A crorepati who lives in a hut

 

A crorepati who lives in a hut!

His story is an inspiration for millions. A self-made entrepreneur, his mission is to help the poor through job creation. E Sarathbabu hit the headlines after he rejected several high profile job offers from various MNCs after he passed out of IIM, Ahmadabad two years ago..

a)       He instead started a catering business of his own, inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, worked as an ayah in an Anganvadi to educate him and his siblings. As a child, he also sold idlis in the slum where he lived. “We talk about India shining and India growing, but we should ensure that people do not die of hunger. We can be a developed country but we should not leave the poor people behind. I am worried for them because I know what hunger is and I still remember the days I was hungry,” says Sarathbabu.

In August 2006, Sarathbabu’s entrepreneurial dream came true with Foodking. He had no personal ambition but wanted to buy a house and a car for his mother. He has bought a car but is yet to buy a house for his mother. The “foodking” still lives in the same hut in Madipakkam in Chennai. Today, Foodking has six units and 200 employees, and the turnover of the company is Rs.32 lakh a month. But it has not been a bed of roses for Sarathbabu. After struggling and making losses in the first year, he managed a turnaround in 2007.

How has his experience as a ‘Foodking’ been in the last two years? Sarathbabu shares the trial and tribulations of an exciting and challenging job in an interview with Shobha Warrier.

A tough beginning
As I am a first generation entrepreneur, the first year was very challenging. I had a loan of Rs 20 lakh by the end of first year. I had no experience in handling people in business, and it was difficult to identify the right people. Though I made losses in the first year, not even once did I regret my decision of not accepting the offers from MNCs and starting an enterprise of my own. I looked at my losses as a learning experience. I was confident that I would be successful one day.

 

 

 

