Yep....finally I am writing about it. I thought writing about my experience with opening this dhaba many times but all my writings ended in unpublished drafts :-)
Here I go....It was last summer when Birla put the idea on the table. I was all excited after hearing the idea. We quickly drafted the plan and thought of accumulating the funds.....Oops!!! I was taken back by the huge money required for opening the restaurant.
I gave it a serious thought. What I truly want in life...money!!! the answer came more quickly than I expected. I had always believed and proved to myself that I can make handsome money through stocks. Then why should I park my money somewhere else?
There were many reasons why I went ahead with Potluck. First and foremost, I wanted to prepare myself for a bigger venture in future and for that, hands on experience with a business was a must. Secondly I know my various traits those cause me harm...for example overreacting, getting frowned every now and then, channeling my energy in wrong direction..etc...And I thought that being in business will help me in overcoming them (have I succeeded..mmmm...No!!!). Thirdly I love number crunching.
There were other reasons too...I would like to mention two of them, first, proving that in Bangalore you can have quality north Indian food cheaply.And second,the pleasure of employing people.
I must accept that I could not contribute in a big way in initial boot up. But once the shop was up, I have given every bit of my energy, thought and care to it. It was not smooth in the beginning and I ended up in kitchen rolling hundreds of rotis, making various juices and some times cleaning the utensils. But what has come easy way to me so far...nothing.
My near and dear ones were pissed off with my life routine for some time (probably they still are), sometimes I felt like sleeping on my bike while driving back at 11:45 PM in evening on my way back home from Potluck...and sometimes I cried in pain.
But I feel it was worth, it is worth and it will be worth.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Sahir Ludhianvi
I was remembering Sahir today and then a poem of his, flashed my mind
"Dekha hai zindagi ko, kuch itna kareeb se
chehare tamaam lagane lage hai.n ajiib se
And the last few lines say
"is tarah zindagii ne diyaa hai hamaaraa saath
jaise ko_ii nibaah rahaa ho raqiib se"
From childhood till date, I had been an avid fan of Sahir. I feel (un)fortunate that I can relate many things from his poems to me. I can find all my feelings in his poems and they soothe me.
He was a man, who was discarded by one and all in his early age. His parents lived separately for the better part of their life because of some dispute, consequently Sahir spent his childhood with his mother. His father always wanted to snatch him back from his mother so that he will have a successor. And then at a very early age he was all alone in this world.
He fought hard to earn his first earning. No one on earth was ready to listen his writings. He wandered from Punjab to Calcutta then to Lahore and finally settled at Bombay. In the mean time he lost many things. His sufferings made him very hard from outside and the lack of love made him extremely tender from heart. From what I have read about him, life never treated him with what he deserved.
Having said that I do not mean that I have any complain with life. No, I do not have any. I just want to live one day at a time and move on. Because I know that I do not have courage to face the world, I do not have courage to bear what Sahir bore.
The only common thing between us is the hatred that we have for the world and for the people.
"Dekha hai zindagi ko, kuch itna kareeb se
chehare tamaam lagane lage hai.n ajiib se
And the last few lines say
"is tarah zindagii ne diyaa hai hamaaraa saath
jaise ko_ii nibaah rahaa ho raqiib se"
From childhood till date, I had been an avid fan of Sahir. I feel (un)fortunate that I can relate many things from his poems to me. I can find all my feelings in his poems and they soothe me.
He was a man, who was discarded by one and all in his early age. His parents lived separately for the better part of their life because of some dispute, consequently Sahir spent his childhood with his mother. His father always wanted to snatch him back from his mother so that he will have a successor. And then at a very early age he was all alone in this world.
He fought hard to earn his first earning. No one on earth was ready to listen his writings. He wandered from Punjab to Calcutta then to Lahore and finally settled at Bombay. In the mean time he lost many things. His sufferings made him very hard from outside and the lack of love made him extremely tender from heart. From what I have read about him, life never treated him with what he deserved.
Having said that I do not mean that I have any complain with life. No, I do not have any. I just want to live one day at a time and move on. Because I know that I do not have courage to face the world, I do not have courage to bear what Sahir bore.
The only common thing between us is the hatred that we have for the world and for the people.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Silence...
In morning over breakfast, again we discussed about my vision of life. Vision about what I want from life, what family means to me, what love means to me, what level of professionalism I expect from my employees, what level of professionalism I offer to my organization etc . . . . It has become a daily routine for me to keep on informing people around me that I have my own vision of life and I will live my life with that vision. And I am happy that at least my brother understands what I want from myself and why I do unlike others.
The futile effort of my so called well wishers (the true friend community) to customize me for them has always bothered me. What right they have, to change me. I never needed their opinion in any of my decision in life so far nor do I plan to seek their opinion in future. Why they want to decide about my life.
