00:00:00 – 00:00:08 Nitin Bajaj

Welcome to The Industry Show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. Joining me today is Ritesh Patel. Ritesh Bhai, welcome on the show.

00:00:08 – 00:00:11 Ritesh Patel

Well, thank you very much, sir. Thanks for having me.

00:00:11 – 00:00:14 Nitin Bajaj

It’s great to have you here. Let’s start with, who is Ritesh?

00:00:17 – 00:00:26 Ritesh Patel

That’s a long answer or a short answer, depending on what you’re looking for. I’m based in Montclair, New Jersey. We moved here about 25 years ago.

00:00:27 – 00:00:50 Ritesh Patel

But a quick around the world, I was born and raised in Kenya, in East Africa. And then when I was about 11, we moved to England when Kenya became independent. I think a lot of Asians were doing that at the time. And then from England at, I think the tender age of 21, I got on an airplane and came to America to seek my fame and fortune. So there you are.

00:00:51 – 00:00:53 Nitin Bajaj

A long and short journey.

00:00:53 – 00:00:54 Ritesh Patel

That’s right. Exactly.

00:00:55 – 00:01:06 Nitin Bajaj

Now, I’ve known you to be a man of many interests and many talents. And what I’m curious about is, what gets you all excited and up out of bed every morning?

00:01:07 – 00:01:50 Ritesh Patel

You know, it’s funny, because I’ve always been enamored by new technologies and exciting use of new things. If you know, from a professional perspective, from the early days of working in a hotel, where I was the one who figured out how to use what’s called a telex machine. And when I came here, I was the one who was always looking at the new computers that were coming in back in the 80s in the travel business, when I was in the travel business. So I’ve always been enamored by new tools and new technologies. So I get really excited from a job perspective about these new innovations that are coming out and how we as humans can use them, you know, to do things better.

00:01:51 – 00:02:35 Ritesh Patel

From a personal perspective, you know, I’ve got a couple of interests that keep me going. I love music. I’m involved in a local community radio station called Radio Fremont Clair. I do a weekly Jazz Funk Soul radio show for a UK based radio station called JFSR. I’m the chair of the board of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. I’m involved in AAPI New Jersey, which is really focused on raising the voice of our community. And it was started during the days of COVID. And it was originally, you know, our original tagline was Stop Asian Hate. But we’ve done more and more of that, very much on the advocacy side. So those are all the things that keep me going.

00:02:36 – 00:02:39 Ritesh Patel

And then finally, my family and cooking dinner every night.

00:02:40 – 00:02:51 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah, you run this really famous dinner club. You get people together around food and music. And you’re a true blood community person.

00:02:51 – 00:03:21 Ritesh Patel

Well, my belief is this, you know, I grew up, I don’t know, you know, what people know much about the, particularly the close-knit community that was the Asian community in London back in the 70s. You know, you had to rely on each other. You were the outliers. You were the new immigrants. There was a lot of hate. I mean, the National Front had started. And so I, growing up, I used to always see, if one of my uncles needed something, a phone call was made, and then 10 guys showed up, you know, and the community helped each other out.

00:03:22 – 00:03:52 Ritesh Patel

So coming to America, there was no such thing that I could find. We were all spread out so much. So I started doing the Raj Curry Club, which was once a month, get together, showcase Indian food to people who’d never had it. But the side effect was, you got people to get to know each other from all sorts of places. We had, I think the first one, we had a flight attendant. We had the CEO of British Airways. We had the head of marketing for, you know, Virgin Atlantic. It was crazy.

00:03:52 – 00:04:00 Ritesh Patel

So the curry club has been going for a while, and we do that every month. We’ve got 30 people showing up next week for the February gathering.

00:04:00 – 00:04:05 Nitin Bajaj

That 30 people showing up is extremely important, because how cold it is right now.

00:04:05 – 00:04:53 Ritesh Patel

Yes, exactly, exactly. And you know, and it is in Manhattan this time. So we have a few people who live in New York, where it’s convenient for them. But we do it every month. I think, you know, one thing I do notice, if I may, on the curry clubs, the most significant thing that struck me over the last three ones that we’ve had, nobody had their phone out on the table. They were all engaged in a conversation. They were getting to know each other, learning about each other, sharing thoughts and ideas. We’ve had two people who, because I do the seating, I purposely sit people next to each other. And I think, you know, many years ago, I put two people next to each other, and they got married this year. So, you know, we’ve had marriages through the curry club.

00:04:53 – 00:04:56 Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. They love you, and they will hate you pretty soon.

