Long before Gurgaon became Gurugram, a young Kunwer Sachdev arrived in a clean, green town a short drive from Delhi — and helped build both a company and a city.
In a weekly series on the people who shaped early Gurgaon, The Times of India turned its spotlight on Kunwer Sachdev — the man behind Su-Kam — as one of the city’s “first Gurugrammers.” He and his wife Khushboo moved there around 1994-95, part of a growing tribe of professionals who chose a quiet Delhi suburb that would, in time, become a corporate hub.
A city without crime
The Gurgaon Sachdev describes is almost unrecognisable today: clean, green and largely empty, with so little traffic that you could cycle without worry. Palam Vihar, where he first settled, had wide open spaces, a big park and freedom for children to play. There were few markets, so residents drove to Delhi for supplies — and, as he recalls with a smile, there was no police station because there was simply no crime.
Building a company as the city grew
Sachdev’s story tracks Gurgaon’s own rise. He took a factory on rent in a then little-known DLF Phase-VI when land was still cheap, betting on a corner of the city that would later boom. It was here that the inverter business he was building began to expand — the early foundations of what became one of India’s best-known power-backup brands.
“We had the best of times.”— Kunwer Sachdev, reflecting on early Gurgaon
Roots that stayed
Even as the suburb turned into a glass-and-steel metropolis, Sachdev kept his roots there — a farmhouse on Sohna Road, built in 2000, where the family still farms in the winters. More than two decades on, the TOI feature paints him as a contented settler who watched both a city and a company grow up around him, and feels life has given him a fair go.
Why the story endures
“The First Gurugrammers” is as much social history as personal profile: a portrait of the pioneers who bet on an unproven suburb and, in doing so, helped invent modern Gurugram. Sachdev’s inclusion is a reminder that behind Su-Kam’s national success was a very local story — of a young entrepreneur, a growing city, and the best of times.
The First Gurugrammers: Aloo-puri, winter farming & a city without crime — The Times of India →