The UP. Goenka group of companies, which now owns EMI, has proudly bestowed upon Rakhee the title of the "world's largest dealer of EMI products."

And just how much revenue does this blue-eyed boy bring into the coffers of EMI each year?

"I will not give you an exact figure but let us just say it is well over a million dollars" Bosamia told India-West last week.

Bosamia (affectionately known as "Bapu" amongst his friends and clients) was in Berkeley earlier this week for the grand opening of his third branch office in the United Stated The new office, which had its at end opening Jan. 27, is located at 2542 Tenth Street here, just a few blocks away from the cluster of Indian shops on University Avenue.

From this 6,600 sq. ft. ware house building, Rakhee Import rill supply audio cassettes and CDs to all the Indian and Pakistani retail outlets in California.

Besides EMI, Rakhee will also stock the musical products of other major Indian manufacturers such as TIPs, Venus, T-Series, Weston, etc., and will also feature the music of Canada and UK based companies such as Audio. Rec. Oriental, etc.

The Berkeley branch will be managed by Bosamia's brother-in-law, Apurva Chachcha, and Apurva's wife, Yogita.

Born in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, in 1951, Bosamia graduated I from the Bhavsinhgi Polytechnic I College where he acquired a degree in electrical engineering as well as a degree in electronics. During those years he could scarce imagine that he would one day become one of the world's largest dealers of Indian music.

Bosamia's first job was as a production engineer in Bombay with Vishal Electronics who manufactured closed circuit television cameras.

In July of 1980, Bosamia migrated to the U.S. where he got a job as a nuclear engineer with EBASCO Construction Company. During his 10-year stint there, Bosamia was first stationed in New Orleans and then in Houston.

In 1984, four years into his job, Bosamia saw that Indians here were hungry for Indian music and he decided to do something to quench their thirst. He began a modest operation of distributing Indian music out of his garage The business was largely managed by his wife, Pragati, under Bosamia's part time supervision.

The first year, Bosamia remembers, his company did a modest turnover of $7,850. But Bosamia was not discouraged. Both husband and wife persevered and the business steadily grew each year.

In 1991, when sales crossed million-dollar mark, Bosamia quit his job to run the business full-time. They acquired a 10,000 sq. ft. building on 6th Street in Houston, and the Bosamia's gradually began to fill the cavernous warehouse with every imaginable kind of Indian music.

Business continued to grow even more rapidly. In 1996, Rakhee Import had touched a sales figure of $3 million," and the future looks bright", Bosamia added.

Rakhee's second branch in U.S. had opened in June 1994 in warehouse Chicago, and they have plans to a fourth one later this year in Atlanta.