Beyond The Boardroom: Life of CEO's

Have you ever wondered what is the life of your boss outside the office premises? BW People dives into their lives to discover their passion and interests…

Ashish Hemrajani, Founder and CEO, Book My Show

Ashish indulges in a couple of leisure activities that help him stay focused, including sailing. The BookMyShow captain cool considers the sea as a great leveller. He first discovered his passion for sailing over 10 years ago, on a 60-foot yacht named Ganga II in Auckland, New Zealand, while he was holidaying there. He has his own yacht, a German-built Hanse 325, called ‘Peace and Plenty’. He sails every week and participates in sailing competitions regularly along with his crew. He is also fond of Bob Dylan’s music and follows the Vedanta philosophy.

Nitin Saluja, Founder and CEO Chaayos

My day always starts at 5 am. After quickly having my cup of chai, I go for biking in Gurgaon. It is a perfect time to start a day, I along with my 4 friends got for an almost 35-40km trip every day, and on weekends, we prefer to go for a long ride and witness the sunrise at our designated spot on Gurgaon-Faridabad road. Biking helps me prepare for the day, it’s my passion and gives me the energy to be active.

Now we are preparing for the triathlon, and have started practice for swimming. I make sure to have a healthy and balanced diet. My leisure time is every moment I spend with my kids and we love playing Lego together. I truly believe spending time with family is as important as work and its necessary to maintain a right balance.

Gangesh Khaitan, Chairman - Rampur Fertilizers Limited & The Khaitan School

Apart from being a business tycoon, he also happens to be a sports enthusiast and is a keen player of snooker and golf. His journey of playing golf started around fifty years ago in 1963 when he was only ten years old. One of his aunts and his cousins were responsible for forcing him to go to Royal Calcutta Golf Club to play the game. Gangesh recalls, that during the time he started playing, the golf clubs use to allot a new ball every month against a payment. Golf shoes were made locally by fixing spikes on normal rubber shoes. One will be surprised to know that Gangesh plays golf without gloves, but this is because when he started playing, resources to play the golf were not available. Items like golf balls, shoes and gloves were scarcely available as these were to be imported.

With diligence and dedication towards the sport, the man successfully achieved the position of National Junior Champion for 2 years, 1970-72. Amid this, he was also a National Junior Runner-up in the year 1971. During his incredible golfing journey, he represented India numerous and catered to the Indian National Team as a junior, national player and senior, becoming the first Indian ever to represent the country in all three categories of the game. He also represented India in the United States in 1971-72. In addition, Gangesh has won a prestigious national level tournament this year popularly known as “Senior Amateur Golf Championship of India 2017”. 

 Mr. Gautam Kaushik, CEO, PAYBACK India.

I am a fitness aficionado and enjoy a host of adventure sports. I love to trek and have covered several destinations in India and across the globe ranging from moderate to hard difficulty levels. I prefer to trek around the natural landscapes and explore new and unique destinations.

Trekking demands a high level of fitness and mental strength and drives me to push my limits. It is a great stress-buster and rejuvenation tool and gives me immense happiness to immerse myself in nature and focus on a single-minded goal.

Akshay Dhoot, Head of Technology and Innovation, Videocon

I believe in a work-life balance. Breakfast and dinner with the family is sacrosanct. It's when we catch up on our days. I am a complete foodie, so I balance this with daily workouts to stay in shape. I indulge in sports like squash and golf. I spend four hours every Sunday playing badminton.

I think happiness comes from a content state of mind, which in term stems from gratitude, balance and positivity. As far as energy and drive are concerned, the enthusiasm of my team and colleagues keeps me motivated.

Immersing yourself in an activity that gives you pure joy without any agenda is the easiest way to distress. For me, that has been playing the flute. I have been playing the instrument since the age of four and even today, unwind by practising it for an hour at the end of each day. I used to be a state level rifle shooting gold medalist, and like practising it occasionally now. Something I am addicted to is chess. I love playing live chess over the net during my free time.