Thanks for agreeing to be my GF. And thanks again for agreeing to travel with me on a train. And now is the time to walk. Well, to be sure, we are not going to walk along the banks of River Thames.
Nor are we going to walk in the beautiful suburbs of
Seattle or in the
Alps Ranges. Nor even on the
Kovalam Beach in
Trivandrum or our own
Marina in Chennai.
Having agreed to be the GF of a mofussil accountant you will have to walk with me only in the dusty, congested streets of
Madurai. Mind you, it is a long walk.
And mind you, we will also be walking past some of the pages of my personal life. If you are game, (as Chitvish wrote in the Index Thread) then yes, let’s put our best foot forward.
The walk I am going to describe covers a distance of about four kilometres from my home to Nehru Aalalasundara Vinayagar Koil in Mela Masi Veedhi in the heart of the town.
This walk is an integral part of my relationship with God. Whenever I am afraid of something, whenever I am troubled, whenever I face danger in life, whenever I have to finish a crucial task, I tell my Beloved, the God, that I will walk the distance to His place. I know that you are now charging me with entering into a barter transaction with the Loving God.
Honestly I have never felt so. In Buddhism there is a concept called Walking Meditation. My walk is something similar to that. I am not doing any favour to the Almighty by walking to His place.
But the love in one’s mind needs an outlet, an expression, right? Had I been a poet, I would have created an Epic in Her honour to express my love. A poor moffussil accountant like yours truly has to content himself with plain walking.
The walking I did this Saturday was special on many counts. It was for a crucial work which I completed to my satisfaction. And as I walked along I was reminded of so many things, which I wanted to share with my GFs. Off we go.
Our home is in a blind end. I come out of my street, turn right and walk towards the East. When I take the next right turn I see to my left “Malligai Coffee Bar.” This joint is relatively new to our place. It is less than five years old, if my memory serves me right.
Now it is a prominent land mark in our locality. The shop is crowded throughout the day. In fact I have to look for some words stronger than the plain word, ‘crowded’. At least a hundred people will be there at any point of time. Apart from tea, coffee, Horlicks and other beverages, the shop serves quite a variety of light eats – medhu vadai, aama vadai, thayir vadai, bonda, bakkoda, mixture, kaara boondhi… the list goes on and on. And they are very cheap.
If you are hungry you need to spend just Rs. 5 (about 12 cents in terms of
US currency) to have some filling snacks. You can then delay the food by even an hour or two.
I consult many of my clients on business models and revenue models. Businessmen are always eager to visit the
US,
Japan and
China to learn about business models. I invariably tell my clients to visit Malligai Coffee Bar.
After spending donkey’s years in the profession now I am sure that a success of a business model is independent of the nature of business and the place. Understanding the business conditions, creating customer-delight, giving enormous value to the customers, retaining the customers, being available at the right place and time – these are the core principles of a successful business.
And these are the same for Infosys, Indian Oil, State Bank of
India, Reliance and Malligai Coffee Bar. And you won’t believe I saw one of my rich clients standing near the shop the other day. His Skoda Octavia Limited Edition car was parked by the side. I was happy that he was acting on my advice.
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