X X In Focus
(From L to R) Sachin Mody, Late Narender Patel, Ajit Modi, Lata Mody, Varsha Patel, Ranjit Kaur, Sanjiv Mody
The very enterprising Ajit and Lata Mody talk about how they started their very popular mithai brand Rajbhog and more...
Tell us a little about your background. Which city/state of India do you hail from? Mr Ajit: We hail from the hustling bustling city of Mumbai and had a busy life there before we made the decision of moving base to the USA. I have studied from the prestigious K.C College in Mumbai and did my Bachelors of Engineering from Manipal Engineering College. At that time, our family had a business of electrical supplies there. We got married there in Mumbai. But then after a few years I planned on pursuing my studies in the USA to eventually settle down. At that time, the trend of migrating to the USA had just begun, people had started planning and thinking of a future in other countries. I had planned to go alone, and then I had called Lata there after I settled in a little. Things were not this easy back in those days, migrating was much difficult. Mrs. Lata: I am a BSE major in Microbiology and
was working in Mumbai at that time. Looking for opportunities lead us to take a leap of faith and we made the move. It has been a beautiful ride. Little did we know, that we will end up building this big an empire here. Which year did you come to USA? Mr. Ajit: We came to the USA in January 1968. It was studies first that attracted me and brought me here. I struggled for the first few months, and tried to settle down with the help of my relatives. Lata joined me later when we got her visa. Back in that time, there were F1 visas for students and F2 for spouses. Tell us about the struggle and the hard work that you put in to be successful. Mr. Ajit: It was very cold! As we came here, the weather caught us off guard. It was really difficult to adjust to this extreme cold. You could
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