P for Papa, P for Positive

Years ago (feels like it) when I was a kid in the 90's, way before brands, the big store in Bangalore was Kidskemp. Wearing a Kidskemp dress to school on your birthday was the in thing. I have a lot of memories of that place, we didn't shop much but we did a lot of window shopping. They used to have these special days with a fair atmosphere; there would be a lot games and activities that we enjoyed as kids, from caricature to mehendi, there was so much to do that we'd have fun filled evenings.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="My Bro and Me way back at Kidskemp"][/caption]

Here's a video from the movie Vishnu Vijaya (Kananda) / Ashaant (Hindi) which has a dance sequence at Kidskemp. FYI: Made in two languages it had Dr.Vishnuvardhan and Akshay Kumar in lead roles. Vishnu Vijaya was a hit and Ashaant was a flop.
All the characters in the song were in the store, how could kids not want to go to Kidskemp.



Back then in Bangalore there weren't all that many cars either. The IT boom was yet to happen and cars were still a family vehicle and a luxury. It was easier to remember cars you'd seen before. I remember seeing PMA written on a few cars that I came across often. The letters intrigued me, even more when I found out that those cars belong to the Kidskemp family.

One day I finally came across one car that helped but writing below in small print - Positive Mental Attitude. Reading that set off a strings of thoughts in my head, and I wondered of that was their secret to success, was it an organisation, a club? I tried to ask around but those were the days when we didn't have internet, so after a while the question got shelved as unanswered.

I'd forgotten all about it until I got thinking this morning about the word positive and what I would write about it, when I remembered the letters PMA and it all came flooding back. I couldn't find out then but now I have the 'internet' so here what I found out.

PMA isn't an organisation or club but rather PMA is recommended as an Attitude by RVM. Yeah, some more abbreviations. Some more digging and I figured out RVM stands for Ravi V Melwani, the man who owned the stores – Kids Kemp, Big Kids Kemp and Kemp Fort.

Over the years the Kidskemp and Kempfort craze dwindled (even the shops look sad today), it is now all about the big brands and so I thought the brands killed it but seems they weren't the only ones. RVM decided to move away from his retail business at the peak of his career. He switched tracks and moved to doing meaningful spiritual and humanitarian work.

Currently RVM is dedicating his life to spreading the RVM philosophy - Rejoice, Value life, Make a difference. RVM is many things but he is also a philosopher, poet, singer, speaker, motivator, author and philanthropist.

RVM seems to be doing a good job at what he's doing. He has a blog and a website and seems to be doing a lot of stuff, making a lot of money. His bio says he had a change of heart et all but it seems to me that RVM is smart, he got out of the retail business right on time and got into the next money spinner. Nothing wrong with a smart businessman and if PMA has worked for him all these years, I'd sure give it a try.

So the crux of the whole story - 'Positive' is my 'P' word of the year. :P

Photo Credits: geralt on Pixabay and my Papaji. :D