00:04:57 – 00:05:03 Ritesh Patel

And it all started with my desire for some decent Indian food when I came here, because all the restaurants were rubbish.

00:05:06 – 00:05:07 Nitin Bajaj

That is so amazing.

00:05:10 – 00:05:29 Nitin Bajaj

Now, you’ve reached a lot of people. You’ve touched a lot of lives. Give us a sense of, I don’t know if you even know this, but I’m always curious to know, what is the impact one’s work and passion creates? If you had to call that out, what would that be?

00:05:30 – 00:05:47 Ritesh Patel

I think we, in this society particularly, but I think it’s happening all over the world, is we’re not taking time to learn about somebody else and never walk in their shoes, and therefore can’t help them.

00:05:47 – 00:05:56 Ritesh Patel

I struggled. It wasn’t a great thing. I mean, I remember, you know, money ran out by Thursday, so I didn’t eat Friday, Saturday, Sunday, because I had to save money for the rent, right?

00:05:57 – 00:06:09 Ritesh Patel

You go through that, so you have empathy. And I think my thing is, if I can help somebody, hopefully they’ll, you know, pay it forward. But at least I’ve made a difference, right?

00:06:10 – 00:06:24 Ritesh Patel

I’ve tried, I’ve tried, even if I fail, and they don’t get anywhere, at least I try to help them. And I think people genuinely feel grateful for at least somebody trying, because nobody does in most cases.

00:06:25 – 00:06:27 Ritesh Patel

And that’s what drives me the most, I think, you know.

00:06:29 – 00:06:39 Nitin Bajaj

And I know in your case, you’ve not just tried, you have made an impact. So thank you for being you, and thank you for doing what you do. It’s not easy, but it’s extremely critical.

00:06:40 – 00:06:54 Ritesh Patel

Somebody has been spreading a rumor that there are three clones of me running around this country. So I don’t know who it is, but when I find out, I’m going to have to have a chat with them. But I’ve heard it from a number of people now, particularly on the on the desi WhatsApp group.

00:06:57 – 00:07:00 Nitin Bajaj

If we have more of you, I don’t think why anybody should be complaining.

00:07:03 – 00:07:22 Ritesh Patel

But yeah, I think, I think we owe it to ourselves. We, you know, even the second generation of Americans that I meet, the youngsters that I meet that I try and mentor and help, I tell them, look, you may think you belong, but we’re still a long way away, and we need to look after each other and make sure that we’re networking.

00:07:22 – 00:07:41 Ritesh Patel

And it’s no different to other immigrants that came over, right? When the when the Italians came over, there’s a whole close-knit group of Italian executives. Same thing with the Irish. You know, there was a moment in the 80s and 90s, if you need wanted a job on Wall Street, if you were Irish, you were in.

00:07:41 – 00:07:42 Nitin Bajaj

Set, yeah.

00:07:42 – 00:07:51 Ritesh Patel

Yeah. So, and for some reason, we Indians weren’t doing that, right? And I don’t know what, I don’t know why, but my aim is to try and fix that.

00:07:52 – 00:08:08 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah. And with our research and the work we’ve done as part of our foundation, as part of the American South Asian Network, we know we are going to collaborate a lot more on that front, and happy to provide you some insights into that.

00:08:08 – 00:08:25 Ritesh Patel

I do worry a little bit. I’ve seen more and more of, particularly the younger generation, becoming influencers, because it’s the thing to do, and they’re forgetting some of their history and their heritage a little bit. And that’s a little worrisome.

00:08:25 – 00:08:40 Ritesh Patel

You know, they’re more focused on the fame and the fortune, rather than the helping and the being there, you know, being empathetic and supporting each other. So that’s something I’m sort of working on this year, to see if we can make some adjustments, or at least try and balance it out.

00:08:41 – 00:08:59 Nitin Bajaj

You know, as you talk about the challenge we have in the community, I’m inclined to ask you, what is the challenge that you face? If you had to call out, amongst the many, what’s the one big one that concerns you the most?

00:09:01 – 00:09:18 Ritesh Patel

I would say, being taken seriously sometimes, or, you know, sometimes I sit there and I go, maybe I’m not that smart, and I shouldn’t belong here, right? Because I’m surrounded by so many smart people. And then I have to kick myself and say, No, you do belong at the table, and you’ll learn, right?

00:09:19 – 00:09:46 Ritesh Patel

So I do worry about, I’ve always worried about acceptance, you know, from the day we moved to England. Prior to that, we had an idyllic life in Kenya, you know, but moving, you know, when you’re the only brown kid in class, in actually, at one point in the entire school. Wow. Yeah. So I think acceptance and having people just accept me as I am, maybe that struggle is there sometimes, for sure.

