Carving path from Buldhana to Fiji
Niikhil Ballal / Juili Kulkarni
A boy from Buldhana who helped his father with odd jobs on construction site, has today, reached the pinnacle of success, courtesy, his grit, determination, and the dream to make it big in life. Hailing from a typical lower middle class family, the struggles, that he faced while growing up, did not deter him, rather pushed him to beat the odds.
“Helping my father on construction sites and learning the nuances of developing designs for buildings, I was drawn closer to the field. Whenever my father’s fellow workers were stuck at a point when English was the barrier between them and their work, they approached me to help them out. I think that was when I slowly started developing a liking towards designs and architecture,” elucidates Ashok Sharma.
He adds, “While working on the site, I vividly remember the days when an architect used to come for a visit. All the workers used to gather around him and look at him with awe and respect. I was fascinated to see the kind of treatment the architect used to get. May be it was around that time that the seeds of architecture were sown in my mind.”
Ashok was studying in the eighth standard when he started accompanying his father to work. Meeting both ends was a daunting task for the family, and every additional hand that could contribute to the family income was appreciated.
He was an average student in school. “I somehow completed my 10th. Later, I opted for Science. I think that was a big blunder. Just before my 12th standard board exam, there was an internal test in my college, and to my horror, I failed in all papers. I was dejected. Thankfully, my Physics sir, who had confidence in me, motivated me to concentrate harder. His words, “Do you want to become a labourer like your father?” hit me hard. I pushed myself for the next one month, and to my glee, I cleared 12th with flying colours,” exclaims Ashok.
After his 12th, he was at crossroads. He had to choose between engineering and architecture. “I appeared for the architecture entrance exam and was selected for JJ School of Architecture. The feelings were mixed. I was happy that I was selected in one of the best colleges in India, but at the same time, I knew I did not have enough money to stay in Mumbai and complete my education there,” he says.
However, when you knock hard on the doors of progress, even the God cannot resist opening the door for you. From an unexpected source, help was offered to him. “I was working on a construction site adjacent to the former Maharashtra Home Minister’s bungalow. The minister saw me working and sent his peon to fetch me. I went to his house and surprisingly after asking me about my whereabouts, I was offered two demand drafts worth rupees four thousand each and an additional cash of rupees two thousand,” recalls Ashok.
With money in hand and determination in heart, he went to Mumbai with his father. Though he went there, he soon realized that it would not be easy to stay in the financial hub and complete the architecture course. He chose to do civil engineering instead. The father-son duo headed back to their home town. Ashok stayed with his sister in Buldhana through his engineering days.
From his second year of engineering, he started working with an architect and continued taking tuitions. After his graduation, he bagged a big project. It was designing a school spread across 48 acres of land in Buldhana. “It was quite accidentally that I got this opportunity. After completing my studies, I was back working on the field doing some odd jobs. There, the owner of the school bumped into me. He asked me whether I would like to design his school. Though he had an architect from Nagpur already on board, he still wanted to give me a chance,” recollects Ashok.
Ashok sent across the designs to the owner of the school and being mighty impressed with them, he came down to Ashok’s home. This opportunity came to him after three months of starting an office in Buldhana.
After completing that school project, it was smooth ride ahead. “Those three months were really challenging. There was hardly any awareness about architecture in Buldhana and the fact that I was not a Marathi speaking boy hindered my chances. However, I took both these things in my stride and decided to start an online portal,” he says.
His wife Vaishali, who is a computer engineer and a Bachelor of Architecture, helped him with the website (www.homes4india.com). Once the website was up and running, there was no looking back. In a matter of five to six months, Ashok and Vaishali had international clients lining up. They worked with clients in Fiji Island, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Spain, Ghana, and South Africa.
“The Fiji Island client was a tricky one. Before we took over, a big company based out of New Zealand was doing that project. However it seemed that the client did not like their designs. We were approached. We worked on the designs and the client liked it. We learnt a lot from that client. I remember one of our designs was rejected because of a miniscule 3mm difference. Once we got it corrected, our design was approved,” explains Ashok.
After working for close to two decades in Buldhana, in search of better opportunities, Ashok decided to shift to Mumbai. The couple zeroed down on Thane. They bought a home and an office in the city. They decided to have a big office space which would attract the clients. Quite coincidentally, the area that they bought was adjacent to the office of the owner of Lodha in Lodha Boulevard Mall. On the day of the office pooja, there was a surprise visit from none other than the owner of the Lodha Group. He was impressed with the office architecture and in a matter of few days Ashok was offered a chance to design the upcoming Lodha’s project in Palava. Meanwhile, Ashok and Vaishali have found their feet in the city, as they are flooded with work from residents of their housing society as well as friends from their rotary club.
With more than 20 years of experience in the field, Ashok Sharma has certainly
“carved” a name for himself not only in India but also on the global map. Last year, his company, which offers an avalanche of services including, architectural, interiors, landscapes, structural, and vastu, was bestowed with National Quality Excellence award for the best architectural and interior designing company in Western India and this year they have won the best innovative interior designer in Maharashtra by Zee India.
Going forward, the company will be working on a college in Khamgaon, a city in Buldhana district, shopping mall cum residential complex in Nagpur, 3 star hotel in Shil Phata, and 50-bed cardiac hospital in Thane.
———————————————————————————————————————-