A lot has been already told about my selfishness. The truth is I am self centered. The truth is I live my life for my happiness. I do things that make me happier. And I do take pride in saying that I will always do things in life that will make me merry. If I love someone then the only reason behind that is my true emotional need and hence in a way is selfish. And from my eyes those who say that they do things to make others happy are liars. And they have the potential to lie to their soul. And its foolish to expect that they will be truthful to me if they are not with themselves.
Funds, equities, business and many more things no one has dreamt in my family. I have stepped in these things for my own self. I enjoy playing with them irrespective of what others have to say about them. The most I can offer to my well wishers in return of their continuous questioning, is my silence. My faith in silence is increasing every moment and it heals me like nothing else.
Finally I would like to give reason for my sudden outbreak. I have already had enough in my life. Those parasites, who have never earned their bread for themselves are teaching me about self respect and self dependency. Those who always lied to me and to themselves, are defining love and family. Those who know that they are incapable of doing the best are justifying that what we have is the best.
And silence is my answer to them.......
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
New year for Krishna
Sometimes I wonder why I should think so much....so much about me as well as about others. And today has been yet another day when I started the day by thinking about me and the people around me, in particular two of them....
It has been bad quality for me when I think what the other guy may be thinking about me. I have thought many times that its useless to read too much from others action or speech. And consequently I have convinced myself that I will stop grilling me henceforth but in vain. Because for me convinction and control had been two different things. One had been driven by mind, logic and reasons while the other with heart,feelings and emotions. The challenge for me in this year will be to align these two.
So here I come.....My resolution for this year is I will stop reading too much from a comment or deed committed by anyone around me. For the last few months I have been thinking that I have got this life and I should be the master of myself. Yet I feel that most of my time and energy gets wasted because I keep on deciphering what and why the guy next to me, did.
I want to live a life free from loads of emotions so that I could channelise my energy to the right things. For me right things are those about which I have always dreamed. And I know deep in my heart that if I will able to fulfill them, I will be satisfied for once and always.
My second resolution is I will keep myself free from any emotional committments. Now, when I look back at the last year, I feel i was slightly distracted and I desperately wanted to correct my way.
Now when I breath in the new year, I promise to myself to become more of Krishna. The Krishna, who dreams big and works for his dreams.
It has been bad quality for me when I think what the other guy may be thinking about me. I have thought many times that its useless to read too much from others action or speech. And consequently I have convinced myself that I will stop grilling me henceforth but in vain. Because for me convinction and control had been two different things. One had been driven by mind, logic and reasons while the other with heart,feelings and emotions. The challenge for me in this year will be to align these two.
So here I come.....My resolution for this year is I will stop reading too much from a comment or deed committed by anyone around me. For the last few months I have been thinking that I have got this life and I should be the master of myself. Yet I feel that most of my time and energy gets wasted because I keep on deciphering what and why the guy next to me, did.
I want to live a life free from loads of emotions so that I could channelise my energy to the right things. For me right things are those about which I have always dreamed. And I know deep in my heart that if I will able to fulfill them, I will be satisfied for once and always.
My second resolution is I will keep myself free from any emotional committments. Now, when I look back at the last year, I feel i was slightly distracted and I desperately wanted to correct my way.
Now when I breath in the new year, I promise to myself to become more of Krishna. The Krishna, who dreams big and works for his dreams.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
On the other side
I have seen plenty of times the fairer gender keeps on complaining of the biased nature of men. They say that the women do not get the respect and significance even in todays world because of this biasness. I wonder, how far(or close) it is from the reality.
I am sure that everyone will agree that the situation of women in general is in far better position today, than it was a century ago. From the history that I have read and understood, in past women was treated just as an object of lust. And somehow I felt that the women of those times never revolted against it. I am not assuming here that they were happy about this situation. But probably the world was not that open and they never did the so called out of box thinking about their situation in the society.
But today, when I find almost every housewife cribbing to his husband for one thing or the other, every bahu abusing her in laws for some reason, I really feel sad. No, please do not misunderstand me. I am not generalising, that this is happening everywhere but yes I see it happening at more place than not.
I wonder, is this the freedom that women was lacking earlier. Is this the proper use of freedom of speech and act. I often find that the women have the more myopic view than men. The education of women matters but soemhow does not help to great extent.
Probably we are in transitional state, hence the fairer gender has not explored the right horizons to explore the worth of freedom they have in todays world.
I am sure that everyone will agree that the situation of women in general is in far better position today, than it was a century ago. From the history that I have read and understood, in past women was treated just as an object of lust. And somehow I felt that the women of those times never revolted against it. I am not assuming here that they were happy about this situation. But probably the world was not that open and they never did the so called out of box thinking about their situation in the society.
