VEPERY BUSINESS MAGNET

A pleasant afternoon indeed, I travelled to vepery from anna square in order to check out the place. I had already been there sometime back, there was one petite thing which induced me to go back to that place of all the other places in Chennai.

Vepery is a heavily crowded place, which is situated between the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the Central Railway station. The population there is mostly of Jains and therefore it has a huge Jain temple in the beginning of the area. It is surrounded by beautiful historic buildings such as the Dina Malar office and the St. Andrews Church. The place is quite sophisticated with good schools and colleges and also other social amenities. There is also a school for special children in the church grounds and also a lot of community buildings to fulfill the needs of the poor.

My main reason behind my re-visit to that particular place was because of a smart business magnet who belonged to that area. He might not have the looks of an entrepreneur who earns nearly millions  a day, but he has immense amount of knowledge  to win over his customers. 6000 a day might not sound a massive amount for many, but earning 6000 out of a roadside chat shop is huge and incredible. I met this man last month when I had come for a field work, he quenched my thirst as well as contented my hunger with his mouth-watering Pani Puri. I can still feel the taste of it when I think about it. An obese 50 year old man named Raja owns a chat stall on the E.V.K.Sampath Salai which is adjacent to the Malai Malar office. I have no idea if he adds some drug to his puri’s  but anybody who had his pani puri’s would definitely want to have it once again, it’s that delicious. He started off with just a cycle and a pot which would have the masala pani but now he has his own scooter, an apartment and his son studies at Agarwal Vidyalaya. Time changed him from a roadside vendor to an astonishing brilliant business man.

When I asked him what his business strategies are, he answered me casually with his master piece grin on his face “ I treat my customers like my buddies and make them feel comfortable that is the main reason behind all these Honda’s and Audi’s being parked infront of this roadside stall, secondly my prices are cheap when compared to other chat shops , I sell 15 pani puri’s for 20rs, which you cannot find anywhere else with this quality, thirdly my stall is in the right location, Vepery is one of the place which has large population of the Marwadi’s and Gujarathi’s who love chats, I also see to it I avoid garlic and onions for them and that’s how I earned goodwill from them.” And when asked about the fourth reason, he tackled me off by telling that the fourth one was a mix of his secret recipe and his secret business strategy, which he wouldn’t let out.

Whatever it may be, his preparations cannot be compared to anything less than the blissful nectar from heaven. He also prepares various other dishes such as Chocolate and cheese sandwich, Hot Sour Chilli Toast Sandwich, Noodles Sandwich and a lot more adding on to the regular chat variety. The prices are very affordable and shocking, nothing is more than 28rs and one plate of any chat from there can be shared by two for sure. His target customers are mostly the students of Agarwal Vidyalaya and G.S.S.Jain college, along with them there are plenty of students from Doveton Corrie who throng to the place to eat his special addictive Pani Puri’s.

His hardwork, dedication and a sharp mind has got him all that he wanted in his life. He is now a happy man living with the love of his life and his adorable son who studies in the 7^th grade. His story sets an example to all of us, it might be an old saying but it still has it’s own significance in one’s life  “ hardwork repays”.  His stall is right opposite the Jain temple in vepery, all of you must really taste this kind of food atleast once in your life time.