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 I was hardly
three months old in that organization in Madras that had in its sweep of activities
plantation, fertilizer, sugar, textiles, etc. That was my first assignment after
graduation in 1961. One day, a middle-aged man in silk jubba and dhoti which covered a
neatly polished pair of Jodhpurs came to see me duly directed by my boss who was not that
conversant in Tamil. As he sat on the other table, he placed the silver pan box gently on
the table, fixed the gold-framed glasses to beam a smile at me. He wanted to know if our
organization could use his fleet of lorries for transportation. After some discussion he
took leave of me, not before leaving a small packet! I opened it in his presence to see a
beautifully handcrafted hand fan made of sandalwood in ornate design. The fragrance was
divine. That then was my first meeting with Nataraja Reddiar. After some years I was
shifted to one of the units in the district where I got stuck for nearly 30 years. I was
brought back to Madras as Chief of Corporate Management for the entire group.
The first important assignment was to go to
Delhi and call on VIPs connected with our group activities for the New Year courtesies. My
chairman briefed me as to whom all I should call on with what gifts, etc. He also said
since I was "new" to Madras his secretary would help me. In the intercom he
spoke to his secretary and said, "You can also take him to Grand Sweets". The
next day the secretary took me to Vummidiars' for some silverware and later on to what I
presumed was some novelty stores by name 'Grand Suite'. When the vehicle stopped at a
residential area in Adyar I could never associate it with novelties much less a place
where anything is sold at all. There was a crowd of people once we got inside the compound
- some with donnai full of pongal eating with reverence that is shown to a prasadham.
Others were at the counters that separated them from the sales girls in uniformed sarees
on the other side of the counter. The glass counters had stacks of sweets and savouries
which had the pleasant smell of pure ghee. All this made me realize the phonetic mistake I
had made in 'suite' for 'sweet'. My colleague seemed quite familiar with the place as he
was greeted by all the girls and ploughed through the crowd beyond the LOC, the counter to
a closed room. He whispered reverentially, "First let us meet the proprietor, an
elderly and respected man".
 As we entered the room an elderly man bare-bodied with
just a towel on his shoulder got up to greet my colleague. As we were being introduced
both of us strained our memories as to where we could have met earlier. Simultaneously we
remembered the good old days in the sixties when I was a young executive and he a
transport contractor. Yes, it was Nataraja Reddiar indeed whom I was privileged to meet
after a gap of thirty years. In the lines of a 'Rip Van Winkle' spell of a long stay out
of Madras (slumber!) lots of things had changed. For starters, it is Chennai for Madras,
large compounded bungalows had been beaten and shaped vertically for flats, mushrooming of
fly-overs which, perhaps, were more in number than the roads! But the transformation of a
fleet owner to a sweetmeat seller was something I had to know more about. The jostling
crowd and the constant jingle of the cash register proclaimed it must be a popular joint
for those with a sweet tooth. Many a modern day daughter-in-law wedded into traditional
homes would have gone bonkers but for Grand Sweets catering to their requirements of
delicacies like pori and pori-urundai for Karthikai, sweets and even marundhu (lehiyam)
for Deepawali, seedai and murukku for Sri Jayanthi, not to talk of helping elders in the
family with paruppu thengai and other marriage-oriented paraphernalia. There were stacks
of books on religion and philosophy to be given free with the bills, beyond a particular
amount.
 For all the crowd - customers and at least half that
number of sales girls, there was a near sannadhi silence, the only noise being that of
tearing of computerized bills and the cash register in operation. The atmosphere will have
done more justice to a temple than a commercial place that it was. I got talking to him
after many years and he related certain details. "I was a small time farmer in
Perambalur taluk. I got married to Bangaramma at a fairly young age. Like an ambitious and
impatient young farmer wanting to make it big in a city like Madras (that's how it was
called then and not Chennai). I moved to the city with my wife, the 300 sovereigns and a
bank balance of Rs. 1,00,000 that came with her. Both these vanished soon like asafetida
mixed in the sea when I ventured into transport business. Of course, I was initiated into
failure even earlier when I had an oil mill back home in Perambalur. Life was not only a
misery but became miserable. With all the resources getting exhausted the only thing that
remained of value was the zari on my wife's wedding saree that she gave for being melted
and converted into cash. Officials from Indian Explosives asked me if I could run a
canteen for them at Manali. Yes, said my wife whose credo was 'never say die' apart from
being an excellent cook. This is what I liked in her with or without sovereigns and bank
balance. The canteen was a success and that started my foray into the food world. This
egged me on to have a snack shop in posh Fountain Plaza that became an instant failure.
After analyzing the demand pattern for such things, I moved to Adyar to start Grand Sweets
and Snacks in 1981 and that is doing well by God's grace. I owe my success to three
things. My indomitable wife, the belief in God, which is Purity in divinity to me, not
just running after money and being a pagan worshipper and providing employment to nearly
150 ladies, mostly from the lower middle class and some even being destitute. It is a
pleasure to see them weave about like bees in the course of their work. You'll be
surprised to know that quite a few of them are IT players. I have them dropped at their
homes, if the work takes them beyond 6 p.m. All these give me supreme satisfaction".
In spite of achieving success through
arduous climb of rungs of failure, he is very cheerful and has a positive outlook on life.
His optimism, especially about the great future for our country and the great faith he has
in our culture, is phenomenal. This is a success story worthy of being taught as a
managerial skills session in Management Schools for role models and case studies to be
dinned into the ears of aspirant managers the "do's" and "don'ts" of
the game.
T. L. Raghavan
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