I somehow have always been fascinated by the old world charm of Kolkata. True it is a bursting city, quite chaotic and filthy, but all the same it holds a definitive attraction. Be it the congested streets, or the colonial aura that it has managed to retain. Shakespeare Sarani, Tollygunj, Park Street, The Strand, there definitely is an attraction.
Even before the British it had been a major trade centre. It still is the Head Quarters for Birlas and its contemporary Companies. True today it is a city in shambles, but it still retains the oompj of yesteryears.
I have visited this city many a times. A few visits physically and of course many a visit through the pens and imagination of Rabindranath Tagore & Co. Their writings certainly transforms this bustling City situated on the banks of Ganga as she finishes her journey here.
One of my main purpose this time has been to visit Dakshineshwar. The temple of Godess Kali and the abode for over 16 years of one of her most ardent devotees Sri. Ramakrishna Paramahansa. I have been planning this visit for quite some time now, but have been able to fulfill only today.
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Location:Kolkata
About Capt. Shaji Kumar
I spent five years as an officer in the Indian Army. Then I took off the uniform and started again — from nothing.
With ₹1.5 lakh and no business background, I built what became the Chaque Jour Group: a bootstrapped, pan-India company in staffing and facility management that today turns over more than ₹150 crore and serves clients who have stayed with us for 10, 15, even 20 years.
I wasn't given any of it. I built it.
That phrase — built, not given — runs through everything I do now. After three decades of leading teams, closing deals, surviving downturns, and learning the hard way what separates the founders who last from the ones who fold, I've turned to what matters most to me at this stage of life: passing it on.
Today I mentor first-generation entrepreneurs and emerging leaders — not with theory from a textbook, but with what the Army and the market actually taught me: discipline, execution, resilience, and the composure to think clearly when everything is on fire. I also help professionals master something most leaders neglect — staying calm under pressure, through simple practices of breath and stillness.
I write for the same reason I mentor: knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied.
If you're building something — a business, a team, or a stronger version of yourself — you're in the right place. Let's build it. Not wait to be given it.
Capt. Shaji Kumar 