00:09:47 – 00:09:55 Nitin Bajaj

On the flip side of challenges are opportunities. What’s the one you’re most excited about?

00:09:55 – 00:10:17 Ritesh Patel

I would say the work that we’re doing in the charitable side of what I do is the one that’s exciting, because the Asthma and Allergy Foundation has been around for 75 years, and we’re really getting into our groove. We’ve done some work on the advocacy side, where we punch way about our weight. You know, we’ve had some great legislation passed.

00:10:17 – 00:10:39 Ritesh Patel

We just had, we were part of a cohort and a consortium and a coalition of the willing to pass a bill in California to label food allergens on menus from restaurants. So you, if you have food allergies, you’ll be able to look at a menu, and you’ll see what ingredients are in that dish. So that sort of thing.

00:10:39 – 00:11:03 Ritesh Patel

And then on the professional side, I am completely deep into digital health and the possibility of all these new tools, technologies and platforms, and the innovators. And there’s a lot of Indian innovators here, by the way, huge amount, that are looking at these things and saying, You know what, I can make a difference by changing the delivery of care.

00:11:04 – 00:11:22 Ritesh Patel

I can actually make somebody healthy, or I can give them care when they need it. And using these tools and technologies to do that, it’s a big passion of mine. How do we innovate? And then how do we support those innovators? What do we need to help those innovators get those things into the marketplace? So that’s exciting as well.

00:11:23 – 00:11:32 Nitin Bajaj

That’s a massive opportunity. Yeah, especially in this country, being able to impact the healthcare system in a positive way, massive.

00:11:32 – 00:12:20 Ritesh Patel

Yeah, and it’s huge, right? I was just, you know, we had our annual Asthma Allergy Foundation board meeting with the National Health Council. National Health Council is the Uber patient advocacy group for all patient advocacy groups. So, you know, you had people from, you know, the American Diabetes Association, whose ambition is to be a $500 million foundation by 2030. And here we are a little affer at 6 million a year. But it was great, because when you listen to everybody, they all have the same passions, but they all have the same challenges, whether you’re a two person foundation, 100 person foundation, or 1000 person foundation. The not for profit world is fascinating, and it’s passion that drives it. So healthcare has got some really passionate people looking at all this stuff.

00:12:22 – 00:12:46 Nitin Bajaj

Now, as you look at the future, I’m inclined to pause and reflect and ask you to share two moments from your past life, one where things did not work out as you’d expected. There was disappointment, failure, lessons, and another where things exceeded your expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

00:12:49 – 00:13:34 Ritesh Patel

From a personal perspective, sorry, from a professional perspective, I would say there was a couple of bumps in the career where I joined companies in a role that the person hiring me thought was the role for me, and I thought it was the role for me. And it turned out to be the worst thing we ever did for both of us, right? So there were two of those where I, while I built a good team, and the team went on to do very well, I’ve never been let go. I’ve been moved, or I’ve been laid off because of a riff or a budgetary cut. But there was a, this was a straightforward firing, you know, and that worked, that did not work out well, and it didn’t bode well with me. It took me a couple of days to get over that one, right?

00:13:35 – 00:13:48 Ritesh Patel

The intentions were always good. We want, we both thought we were doing the right thing. But it was a privately held company. One guy owned it, and it just didn’t work out. So I think there were some egos involved as well, I suspect.

00:13:49 – 00:14:28 Ritesh Patel

Well, worked really, really well. I mean, you know, there’s so many, but I would say the work we did at Cushman Wakefield in a very complex CRM system that had to be deployed globally over a period of time. And that one, I bless Rob Okendo, who was a project manager on this with me. We were, you know, I was the front facing guy, and he was the back facing guy, and delivered it on, I think, ahead of schedule and about $300,000 under budget for a $14 million global IT CRM project that exceeded my expectations.

00:14:28 – 00:15:11 Ritesh Patel

And then there are many others, you know, at agency.com, a fellow showed up and said he’s going to build satellite radio stations, and we needed to build a player and do the mapping of the artist and the song and create a web based player to play on a 14.4 board modem. And people looked at me like I was on Mars. We’re going to do what? But we branded, created, and launched serious satellite radio. Wow. So, and that was before WiFi and high speed internet, so, and any music player. We were way ahead of Pandora and Spotify and all of those guys, right? So.

00:15:12 – 00:15:27 Nitin Bajaj

Well, congratulations on those successes. Now, I want to change gears and ask you, amongst the many things you really enjoy and are passionate about, what do you do to have fun?