Sleeping on the railway platform April 29, 2008 My first unit was at IIM, Ahmadabad. When we started our second unit in October 2006, I thought now I would start making money. But I made losses of around Rs 2000 a day. A first generation entrepreneur cannot afford such a loss. But I worked really hard, working till 3 a.m. in the morning. What reduced my losses were the birthday party offers. I started the third unit again in Ahmadabad but it also made losses. All my units were cafeteria and I understood then that the small cafeterias do not work; I needed huge volumes to work. My friends who were extremely supportive in the first year when things were difficult for me. I had taken loans from my IIM-A friends. They were earning very well. In December 2006, an IIM Ahmadabad alumni event took place in Mumbai and I decided to go there mainly to get a contract. I was hopeful of getting it. I also knew that if I got the huge contract, I would come out of all the losses I had been incurring. I booked my train ticket from Ahmadabad to Mumbai for Rs 300 and I had Rs 200 in my hand. As the meet went on till late at night, I could reach the station only at midnight. I missed the train. I decided to sit on the platform till the morning and travel by the next train in the morning. I didn’t have the money to check into a hotel. I didn’t want to disturb any of my friends so late at night. It was an unforgettable night as I was even shoved off by policemen from the platform. It was quite insulting and embarrassing. After two hours, people started moving in, I also went in. A man who sat next to me on the platform gave me a newspaper so that I could sleep. I spread the newspaper and slept on the platform! I sleep well. I got my ticket refund in the morning and went back to Ahmadabad. And, luck did not favour me, I didn’t get the contract. In March 2007, I got an offer to start a unit at BITS, Pilani (Sarathbabu was an alumnus of BITS, Pilani). That was the first medium break for me. For the first time, I started making profits there though the other units continued to make losses. The reason for our success at BITS, Pilani was the volume; there were more students and there was a need for a unit like ours while in Ahmadabad, they have at least a hundred options. If I made Rs 5000 a day at Ahmadabad in two shifts, here I made Rs 15,000 a day. BITS, Pilani unit gave me the confidence to move on. Unless you make money, you can’t be confident in business.         What changed my fortune April 29, 2008 When all my friends who worked for various MNCs made good money every month and I made losses with my venture. But I kept telling myself, I am moving in the right direction to reach my ambition and vision. My dream was to provide employment and I was doing just that. I continued to work till 3 a.m. but I never felt tired. Through BITS, Pilani, I got the BITS, Goa contract and that was the biggest break for me. It was not a cafeteria like the earlier ones but the dining hall that we got. We had to feed 1300 students. We started our operations in July 2007. At Rs 50, for 1300 students, our sale was Rs 65,000 per day. We soon started making a profit of Rs 10 to 15,000 a day. Around 60 to 70 people work there. I gave the charge of the Ahmadabad operations to one of my managers and moved to Goa. I was still in debt by Rs 15-20 lakhs but I knew BITS, Goa would keep my dream alive. Within six months of starting our operations in Goa, I repaid all my debt. I was called to give a speech at the SRM Deemed University. After the speech, I asked the Chancellor, can you give me an opportunity to serve in your campus?? He said, “If not you, to whom will I give such an opportunity?” It’s a food court but a big one, similar to the one at BITS, Pilani. There are around 17,000 students there. Now, I have the BITS, Hyderabad contract, ready to start in July 2008. Other than the six units, I have approached a few more universities and corporate houses too. In the first year, I had made a loss of Rs 25 lakh. Right now, we have a turnover of Rs 32 lakh every month, which works out to 3.5 crore (Rs 35 million) a year. I have hired about 200 people. Indirectly, we touch the lives of around 1000 people. By this year end, we will have 500 people working for us. Only 10% of my workers are educated, the rest are uneducated. I want to make a change in their lives.. If they have any problem, I will take care of it. We support the marriages and education of poor families. We are paying more to the employees as the company is doing well. Now that the foundation is strong, I plan to have ten units and a turnover of Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) turnover by next year.         His advice: Never give up! April 29, 2008 In the last two years, I have given more than 120 lectures in various institutions in India. When I got the first opportunity to speak, I thought God had given me an opportunity to encourage or inspire entrepreneurs. When youngsters tell me they are inspired, I feel good. When you just dish out the theory, nobody believes you. But when you do it, they believe you. What I tell them is based on my own experiences. When I thought of starting a company, I felt India needed 100 people like Narayana Murthy and Ambani. If 100 such people support 2 lakh people each, imagine how many Indians get supported. Entrepreneurship is needed to uplift the poor. It is not easy to be an entrepreneur, especially a first generation entrepreneur. There will be lots of challenges in the beginning but you should learn to look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Never give up even if there are hurdles. There are many who give up within a week. You need determination and a tough mind to cross the initial hurdles. If you are starting without much money, you should not have any overhead expenses. He still lives in the same hut As I am in the food business, I know how much the price of every food item has gone up. Many people will languish in poverty because of inflation. Had my mother been working as an Anganvadi ayah today and earning Rs 1500, she would not have been able to feed us and educate us. On the one side, we talk about India shining and India growing, but we should ensure that people do not die of hunger. We can be a developed country but we should not leave the poor people behind. I am worried for them because I know what hunger is and I still remember the days I was hungry. That is why I feel it is our responsibility to take care of them. I wanted to buy a car and a house for my mother. I bought a car first, not a house. I still live in the same house, the same hut. I can build a house right now but I want my business to grow a little more. I feel good in the hut; that’s where I get my energy, that’s where I lived 25 years of my life. I want to remind myself that the money and fame should not take me away from what I want to achieve. But within six months, I will build a good house for my mother. Her only advice to me is, don’t waste money. Till I was in the 10th, there was no electricity in my house. I had to sit near the kerosene lamp and concentrate hard. That’s how I learnt to concentrate. The two year journey has been very enriching. It seems like a 20-year journey for me. I was living every moment of the two years, from sleeping on the Mumbai railway station platform to this level.

Boomerang Throwed in Space Does Return !

Full story is at http://www.newscientist.com/blog/space/2008/05/space-boomerang-video-released.html

The Banana Leaf

I had been to a reception — more of a “naming ceremony” cum “annaprasana” (read: the first time a baby is fed with rice), of one of my acquaintances’ child the other day. Off late, I have been reasoning about anything and everything that happens in my surroundings … just happenstance I suppose.

The hall that I had been to (surprisingly called as a “convention” hall) hosted a real ruckus at the outset. It was not a place where people could be flooded in that way. A total of around 300 gathered in a place where 150 would be a norm. Imagine a fire accident, there would have been a trampede !!!

The next process of incidents appeared all the more bizarre. There is this cute little baby, just a 4 month old, who I bet was being harassed to stay awake till her naming ceremony finishes … The poor one was crying, but the process had to be finished for her to get a breather !!! Alas, she couldn’t manage one. Tons of dresses poured in (she was dressed up umpteen number of times by every possible person in that place), and each one was so too excited that they would want a snap with the baby. I wouldn’t have cribbed, but what with powerful wattages flashing into her eyes, she could have easily been dizzied for hours together. Its just that babies dont express much .. or they do and people fail to understand. Whatever be the reason, this was uncalled for .. so much for following a process !!

Then came the lunch … the “round-by-round” process. I wonder at times how people get fussy at such stuff. I mean, if we out to celebrate, lets celebrate first. I wouldn’t end up in a lame place just to look at some people rejoicing, and then wait for my chance to get a grab of a pic and hog and move out. I had been doing these things in my childhood, but I can attribute that to my immaturity (hell, we all might have had an experience of this !!!). Anyways back to the lunch.

