Next to the important files in Priti Paul’s office lay neatly piled folders bearing her sons names — Jad, Kais and Jai. The content varies from their academic records to worksheets. One of the directors of Apeejay Surrendra Group, Priti, confesses that these come in handy when she has to answer any query from her sons. “It is easier when I have these files near me. Plus, I am very clear about my priorities. My children come first. I don’t want to come across as someone who says that ‘Oh, I made sacrifices and left my kids for work’. If I am not a proper mother to my kids, there is no future in the business,” says Priti.
Besides this, Priti manages the real estate business of the group, the Apeejay London office, the Oxford Bookstores and its Cha Bar. “Out of all the businesses I handle, Oxford Bookstore is one of my favourites. I have been handling it for 25-years now and with every little project, it still feels like a new thing,” says Priti who is proactively working to make her 30 bookstores all over the globe get more readers. “If you put up a bookstore in an industry where people do not believe in it anymore, then you have to give it your hundred per cent. It is not about building a high-rise, it is about reviving a culture,” she adds.
Her other interest lies in sculpting. Priti is a trained architect and sculptor. “One day I was in office and saw penholders that my father had made himself. I thought if he could do it then why can’t I. I came up with new designs, which his fabricator translated into a new collection. I was invited to a show in Mumbai in 1991. People like Karan Johar and Parmeshwar Godrej bought some of my pieces. Then I collaborated with Bharti Kher for a piece, which we sold to Christies. It is nice to be able to take one form and merge it with another to have a new life,” she says.
Though content with life, Priti says it would have been a little different had she not given the reins of her business empire at the age of 21, soon after her father was gunned down by militants. “I did it all for the survival of the business. Otherwise, I would have taken another route. Probably, work for an architect in New York or do things that I was programmed to do,” says Priti, who plans to teach yoga some day.
“I have a degree to teach yoga. You never know that if you are living somewhere and need a job, than you can teach yoga. It just needs you and a mat,” she ends on a smiling note.
