Laid back on a couch on his twenty feet long hall of this office, Sachin Sharma re-counts his decade in
Mumbai. The founder member and partner of Culture Opus, has a studio that creates hair- raising stimulations, ear-splitting stories and eye-popping illustrations. Working as a journalist for mid- day, he now is a senior researcher at his firm where he produces documentaries and advertisements.
Sachin came to Mumbai after twenty years of age. Born and brought up in Madhya Pradesh, living
near the sea was one of his magic wish as a child. “Nature magnifies itself and enthralls a man in two
forms- the ocean and the mountains.” Says Sachin, who had experienced the mountains back home but
experienced the limitlessness of the blue wonder, for the very first time only after he was twenty.
Madhya Pradesh, a state surrounded by land on all four sides, is naïve of the bounty the sea holds.
When he first ‘faced’ the sea, he was awestruck. “I had least expected how the swish of a single wave
would change my life; least expected how the gentle drooling of the foam over my feet could give me
goose bumps; least expected the continual crashing surfs would rejuvenate every cell of my body! ” His
eyes shone as he illustrated his journey after coming to Bombay. Coming from a land of havelis, the
1BHK life, with his wife was a herculean task. Working for mid-day newspaper gave him the much
wanted peek into Mumbai, which laid a firm foundation in establishing his firm.
“I have never been to Europe, or to the United States, or seen the Eiffel Tower. However, there are
zillions of people who have never seen the sea! I wish someday their wish gets granted.” Sachin’s
mother was one of them. The sea of Bombay was the first ever water expanse she had ever seen at the
age of 38. On his was from the Andheri residence to the Juhu beach, Sachin’s fingers were shivering in
the auto-rickshaw as he anxiously awaited his mother’s response to the cars honking, roads undulating,
and mob rushing... The auto-rickshaw went through the heighted walls, through the road less taken.
Moving forward through the narrow vista, her eyes squinted. The rickshaw halted, breeze blew
caressing her hair and her eyes couldn’t contain the sheer vastness of the Arabian. The thick silence
between the two, could have been easily sliced by a knife. At last, she burst into tears of joy, pride and
admiration for her son. We so easily overlook, what we possess being a part of Mumbai every day!
Back in his hometown, Sachin’s locality boasts of a barber with a name plate ‘Bombaywala haircut’. A
popular tale that he narrates is about coming to Mumbai and assisting the assistant who cuts Jackie
Shroff’s hair. This value addition in his ‘curriculum vitae’ permits him to charge every customer Rs.40
extra of the usual amount. All the aspiring Bollywood stars from the locality are obliged to get their
make-overs from him. In addition to this, he gets a very special respect when he says he has experience
from Bombay! “Mumbai, is not what we have from Colaba to Bandra or from Churchgate to Virar. It’s
the feeling of belongingness. It is anything and everything that has originated from Mumbai, stays in
Mumbai and will die in Mumbai. It is this sea that marks the true boundaries of Mumbai, defines it and
gives it the much awarded characteristic.” Says Sachin.