The manager is by himself. He can't mingle with his players. I enjoyed my players, but I could not socialize with them so I spent a lot of time alone in my hotel room. Those four walls kind of close in on you.
Since 2005, I have not spent much time with my family. In fact I have spent more time at the Taj Landsend in Mumbai. It was my 100th visit recently, which means I have spent more than 400 days in that hotel, and that is a lot more than I have spent with my family.
Swish: A made basket. Swoosh: The Nike logo. Swish-swoosh, swish-swoosh, swish-swoosh: A thousand coaches in nylon tracksuits, walking through hotel lobbies at the Final Four.
What makes us unique is that we actually build things. Unlike most hotel companies who just manage and have no experience building, designing, and developing a hotel, we started off on the opposite track. We started off building. We're construction guys first and foremost.
I went to university for a year, and I'm not one for schooling and have no enjoyment sitting in a classroom all day and ended up going to live in England for two years, just to travel. I worked in a bar in a hotel for a couple of years and had no intention of becoming an actor. That's where I met my agent.
I often compare putting a hotel together to old-time movie production. You come up with a story line, you hire the writer, the director, the stars, the set designer.
In a lot of ways, I envy someone like Omar Sharif who lived in a hotel for decades.
I worked with so many comedians who became big names - so many, I can't even remember some of their names. John Byner, Totie Fields, Joan Rivers. Shecky Green at the MGM. When I started my career, my first hotel in Las Vegas was at the old Flamingo. My opening act was Bill Cosby.
There were about 400 heads of state from countries all over the world. I walked out and played 'Hotel California,' and everybody in the place gave me a standing ovation, and half of those countries don't even speak English.
The William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh... was the place where Champagne Music was born.
Getting to Valle Nevado is half the fun. A serpentine road from Santiago wriggles up the spine of Andean peak for an hour, then traverses a valley and finally up again. The hotel is perched on a rugged mountain crag at 3,000m: no other sign of human development is visible from this spot, which is close to the Argentinean border.
I've paid for more pianos in hotel lobbies than you can imagine.
I always like my trailer or hotel room to have fresh flowers or pillows I find at a local flea market - anything to personalize the environment.
I tend to write some, then outline some, then delete some, then go back and rewrite some. I love revising and hate first drafts. I have to wear bedroom slippers. My current favorites come from the Zetter Hotel in London. They have little tobacco pipes on the toes.
I came to Mumbai in 2000 to do a hotel management course. Following this, I worked as a marketing executive with Hotel Sheraton in Muscat for a year. It was in 2004 that I participated in the Gladrags Mr. India contest and bagged the most popular model award. After that, I did few ramp shows and ads.
I like doing accents. One of my friends works in hotel reservations and I'll ring her up and complain about the suite. Sometimes I get her.
Going out for rides with my friends and having lunch or dinner at a roadside hotel - that's my favourite time-pass.
Room service is nice. Ooh-la-la, a hotel. At home, it's laundry and school lunches.
I used to work at a hotel. I was the order-taker for room service. My mom worked at the hotel as an accountant.
Staying in luxury hotels still gives me a kick, especially Oulton Hall in Yorkshire. I'd stay in a hotel for the breakfast and room service.
