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Tale of a domestic entrepreneur
Nivedita Mookerji
The road from St Stephen's College, Delhi, to a professional venture in the UK may not necessarily be a bumpy one. For Mahender, however, it posed a series of problems, which he was determined to knock off. And he did, to a large extent.A Stephenian hailing from a modest home, with dreams of making it big. That was how Mahender would have been described in 1990. Of course, he has come a long way since then. Now, he's seen as an entrepreneur on the way to making it big. Mahender's case is exciting not just because of the success story it tells, but more for the turning points in it. The first turning point was in 1990 when Mahender got an opportunity to train as a badminton professional in the UK. Mahender had approached the Physical Education Director of his college to help his friend, who was a good badminton player from another college, receive an invitation letter for training in the UK. But the director reasoned that he could help Mahender receive an invitation, but not his friend from another
college. That was it. Mahender was ready to fly to UK. ``With hardly any money to even buy the air ticket,'' he recalls.The second turning point was close enough. Hunting for funds, he reached a nationalised bank in Karampura. The manager asked him the purpose of his loan. And sports training was certainly not covered under any of the consumer loan provisions. ``Suddenly there was a change of heart, and the manager was willing to grant a loan of Rs 12,000 under the higher education head,'' Mahender remembers fondly. Once he had taken off from India, the turning points came more quickly than imagined. Once in the UK, he soon realised that a badminton star was not what he was to become. ``Financial constraints were too many. With a coaching session of one hour costing -- 20, court fee at -- 3.50 per hour, and a box of shuttles (to last two days) priced at --10, nurturing the ambition of becoming a badminton star was proving to be rather expensive,'' he says. Add to that, a room rent of -- 15 a
week. Limited means made him cut on badminton practice. Not only that, he started looking for part-time jobs to support him in a foreign land. He found one at a Saturday market in a UK county. ``Selling from 8 a.m to 1 p.m, and then making purchases for the next market was what the job was all about,'' he elaborates. ``At a daily wage of -- 15.'' In a couple of weeks, he gave it up because it sort of upset his badminton training schedule. Then he moved on to an eating joint- Madhu's Brilliant Restaurant at Southall, London, to keep him going. ``It was around Christmas time and Madhu's wanted somebody to set the tables, pick up the plates, etc. Since I could communicate in Hindi, Punjabi and English, the popular Southall joint hired me at -- 75 per week,'' Mahender explains. Although he was taken mainly for the plate job in the restaurant, he ended up doing others' share of vacuum cleaning too. Never reluctant to perform more than the job brief, he started picking up things in the food business very
fast. ``And soon I was taking orders, and pouring beer the right way,'' he adds. That was the beginning of his business acumen, which showed him the way to take up a venture all on his own. From 1990 to 1992, he had made five trips to the UK. Once he was convinced that badminton training wasn't taking him anywhere worthwhile, he began exploring other avenues there. Even higher education, now that he had completed his graduation. ``Again admission was difficult to get, and fees too high,'' he admits. From now on, business was all that he cared for. Still not wanting to give up the UK links, Mahender ventured into leather shoe exports. ``Procedural hassles, delayed consignments, and the plague epidemic proved to be setbacks to my business,'' he says. Back in India, he set up a redi (a makeshift food stall) near a theatre, with the little bit of money he had managed to save from his stints in UK. ``Serving was fun,'' he says. Initially he kept a person to cook and clean, but soon he took over
completely. Cooking, cleaning, washing - he was managing fine. And the crowd had taken to him very well, some even calling the set-up Stephen's redi. The redi business continues, now at Moti Nagar, with even company directors buying food from his stall. In addition, he has set up a restaurant too ``to provide a good atmosphere''. Apart from his food business, Mahender is into a car rental service also. With two DLY cars, this service caters to corporates only. But his ventures have had some setbacks too. For instance, recently his redi was thrown away by the cops. And although there are hundreds of illegal shops all over the place, Mahender was singled out. Nevertheless, his objective is clear. ``To get the leather shoe export business going, '' he says. This time the plans are all there in place, waiting to be executed. And profits will naturally follow.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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