Indranil Chakraborty’s day at his abode in Reis
Magos starts with being woken up a little before
6 am by Zen, his golden retriever, and then being
nudged, licked and barked out of bed by 6:15 am.
Chakraborty and Zen, joined by Zara – his pug, then
head off to the helipad at Fort Aguada, where Zen and
Chakraborty go for a long walk and a run for 20-25
minutes while Zara sleeps in the car. This is then
followed by a quick dip in the pool and then breakfast
with his wife, Sabari, and his four legged children. By
10:30, Chakraborty gets to his work desk at home and
works on content creation, coaching calls, follow-ups
with clients and setting up physical meetings (largely
in Mumbai). After having worked for 21 years in
organisations like Unilever, Tata and Mahindra, selling
soap, teddy bears, airtime and holidays, Chakraborty
started StoryWorks in 2013. The following year, he,
along with his wife and pets, relocated from Mumbai
to Goa, the place they now call home.
In addition to the people from across the country
who have moved to Goa and operate from their
homes, there are also those who have moved here
even though their work takes them outside this state,
sometimes even outside the country. Their relocation
to Goa is not work related (barring a bit of desk work
and a little online connectivity here and there) – and
when they are not out on work, they simply make the
most of the excellent quality of life this place has
to offer.
Satyajit Vetoskar, a product designer and
architect having his own design consultancy, was
based out of Mumbai until he decided to move
to Goa with family, “quite on a whim without any
decisive plan on how long he’d be here”, as he puts
it. Vetoskar says, “We decided to give it a shot since
I was on my own and my kind of work allowed
me the flexibility to work out of any place. That
is an important aspect since it’s often not easy
otherwise. This is our seventh year and we moved
when our older son was just 8 months old. I used
to visit Goa very often and made the right move
of buying a place when things were affordable.
Having a place helped our decision to ‘try’ living
in Goa.”
While Vetoskar’s work of designing a range of
products from luggage to shoes and electronics
to jewellery, and helping corporates set up their
design cells and offering design strategies to
enhance their business/brands often takes him
to different parts of the country and the world, his
affinity to Goa coupled with his passion of restoring
old Goan and Portuguese houses bring him back
‘home’.
Chakraborty narrates his story – “My wife and I
have been in love with Goa for over two decades.
A number of people from other parts of the country have now made Goa their first
home, whilst letting their work take them someplace else. Café speaks to a few
such people and finds out what this arrangement feels like
Life’s good here
in Goa
Staying in Mumbai, we would
come to Goa several times
a year. We always wanted
to shift but knew that I
would not get the kind of
corporate roles I was doing in
Mumbai. But when I started
StoryWorks, location was no
longer a factor. That’s when
we decided to move. But the
tipping point was when I was
still dithering and my wife
decided that she would shift
with or without me,” says
Chakraborty with a smile as
he speaks about his decision
to shift to Goa. StoryWorks
specialises in harnessing the
natural power of stories to
increase the effectiveness
of communication inside
an organisation, and
thereby dramatically impact
productivity. The agency
provides both training and
consulting services using
Business Storytelling and also
both also make a mention of a few negatives.
Chakraborty says, “Getting a stable internet
connection took us three months and it takes
forever to get anything serviced or repaired.
Professionalism is non-existent. We regularly
have power cuts and fluctuation which makes
it impossible to run basic appliances like AC,
microwave, etc without having a wide range
voltage stabiliser. For every mobile call there
are 5-6 call drops. Having said that, there is
something about Goa that I can’t explain; my
wife believes it is the geopathic lines, but it
puts the mind at ease and the calmness makes
me extremely productive at work. When I look
away from my computer screen and look out
of the window and see the Mandovi flowing
by, I know we made the right decision.”
On a parting note, Vetoskar says, “It’s
often not easy for everyone to adjust to the
Goa pace of life. You either flow into it or you
don’t. There’s no midway. I know of many
friends who just can’t handle the slower pace of
Goa beyond a few days and that’s fine. It’s really
being true to who you are. You have to let Goa
accept you and not the other way around.”