We had to make sure that we would be the first to finish, so we had to “book” our places. I sat in front of a bickering couple, who I guess had a fight in the morning. So pissed off where they, that a look at their faces had my tummy half filled !!!

I love eating when things are served in banana leaves. It somehow is an invigorating experience, and I always tend to enjoy such a lunch. This time around though, it was an exception. The guy who places the banana leaves served with the smaller side of the leaf to the left of the serving table. That got the couple off again, and the lady screamed as if the server sinned badly. “Hey, aaku kudi ki kaadhu, edama ki undaali, adi telidha, buddhi leni vedhava” (read: The leaf shud be served pointing to left and not right, you asshole).

Now this was really not on the cards. What ought to matter is the taste of the food, cribbing about the position of serving leaves is uncalled for. Does it really matter ? But hell, there is a process for everything, much like the next issue I deal with.

The dishes ought to be served in a phasewise manner in their correct positions, with the pickles to the left and the sabji (vegetables) to the right. You ought to be served with hot simmering rice (never mind the cals) towards the closer end
of your leaf, else … you know what …

The best part was the food. We were supposed to (and I mean it that way) wrap up close to 20 dishes within 15 minutes flat, and it was at that point that I felt more like a taster to Cleopatra. There is no way that you can enjoy such a lunch, where you keep cramming things into yourself without bothering much about what was being served. Alas, people “rejoiced” this lunch, and moved out satisfied.

This is a common experience in orthodox outings. What saddens me is that this took place in what is one feels a “suave urban community” within India. Its cantankerous, frankly speaking, I somehow can’t bear with such issues, but then … there is a process !!!

I heard that chaos theory is indeed true, its high time we give it a shot though !!!

More on my rantings later !!!

Idea Lab – Memory – New York Times

Idea Lab – Memory – New York Times

Interesting Article.

Engineers

Note: I posted this on my blog first, then figured I’d open it up for discussion 

Shashi Tharoor commented on engineers this Sunday, in response to a sociology study that made me go “Holy wtf maderchod”. The easy link is here. The study itself is here. Its findings: for reasons unknown, a fantastically large number of Islamist terrorists are or were engineers. This includes OBL himself, the two pilots during 9/11 and some 40-60% of currently documented fundamentalist terrorists.

Why is this so ? The sociologists give some vague fundaes about the Engineering mindset and what not. My take – Frust Extremis or pure absolute frustapa. When you’re frustrated enough, who knows what you can do ?

Arun

PS: Perhaps Jehadi wasn’t the best nickname for Amit after all. He’s an engineer

Parenting in the IITs

This article was published last week or so in Livemint India: http://www.livemint.com/2008/03/20232056/IIT8217s-new-social-network.html.

It’s basically the writer’s perspective on how IITians at Bombay sit on their asses all day Net-surfing. Apparently, there’s a net access cut at specific periods, when they’re correspondingly forced to do social stuff. She writes on the positive effects of it.

My points:

• We all know the Net is an addiction. It’s like what TV was a generation ago. The logic of “Go out and get some fresh air. Go do something” applies here too. So, to talk like we’ve no idea about this, or that we’re a bunch of sodabuddi-wearing Quake-playing masturbaters is idiotic
• I would like to know precisely who the admin thinks it’s ”minding”. Because that’s what this is – a patriarchal attitude that assumes we are 18 year old breast-feeders or something. It’s one thing for them to not give us Net access for budget reasons. That’s fine. It’s also OK to block Literotica, Girls-gone-wild and so forth, I suppose. But to cut off access saying “It’ll distract you from studies” (like they did in Guwahati) or “You need to go out and hang out more or do something” is very very condescending. We’re aware of our choices. We choose to waste time or not do irresponsible. And institutes have no right to police that.

Bloody next thing you know, they’ll start saying “No short skirts and jeans on campus”, “Boys sit here girls there”, “Study hours on in the hostel” and God knows what else.

No deliberate, intentious propaganda

I had heard about this chap Koenraad Else (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koenraad_Elst) but never read his articles. I found this website which have a collection of them.

http://www.bharatvani.org/books/

Interested guys can have a read.

found this interesting piece …

powered by ODEO some new chap from bangalore … my namesake .. raghu dixit .. but the music is cool !!!

Interesting video

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/131 – Courtesy Jaini. Pretty cool I think.

Awesome skit – IT Mafia (Hindi)

Can’t stop laughing

These guys are brilliant!

-cheers

leela krishna