Not knowing when to keep quiet is a problem most journalists face, so the question pops out naturally, "You must have been lucky." After all, this man had to be singularly lucky to be able to preside over some of the most momentous changes in the Indian capital markets "" the formation of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the decision to go in for dematerialisation of shares at NSDL, Patil has been bang in the centre of each of them.
Patil, however, takes the interjection in his stride. "At that time I was executive director at the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI). I was handling project finance, merchant banking and treasury. It was the most powerful portfolio in IDBI and I was the third in line to become chairman. I would have [become chairman] in due course," he says.
So when he decided to take up the challenge of setting up a national stock exchange, all his well-wishers said he was out of his mind. "This is a doomed venture. You are foolish to take it up." With a small pause to take another paani puri, Patil recollects that he himself didn't know what he was supposed to do.
"It was a big risk but I decided that even if the gambit failed, at least I would have attempted something. At IDBI, I would have just worked, and retired."
Who floated the concept of the NSE? Patil patiently tells us that there was only the whiff of a concept when he started out. It was like this: in the first flush of liberalisation, the government had floated the idea of expanding the capital markets.
So almost every city worth its pin code had put in an application to start its own stock exchange. The finance ministry was the regulator of the capital markets and the torrent of applications had it completely confused. So the finance ministry asked market strongman and former UTI Chairman M J Pherwani to suggest a working rule to process these applications.
In passing, Pherwani mooted the concept of a national stock exchange, though he didn't elaborate how the smaller exchanges would fit into this framework. We are talking of sometime in 1990-91.
The turning point came when G V Ramakrishna was appointed the first chairman of a newly-established Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). As expected, GVR got into trouble with the powerful clique of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) brokers.
GVR had it up to his gills: the BSE brokers didn't look amenable to being regulated. The finance ministry took note and a meeting was called. Those were the heydays of the IDBI and as a premier financial development financial institution, its Chairman S S Nadkarni was called for the meeting. Patil was there at the momentous meeting where it was decided to set up a professionally-managed exchange.
Our stomachs are grumbling, but this is a slice of history. Straight from the protagonist and so we resist the temptation to pipe up again.
Today, Patil acknowledges that he didn't know about equity markets when he started out. "I was asked that being such a mild-mannered man, how I will be able to control the brokers?" But he had a view: Strict discipline and a rule-based system was all that was needed.
He admits that he took considerable risks then, since funds were also a problem. The government had said that it would not be able to fund the exchange.
"I didn't know where the money was coming from." So the idea of brokers putting up deposits for trading rights was born. It was a radical idea because the prevailing concept was that brokers bought themselves membership on the exchanges.
By extension, the idea ensured the separation of trading rights from ownership, and formed the core of what was to be India's first professionally-managed stock exchange. The rest, as they say, is history.
We gently hint at the buffet table. Why a buffet, you may ask. That's because Patil's staff, well acquainted with his ways, had suggested a buffet spread at the Jewel of India in mid-town, Worli. Why? Because Patil is a vegetarian and since the restaurant is close to his office, Patil is familiar with the fare.
Seeing the small quantities on his plate, our hearts sink. We broach the subject of cuisine. Patil says he is OK with almost everything as long as it is not oily and drowned in masala. The word moderation keeps popping up often, and almost seems to be the guiding line of Patil's life.
"Nothing bores me. I am interested in everything without getting obsessed by anything." In fact, at the moment he has become absorbed in Buddhist philosophy and is reading up everything on the subject.
"It happened by accident," says Patil. A relative of his sent him some tapes on the lectures by S N Goenka (of the Vipasanaa Institute) and this kindled Patil's interest in the subject.
Since then he has read a five-volume work on Indian philosophy and searched Google on literature related to the subject. "I do not read much of fiction," he reveals.
Despite projecting the image of a quintessential academic, Patil is practical. "I get bored with academics if it has nothing practical to offer. If it is all theory, without any scope of practical applications, then it turns into philosophy," he says, tongue firmly in cheek.
No second helpings for any of us, unfortunately. Patil has had his fill of mushroom pulao, curd rice, palak paneer, some daal and aloo gobhi.
What does he think of Sebi's record as the regulator? "The regulator is new here and it will take some time for it to ensure stability in the market-place." He points to the practice (the weakness, he calls it), that policy makers have of assuming that the market participants have a better knowledge of the markets.
This has proved to be Sebi's undoing, he says frequently, as the regulator tended to place more faith in what the market participants had to say rather than what unbiased professionals had to offer.
"Sebi's staff does not have the necessary expertise to handle the complexities of the market." He attributes this to the low pay-scales and Sebi's inability to attract good talent. He says that regulatory organisations such as Sebi should be totally de-linked from government control.
He talks of management by corporate objective (which is desirable) as opposed to management by personal objective (which is what the government practices).
The next big push in the markets, Patil holds, will come from connecting the remotest villages to the stock exchanges through the Internet. "Internet access has to improve and this is where the telecom companies have to step in."
He points out that only 9 per cent of the laid optic fibre capacity has been used. "This is a waste of resources. But for optimal usage, pricing also has to come down."
He points out that in telecom there is no relation between costs and the end pricing of the product.
Patil is against the idea of quotas for various categories of investors in primary markets. "There should be no restrictions and margins should be payable by everyone. The rules should be the same for all," he asserts, "we are living in a market economy and the market forces should be able to determine the demand."
The next round of reforms, he says, should be in the corporate debt markets. "A more pro-active role is required," he says, in creating a market for corporate debt whereby investors can get to invest in corporate bonds, much the same way that they can invest in equity.
Just when we are suggesting dessert, Patil drops a bombshell: "I think the regulator should make it the norm for companies to raise a portion of their debt through tradable bonds," he says, "which will make the whole system more efficient."
Patil proves to be quite an enthusiastic sampler on the dessert table, sampling almost all the items on offer "" starting with fresh fruit, then working his way through the mango cheese mousse, chocolate mud to the sweet sevian.
What does he prefer to eat at home? Very simple fare, he says, adding for our benefit that his wife, too, has a similar temperament: interested in everything, obsessed with nothing.
