Not just a game...

Jammin' may be Nandan Piramal's pet project, but his heart lies in football.

A Liverpool Football Club fan, Nandan Piramal recalls the time when he travelled to Istanbul with his two brothers, Rajeev and Harsh, to watch Steven Gerard lift the prestigious Champions League trophy at the Ataturk Stadium, in 2005.

"It was a momentous match. Liverpool almost lost it!" he exclaims. This kind of passion for football extends, perhaps, to other games as well. Piramal, the youngest of his siblings, is now ready to take his brainchild Jammin', a gaming and family entertainment concept, launched a couple of years ago, several leaps forward.

At the moment, Jammin' centres are present in several Indian cities, including Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. With all their video games, simulators, car bumpers, bowling alleys, pinballs, kiddy rides, redemption games and air hockey, they are targeted at families who want to "enjoy games" together and Piramal, an avid gamer himself, is convinced of their potential.

"It's not as if parents can't play or try their hand at bowling with their children," he reasons. There is thus an aggressive expansion plan in place. By March next year, Jammin' will cover one lakh square feet, the largest floor space under operation in family entertainment centres in India.

Even without this, the Ashok Piramal Group, which operates in three business verticals "" textiles and apparel, real estate, and auto components "" has probably been an integral part of your lives.

Its Morarjee Textiles manufactures shirts for brands including Zodiac, Louis Phillipe, Allen Solly and Levi's. The real estate business, Peninsula Land, develops houses and commercial properties.

While auto parts from PMP Components are embedded in Maruti, Mahindra and Tata vehicles. But while these companies are headed by different members of the family, all the Piramal brothers share one trait in common: Their enthusiasm for football.

The family has, in fact, launched its own football team at a cost of Rs 3 crore. The Pune Football Club is just another attempt by the Piramals to associate themselves with a sport they are fanatical about.

This is not even the first time when they've tried owning a team. Before Pune and much before the likes of IPL in cricket, the group had a pretty good team in the 1970s-early '80s in Morarjee Mills, as Morarjee Textiles was known then. With the gradual fading away of the textile industry in Mumbai, these ancillary activities came to an end too.

"I have played football, rugby, cricket and polo but football has been more than just a hobby," the youngest Piramal asserts. He now wants to make the club an integral part of the social fabric of Pune and its surrounding areas. "Like we live and die for Liverpool victories, I want Pune football lovers to support their local team," he says.

The idea is simple "" just as most of the renowned clubs in the world, Liverpool, Barcelona or Milan, are named after the city they were conceived in, so it should be with Pune. The club's logo has been designed accordingly. It features a ghorpad, monitor lizard, that famously inspired Shivaji to scale cliffs, conquer forts and defeat enemies.

"We hope that our team will inspire both players and fans to take the Pune Football Club to the top of Indian and Asian football," enthuses Piramal. But why Pune? "Pune, we feel, is on its way up, just like Kolkata or Goa. Do you know that there are over 100 clubs registered with the Pune District Football Association?"

Talking about recruiting players for his team gets the young turk all fired up. "We were late starting out due to an official hold-up. But we still managed to get some great players from Manipur, from the under-19 team, a few from the Tata Football Academy, and a couple of foreign players from Nigeria and Belgium." The team is ready with a five-year plan.

But 27-year-old Piramal, vice president of his company, can think beyond football too. "We have five manufacturing units in different parts of the country," he says of the family business.

"We wanted to do something for villages around our units. So, we have set up a trust in the name of our father and aim to set up sanitary, healthcare, educational and irrigation facilities for villagers." Villages near Bangalore are already availing of sanitary facilities and a primary school funded by the trust.

Back to sports, Piramal does not let go of any chance to go sailing or take up any other adventure sport. A long weekend for him is the perfect chance to take a catamaran to Alibag or go speedboating with his bunch of friends.

On the other hand, he says, "When I am not out, I have my young nieces and nephews to keep me occupied. My five-year-old niece has even started training in football," he says with some pride.

It's all in the family, like we said.