Sula's Rajeev Samant is the star of this week's Time magazine cover story. One of the sections of the 'India Inc.' story is ' Bombay 's Boom' and it begins this way:

The streets are wet with the dew of the coming monsoon as Rajeev Samant unveils his latest enterprise in midtown Bombay. The Tasting Room is a softly lit tapas bar built into a high-end furniture store in the old textile district. The idea is to showcase Samant's range of Indian wines in a space that oozes class and cash - with bottles costing twice the average Indian weekly wage, it's meant to be exclusive. Tonight the guests include local investment bankers, venture capitalists and a group of students from the business school in Fontainebleau, France, on a two-week trip to India to see what all the buzz is about. Over Chenin Blanc and Reserve Shiraz, the patrons swap investment tips and gossip about recent sightings of Richard Gere and Will Smith. "You're so lucky to be here now," says Samant, 39. "This is an incredible time. It's all happening. Right here, right now." ( The last sentence, of course, will sound very familiar to anyone who has heard Abhishek Bachchan's hip-hop number in Samant's good friend Rohan Sippy's film, Bluffmaster.)

Like all good magazine stories, ' Bombay 's Boom' ends where it begins. So, Samant gets the last paragraph all to himself:

When Samant left school 20 years ago, any Indian with ambition and means got out, and Samant followed a well-trodden path to Stanford and on to Oracle in California 's Silicon Valley. Then in 1991 [Prime Minister Manmohan] Singh, at the time the country's Finance Minister, began to open up India, dismantling a creaking socialist command economy that had chained India to poverty and stagnation since independence. Samant returned home with a mad new plan: to make wine in a country where alcohol was taboo and the closest thing to sophisticated intoxication was hooch. Thirteen years later, Samant runs Sula, one of India's largest vintners, producing more than a million bottles a year. And he lives large, employing a chauffeur and a butler, vacationing in Europe and California, and partying every night in Bombay.

India's great hope runs on hope itself. Hope is the reason [Czech-born fashion model] Yana Gupta stays in Bombay, despite falling ill from diesel fumes each time she crosses the city. Samant says it's why, unlike in New Orleans, the people didn't disintegrate with their city after the [July 26, 2005] floods. Hope brought Bombay together and keeps it together. "Look at Dharavi," he says of the city's notorious slum, the biggest in Asia . "The place has a GDP of $1 billion a year. Dharavi makes you realise everyone has a stake in keeping Bombay going." One day all those millions of expectations will have to be satisfied. But for now, the City of Dreams is living up to its name.

Good thought, Rajeev. Mumbai must thank you for being such an articulate spokesman.

For the complete story, go to www.time.com

( http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1205390,00.html )