00:15:30 – 00:15:51 Ritesh Patel

So weekends during the football season, or as you call it over here, soccer, you’ll find me with my fellow Spurs supporters at the official Montclair Spurs Supporter’s Club, drowning our sorrows, because our team’s not doing that well. But that’s, you know, that’s the weekends done. Usually it’s a Saturday or a Sunday game.

00:15:52 – 00:16:05 Ritesh Patel

But my true relaxation passion is music. So I do the, I do a two hour show on Wednesday evenings, 7pm Eastern time, where I get my headphones on, and the only thing I have to worry about is, what am I going to play next?

00:16:07 – 00:16:43 Ritesh Patel

And then Sundays, I’ve started much to the disappointment of my family, a one hour, I call it the DJ Ritters Desi Hour. And the format that I’m using is, because I’ve got a lot of listeners who are older, is the first three or four songs are old Bollywood songs that bring back memories of days gone by, Lata Mangeshkar, you know, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, those guys, Asha Bhosale. And then I mix it with up and coming artists, particularly from the UK, that Americans would never have heard of. So, you know, Jay Sean, Rackstar, Rishi Rich, people like that.

00:16:45 – 00:16:46 Nitin Bajaj

Not for every one of them.

00:16:46 – 00:17:11 Ritesh Patel

Oh, there you are, you see. So, and lately, you know, there’s a couple here in the US. In fact, Video of OX is one I had discovered when she did her mix of Lean On. She’s done some great stuff. So there’s some good American artists as well. But that’s another hour of headphones on. What should I play next? So that’s great. And then cooking, love cooking.

00:17:12 – 00:17:16 Nitin Bajaj

Yeah, the legend has it that you’re an amazing cook.

00:17:18 – 00:17:24 Ritesh Patel

That people do show up town again after they see a picture posted on Instagram. Hi, have you got anything left?

00:17:27 – 00:17:32 Nitin Bajaj

Is there a book or a podcast that’s a favorite of yours that you’d like to share?

00:17:32 – 00:17:53 Ritesh Patel

Yeah, so I think podcasts, the one I listen to the most is a series called Your Dead to Me. I religiously listen to it because I’m a big history buff, and I believe we don’t listen to history, and that’s one of the problems that we have. I absolutely believe in the old adage that history does repeat itself. And so you can learn a lot.

00:17:53 – 00:18:14 Ritesh Patel

So yeah, it’s called Your Dead to Me. It’s on the BBC Sounds app, but you can get it on Apple Podcasts as well. It’s a great format. They pick a topic, they find the foremost expert of that topic, the person who knows everything about it, and they marry them up with a comedian, and they have a conversation, right?

00:18:14 – 00:18:49 Ritesh Patel

So this past week, it was all about Bodhisattva. She was a queen in England back in the days before the Romans arrived, and she was fighting off the Celts. So we’ve, you know, as humans, we’ve been fighting each other for territory before the Romans even thought about it. And then before that, you know, there’s one about Genghis Khan, one of the Mughal Empire. And that was really fascinating for me, because I’ve not really, you know, I’ve not been to India. I don’t know much about Indian history. So listening about and learning about the Mughal Empire was quite interesting and how it came to be. So it’s great stuff.

00:18:51 – 00:18:54 Nitin Bajaj

I love the name that just wants me to add it to my playlist.

00:18:56 – 00:18:57 Ritesh Patel

You should, you should.

00:18:58 – 00:19:06 Nitin Bajaj

Now, on to my favorite part of the show, we call this the one line life lessons. Ritesh, I would love for you to share your life lessons with us.

00:19:07 – 00:19:39 Ritesh Patel

Oh, my gosh. One is always lean in, be present. Right? It doesn’t matter whether it’s personal life, professional life. But in my professional life, you know, when I meet somebody, I met somebody yesterday at this event, and she said to me, your first question to me was, How can I help you? Not, What do I do? Right? Always lean in and try and be present. I think that’s one big lesson that I’ve learned.

00:19:40 – 00:19:55 Ritesh Patel

I think the second one is, Don’t sweat. The small stuff is a good one to know. There are times we worry about the tiny little things when life is short. Life is short. Enjoy it, make the most of it, and make a difference in someone’s life.

00:19:58 – 00:20:21 Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Ritesh, thank you so much for making the time to be with us and share your journey and story, but more importantly, for being you, doing what you do to bring the community together, feed them, and make us all dance and enjoy. And I said, feed them, because it’s happening soon, where I can say, feed us.

00:20:21 – 00:20:27 Ritesh Patel

Yes, exactly. I’m glad to, I’m glad to have a chat with you. Thank you for having me on the show.