rs 101! Soon he was done with all his savings, money he had earned over a lifetime in an advertising career spanning almost 40 years. Forced into a corner, Sajid put on his thinking cap and came up with the idea of conducting People Enhancement Programmes, which he formated in his own special way, putting into it his personal wealth of information and experience and making a success of it.

Years ago, Sajid chucked up all things advertising and came away to Alibaug to do what he wanted; discover himself. “Yes, it became too much. Lot of empty promises in that business tired me. I mean even if that aspiring girl used 10 tonnes of whitening cream she would still not become a fair-y queen! Bunch of lies! I was living in a world of utter and complete falseness, so I decided to break away. People who knew me then, won’t even recognise me now,” says the hot shot, creative genius who once owned Speer his own advertising agency which he sold to O&M, to take a sabbatical only to return as consultant to Ambience D’Arcy before finally calling it quits to get into the process of self-actualisation.

Sajid Peerbhoy always had a desire to help people. “I always had an empathy for people. And now after all these years, my understanding of the human being – his mind, his soul, has grown many folds." Contributed in no small measure by his own special being, I suppose, because Sajid himself has cultivated an aura of peace and quitetude around him. Over 25 years ago he learnt to play the flute under the guidance of Devender Murdeshwar (the son-in-law of Pannalal Ghosh). He was initiated into Sufism by a great, late master, and then into Karma Sanyas by the Spiritual Head of the Bihar School of Yoga and where he also learnt Strees Manav Yoga. Sajid is also the disciple of Father Ama Samy, a Zen Master who studied under one of Japan´s great Zen Masters. Today Sajid and his partner Niloufer Patel incorporate all that they have learnt into a well-designed programme for CEOs, directors, VPs, COOs, senior executives and management trainees of prestigious companies such as DHL, DSP Merrill Lynch, eBay, Taj Lands End, Shoppers Stop, Deloitte, HP, Tesco, Aditya Birla Retail, Ambit Finance, Edelweiss, Britannia, Titan, Asea Brown Boveri, 3M, ITC Windsor Manor, HSBC, Walt Disney, McCann Erickson, Oberoi Hotels, Airtel, Morgan Stanley, Kotak Securities, HCC, Ernst & Young among others.

The programme includes a diverse range of subjects, such as Leadership, Conflict Management, Team Bonding, Team Building, Stress Management, Personal Success Management, Creative Out-Of-the-Box Thinking, Motivation and Achievement, Campus to Corporation Transition, Women Empowerment, Behaviour and Attitude Change, Life Style Management, Listening Skills, Focusing the Mind, Selling Power, Straight Talk (Crucial Communication), Voice Power and more.

With so much happening, is it a peaceful existence? “Yes, it is,” says Niloufer who looks after all the administration issues at Nyasa as well as conducts outstation seminars. “We work hard at our programmes but not by taking on stress. We are in touch with the corporate world but on our own terms. And life here is not rushed, so that helps. I mean even filling petrol is not really a chore. Alibaug is a great answer to Mumbai where there is just too much traffic, too much pollution.” Niloufer, a very happy, smiley and grounded woman, was an efficient executive with Cathay Pacific for 26 years. She planned her life in such a manner that she would actively retire while she was young and energetic and get in touch with nature – which is exactly what she did, 11 years before she was scheduled to retire!

Life is slow and meaningful for the two of them and neither of them ever gets to ask the question, “What do we do next?” There is no empty time. Their day is full, every single moment of it. Sajid who wakes up at dawn meditates for an hour or so. After a cup of coffee he plays his flute – to the accompaniment of the whistling birds. On days when there is no programme (they take only one programme of three days per week), he reads and writes, works with clay – yes, he is a potter too. And a superb cook. Seriously good. For breakfast, which is what I invited myself for, I ate the most genuine Muslim kheema and beef, all cooked by the man of the house. About the Nyasa omlette which is totally a Sajid creation, all I will say is: try it! This Sunday, don´t wait. The recipe is in the back pages.

Niloufer doesn´t cook but she sees to it that the place is spic and span, the garden well-maintained, the staff happy and productive, the programmes running smoothly. Together though, they make time to go for walks and even cycling; there is a river nearby and hills too. If all this sounds ideal, let me add they even indulge in the ultimate luxury – a one hour siesta, every afternoon.

But what about social life? Don’t they both miss that? “No, not really,” says Sajid. “We have our local friends and we do drop in at each others places for dinner. But if we chose to, we could be binging every weekend, Saturday night fever, you know. There are any number of people, sort of friends from across who come to their homes here, loaded with booze, food and DVDs. I have not been able to figure it out; why come here, drink like fish, stay closeted, just watch movies and go back to Bombay!” That’s Sajid for you, quintessentially so.

However when you do walk around Nyasa, the abode Niloufer and Sajid have created, you understand where they are coming from. Their place has tremendous energy; the sunken zen circle where programme participants sit and engage in friendly discussions, the outdoor, all white gurukul, the dinner table under the thatched umbrella. You can see the zen owners have put their rustic souls into creating their special zone and sharing it with outsiders too.