On a wing and a prayer

, Magppie's managing director, finds that spirituality is his true calling in life.

Religion wasn't a part of my life till 2005," says Vinod Jain, 34, managing director, Magppie, the brand that made stainless steel kitchenware a style statement. Jain, himself is nattily turned out but with every word that he utters, he reinforces what he says is the central focus of his life, Krishna consciousness. Recounting how his life turned from one of little interest in religion to what it is today, a total commitment to it, he says, "I was living in New York trying to establish Magppie and I had come to India on a trip and on a colleague's persuasion I attended a session on 'journey of self discovery' at an Iskcon temple. It has modules like search for happiness, does god exist? It's a life changing programme." And it did change Jain's life.

Jain decided not to go back to the US and felt that he had now found the purpose of his life. Says Jain, "What I follow now is spirituality. I won't call it religion. I believe that we are spirit souls and the soul has no religion." Jain's decision to embrace this strand of spirituality surprised his three brothers but not his wife: "My wife was with me through the course but my brothers, as they had never seen me like this, were surprised." The surprise, however, did not turn to any resistance from Jain's family to him following this path. Probably also because Jain says that before he encountered spirituality in his life, he was perpetually stressed. He says, "My involvement with spirituality has brought down my stress levels."

Jain joined the family business which was essentially a stainless steel kitchenware commodity business in 1998. He says of those days, "Design wasn't important to steel in India when I joined the business." But his personal interest in branded products lead to him dreaming of starting a branded stainless steel kitchenware product. And hence Magppie was born which has gone on to become a highly successful brand sticking to its early promise of great design. "Initially I got designers from NIFT and NID to design Magppie as I felt that they understood Indian sensibility better," he says. Have the two main strands of his life, design and spirituality influenced each other? Jain smiles and says, "Spirituality has helped my work life a lot but it hasn't changed my design sensibility."

What did change, however, is Jain's lifestyle. Jain visits the Iskcon temple every morning and is involved in the arati as well as the chanting that takes place there every day. Then, he says, from nine to six it's all about work, and after work he spends time with his family. He has also given up onion, garlic, tea, coffee and soft drinks completely. Jain, in keeping with his faith, is also engaged in distributing the Bhagvad Gita, as that is the book that those in Iskcon base their faith on. Jain says, "I spend almost three hours a day praying."

That prayer can change lives is now being grudgingly accepted by science, but organised religious sects like Iskcon have had their share of bad press. Was that ever a problem for Jain, when he first encountered it? His defence is simple, he says, without getting perturbed, "When I first encountered Iskcon, I knew very little about it. As for the criticism, there are two kinds of people; one lot that lives in the material world and who see things in a material way. And that's why some people have not been able to understand what Iskcon is doing. Iskcon is about consciousness. The changes are all inside. Whatever we do, we do from Krishna's perspective."

Two years and some on, Jain says that there is now more harmony both at work and home. Youngest of four brothers who both live and work together, Jain says that earlier the disagreements were almost always because of his stand and the way he thought in life. Now he feels that having changed from within, those areas of conflict no longer exist either at work or at home.

Jain's focus on Iskcon hasn't dulled his business acumen or his ability to spot the next big business opportunity. Says he, "We are in the process of launching modular kitchens and furniture. We want to bring the kitchen into focus where the entire family gets together." Jain is in the process of tying up with builders so that kitchens in builder apartments are designed to mirror his ambitious idea. Whether Jain's new business idea will take wings, we suspect, will depend on his prayers.