But today, when I find almost every housewife cribbing to his husband for one thing or the other, every bahu abusing her in laws for some reason, I really feel sad. No, please do not misunderstand me. I am not generalising, that this is happening everywhere but yes I see it happening at more place than not.
I wonder, is this the freedom that women was lacking earlier. Is this the proper use of freedom of speech and act. I often find that the women have the more myopic view than men. The education of women matters but soemhow does not help to great extent.
Probably we are in transitional state, hence the fairer gender has not explored the right horizons to explore the worth of freedom they have in todays world.
Monday, October 30, 2006
"Bargain" or "No bargain"
Last weekend I was in Hyderabad to attend my colleague's wedding. With me, one of my close friend and ex-boss also travelled to Hyderabad. With time I have found that I can learn plenty of things from him. We discussed different things in train about variety of people,events and ideas.
In the course of discussion he told that he has made it a point not to bargain with people those do not have better living standards than himself. For example he will not bargain for fare with a rickshaw pulller.
I wondered about the positives and negatives of not bargaining with someone who earns each penny with his sweat and blood...yeah! sweat and blood because we literally sit on his shoulders and he carries us for miles. I have seen plenty of English visitors in Benares that they prefer riding on a manual rickshaw over auto rickshaw. Because probably it gives them a sense of superiority. No I am not differentiating the behaviour of white and black skinnners for rickshaw pullers. But I have just given an example.
Coming back to the point..the first positive is when we do not bargain with rickshaw puller we directly help him in earning more. This extra money can enable him to have better food, take better care of his family or drink/smoke all that he has earned. On negative side when we do not bargain with these guys I feel that we make the life bad for lower middle class. Most of the times, middle class people really need the service of rickshaw pullers. These guys always try to save money wherever they see any opportunity. And yes I believe that people of middle class will utilise the money in more constructive way if they save a rupee.
Now I have written my reasoning for no "No bargain", I still feel that in all probablity I may be wrong. But let me continue with this logic until I get another bettter counter logic.
In the course of discussion he told that he has made it a point not to bargain with people those do not have better living standards than himself. For example he will not bargain for fare with a rickshaw pulller.
I wondered about the positives and negatives of not bargaining with someone who earns each penny with his sweat and blood...yeah! sweat and blood because we literally sit on his shoulders and he carries us for miles. I have seen plenty of English visitors in Benares that they prefer riding on a manual rickshaw over auto rickshaw. Because probably it gives them a sense of superiority. No I am not differentiating the behaviour of white and black skinnners for rickshaw pullers. But I have just given an example.
Coming back to the point..the first positive is when we do not bargain with rickshaw puller we directly help him in earning more. This extra money can enable him to have better food, take better care of his family or drink/smoke all that he has earned. On negative side when we do not bargain with these guys I feel that we make the life bad for lower middle class. Most of the times, middle class people really need the service of rickshaw pullers. These guys always try to save money wherever they see any opportunity. And yes I believe that people of middle class will utilise the money in more constructive way if they save a rupee.
Now I have written my reasoning for no "No bargain", I still feel that in all probablity I may be wrong. But let me continue with this logic until I get another bettter counter logic.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The bull behind outsourcing
Last weekend I met one of my college friend at his cousin's home. We started our talks from college days and then shifted to stock markets and finally got blocked at outsourcing.
To be frank I am not among the better brains to discuss this concept. But I am convinced that there is only one core reason in present world for outsourrcing to exist(and work). And that is getting cheap labour.
My friend's cousin was not convinced with my thought and his argument was that India is preferred location for softwarre companies because of its competency in computer skills. I agree to him but I fail to see how it forces Americans and Europians to give thier work to us. Do they have dearth of people to work on these things. And even if they do not have enough people to work on these things why they have chosen Indians to work for them. Because we are better among the second graderes in silicon wisdom and we are the cheapest.
Further, I do not see any reason why we will not have another country becoming the most preferred destination for outsourcing tommorrow. One does not have to be the blend of best brains for that. All that is requierd for becoming a good outsourcing destination is availability of dirt cheap labours, average communication skills and better among the poor computer literates.
To be frank I am not among the better brains to discuss this concept. But I am convinced that there is only one core reason in present world for outsourrcing to exist(and work). And that is getting cheap labour.
My friend's cousin was not convinced with my thought and his argument was that India is preferred location for softwarre companies because of its competency in computer skills. I agree to him but I fail to see how it forces Americans and Europians to give thier work to us. Do they have dearth of people to work on these things. And even if they do not have enough people to work on these things why they have chosen Indians to work for them. Because we are better among the second graderes in silicon wisdom and we are the cheapest.
Further, I do not see any reason why we will not have another country becoming the most preferred destination for outsourcing tommorrow. One does not have to be the blend of best brains for that. All that is requierd for becoming a good outsourcing destination is availability of dirt cheap labours, average communication skills and better among the poor computer literates.
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