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Packaged beau, pleasing belle

Sheer resolve to survive in an alien land has shown Pushkar door to success, writes RAMESH SUSARLA

TEAM WORK Pushkar Juneja and Meena enjoy the company of heir sons Aseem and Abhishek (not in the picture)

Journey from being a small-time tobacco packaging material supplier to a successful owner of a multi-crore tyre dealership and diversifying further, is no mean an achievement for Pushkar Juneja.

Attitude of adapting to the changing needs has kept him afloat in the business. Foundation for his business was laid while many parts of the country were in floods in 1980. He recalled the hostile business environment prevalent those days in Guntur and the adverse climate, which had brought his entrepreneurial trials to a grinding halt even before taking off.

Unflinching support

Pushkar Juneja attributes his success to two persons - his better-half Meena and a close friend Bujji, who stood by him in the hour of crisis. Clad in red salwar suit, Meena with a pleasing smile contradicts Pushkar to say people of Guntur are the most lovable and she has a few of her best friends here. It's no surprise that an affable person like Meena was judged `Mrs. Guntur Runner-Up' a couple of months ago. She was `Miss NSK College' during her graduation in Dehradun.

Hailing from Kohat in Pakistan on Afghan border, parents of Pushkar settled in Pathankot and manufactured wooden packaging boxes.

Savouring Kadai vegetable with tandoori roti at Vajram Residency, he recalls how his humble business morphed into what it is today. Out of a business turnover of Rs.1 lakh in tobacco packaging material in late 1950s, his father used to shell down about Rs.45,000 as commission to local traders. Pushkar brought seven wagons of packaging material to eke out a living by saving the commission amount. Sudden spurt in demand for the stocks due to floods in Maharashtra and Gujarat then, laid a strong foundation for his business.

The family prefers pure vegetarian food at home and only on rare occasions goes out to dine in restaurants.

A family outing is a rarity, as Pushkar Juneja has to manage a Bridgestone tyre shop in Guntur and another in Vijayawada, consuming 16 hours a day. Meena prefers to solve crosswords or sudoku in her free time or socialize rather than getting glued to the idiot box.

Pure veggies

With the disintegration of USSR in 1993, the demand for tobacco packing material drastically fell and the family ran travel business with four air-conditioned buses for a decade and diversified into tyre business. The best wheel alignment/balancing station in Guntur with Japanese technology tie-up is their next venture.

A film buff, Pushkar spends his free time enjoying a few new arrivals in the city and spends time with their sons - Abhishek and Aseem.

While Abhishek is pursuing masters in business administration at Bangalore, Aseem is in Second Year of B.Tech (Electronics and Communication) at RVR&JC College in Guntur.

Aseem, who got successfully treated for Thalassaemia in Italy, has a craze for driving the latest/fastest bike of the day like any other youth of his age. Anyone approaching for blood does not go empty handed as everyone in the family regularly donates blood to the needy after their experience with Aseem. Glued to a few titles in fiction, he finds life in Guntur intolerably slow and freaks out in Bangalore or Hyderabad during holidays.

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