DO you want membership to The Black Tie, Oman�s exclusive get-together of bon vivants on the last Wednesday of every month at some exclusive venue where the greatest thing would be the dinner menu and the next, the all-male company? You do! Then a black tie is not the only requisite to get you entry here. You need to be known to be invited. And the man who can do that for you is Stanley Pinto, the enterprising fellow who started The Black Tie in May 1999.

Stanley is a man who wears many hats. He started off as a musician in India, playing jazz for night clubs in Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta, forming his own quintet of musicians and taking these cities by storm in the 1960s. �We played at The Imperial in Delhi, and The Imperial was the hotel then,� he says. �And Firpos in Calcutta, where the Viceroy of India used to have his Sunday lunch, a white man�s place. I led a nine-piece band here for five years, made a lot of money, did what I want, man, what a great way to live!�

But the underlying question always was: What to do next? �I had always been a writer. I used to write middles for The Times of India. So I thought I�d go into journalism. But then journalism wasn�t paying well in those days. How could I sustain a two hundred rupee fix on cigarettes when I was earning only thousand rupees a month! Therefore I decided to go into advertising. Lintas was paying the best. Alyque (Padamsee) was copy chief and Gerson (da Cunha) was the creative head. They called me for a test. I was the 116th person to take Lintas� test. I passed. They saw I was good, but they thought I was a fluke. �Come and work with us a week, we don�t hire people so easily,� Alyque told me.�

That is what Stanley went on to do, wearing a suit and a tie, from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m., after which he left Lintas and reported to Berry�s, a night spot at Churchgate, where he played jazz music till 11 p.m. �I became a copywriter and for nine months, worked at both, Lintas and Berry�s,� he says. �After two years of this, I became an account executive, and Lintas became an Indian agency. In 1970, it opened a branch in Calcutta, I went there and started the first Lintas office outside Bombay. Calcutta was magnificent in those days! It took me three months just to see the city. And then I refused to return to Bombay for 12 years!�

In 12 years, Stanley Pinto, Bombay boy and musician, became a director of Lintas, he started the Delhi and Madras offices of the advertising agency. And then Alyque Padamsee took over as head of the company. �He was a churn and burn man,� recalls Stanley. �He changed Lintas completely. Alyque�s policy was: �If it ain�t broke, break it!� The old was safe, but not necessarily the best. I returned to Bombay and worked with Alyque till 1984. Then I got impatient. I realised Alyque would remain MD of Lintas till 1992, and I didn�t want to hang around and replace him. Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister and his minister of state for defence, Arun Singh, was my friend. Arun almost convinced me to join the government. �Come on, new things are happening in India,� he urged me. And I almost went, intrigued by this defence minister in jeans!�

But Lintas held on to Stanley, they sent him to head the agency as MD in Indonesia for two years, then to Malaysia for six years. �I quit in 1991 and thought it was time to come back,� says Stanley. �I wanted to be successful, but advertising is a 24 hours job, and I was suppressing my other interests, I love jazz, fine art, theatre, I was not finding time to do this. I had a great deal of freedom because I had no children. Money was only a means to an end. And I remembered the old Campari ad: �Living well is the best revenge.� All I�ve ever done is live well. So I worked out how much money my wife and I needed to live well. And I thought by my 50th birthday I would quit, I promised myself that I would never work again. I wanted to travel and do the things I wanted to do.�

However, there was an offer Stanley could not turn down. It was from Bozell, the fastest growing advertisng agency in the US, and they wanted him to set up branches in South and South-East Asia, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka. He was the MD of Bozell in Kuala Lumpur, the chairman in Singapore, and he went on to set up nine offices for the agency. �In two-and-half years, I made a lot of money, fat bonuses, and on my 50th birthday, I resigned,� he remembers. Bozewell sent him a letter: �We were just about to make you chairman of Asia.� He would have been the head of the agency in 19 countries and running 23 offices. �It was crazy, but I had been there and done that,� says Stanley. So he turned it down and returned to India.

�Fortune magazine had just done three cover stories in which they urged people, entrepreneurs, professionals to come and join the new India. They made it seem like a very happening country. I spent three weeks in Bombay which had by then become Mumbai, then went to Bangalore, where on my fourth day there, I bought a 5,000 square feet house. It took 19 trucks to transfer my stuff from Bombay to Bangalore! I started life in Bangalore and it didn�t take me long to discover the myth about India. I couldn�t pay my Income Tax unless I bribed somebody in the office who was refusing to sign the papers. And I was clean, I had all my monies explained, bank accounts, papers, the works. In three years I had had enough!�

So Stanley Pinto left the country and went to Muscat, where he was asked to become a management consultant to The Zubair Coropration, one of the ruling family�s 30 wholly owned companies, besides their majority shareholdings in 22 others that dealt in gas, oil, automobiles, electrical, construction, tourism. He was by then discovering wines in a big way. When he was in Mayalsia, Stanley had started drinking wine. He had joined the International Food & Wine Society and became its president right until next year. �I was the first Asian to become president,� he says, �and I put this down to my sense of involvement and participation, my contribution in terms of creativity and ideas. I never wanted to sit at the back of the bus.� He claims responsibility for bringing the wine culture into Malaysia.

But Muscat was different. Muscat had opened its soul to him, but there was no wine society there. It was a clean capital city. The Sultan of Oman was a kind and generous man. Oman had the best of the world�s Arabs. They were warm and hospitable, they loved Indians, and they were happy doing business with Indians. �Everything was fine, but there was no after hours entertainment,� laments Stanley. �After three months of being there, in May 1999, I decided that something had to be done. So I started The Black Tie. To name it a club or society, I would need licences and permissions. So I just collected some friends from before by invitation, some Indians, Germans, Americans, British, and got it going. I limited The Black Tie membership to 35. What we do is meet on the last Wednesday of every month. We go to special venues and have dinner. There are four tables of eight. This is the third year of The Black Tie and the waiting list for membership is growing.�

He puts together a sinfully extravagant menu for The Black Tie�s Wednesday night dinner each month. �I fly down foie gras from France on the day of the dinner, some rock lobster from New Zealand, I don�t stick to the menu of the hotel where we are having dinner. The chefs in Oman love The Black Tie, they think it is the greatest thing that happened there to night entertainment. I sit at the beginning of the year with hotels and put down on their calendar and mine, The Black Tie�s meeting plans for the next 12 months. If necessary, I even organise to fly in chefs for special dinners. The dinners come to members at 35-40 rials. The food and wine comes at cost, but the hotel stay is there. I plan the menus meticulously and even desgin the cards. Payments are always made in advance, to the hotel where the dinner is being held and through The Black Tie.�

He describes The Black Tie dinner: �We needed a name that would pitch us at the top end. And what better luxury is there for a man than a formal dinner to which he dresses up in a black tie? If there are ladies at the dinner, they match the black ties. No guests are allowed. But out of townies are... minus the black ties! Forty per cent of our membership is Omani, and they all went out and bought themselves black ties when we started. We don�t allow smoking during dinner. Members may smoke after dinner with the coffee. Between 7.45 and 8.15 p.m., we serve champagne. At 8.15, surer than the Big Ben, we commence dinner. No cell phones are allowed at these dinners.

Everybody sits down to a great meal and enjoyable company.� During June, July and August, which is the height of summer, The Black Tie disbands itself as its members take leave and travel. Stanley Pinto goes to New York. �I must travel where there is great food and wine, also jazz. New York is my fix,� he says.

(Stanley Pinto can be contacted at: [email protected])