Training in Malgudi - Part II

(Contd. from previous post, Part-I)

05-06 May, 2007
I was told that carpenting work by Achari's father doesnt support the family much as modern tools are easily available and rare orders come their way. Balakrishna, Shyam Sundar Achari's younger brother was learning the carpenting skills from his father and I thought that Balakrishna should support the family as much as Achari and looked for possible options.

That's when it occured to me that Balakrishna could actually sell my company products in this small village. As I reflected more on this subject, I felt he could in fact try and sell the entire range of consumer good products right from soaps to shampoos of any company.

I slowly started talking to Achari about this when he came and he got very excited about it. We then felt it would be a great task to convince the family about the project and the risks in putting down the initial investment in the project. I then told myself that I will not disclose the amount (Rs 2000) the company will offer to the family as compensation. I decided to tell them that the company will give Rs 1500 and with the rest Rs 500, we will go and buy products from the nearby town, Kurnool. That settles the investment.

I spent the entire night in explaining to the family about the new Kirana business that I said I will fund with Rs 500. I have learnt in school about the importance of change management, but have seldom had experience in changing attitudes of the family members. The family had great trust in me and they thought that I was intelligent and greatly educated and this could actually be an opportunity of prosperity. They even repeatedly mentioned that god must have sent me to their house to accomplish a mission.

I reasoned that Balakrishna could easily do much better and since he does not have a paying job at hand, he could take up the project. He will take the Rs 500 worth of products and sell them at MRP to the houses nearby his house and in nearby villages. His modus operandi would be to carry the goods in his cycle from house and house and showing the products like bathing soap, talc, shampoo etc. He can organise himself by visiting one village once a week. Once he is out of stock, he can go and buy from town with the help of his brother, Achari and then get back. The profits from the intial seed of Rs 500 will be ploughed back into the business by buying some new categories like mosquito coils, balms etc. Till he has stock of the good range of products including food items like oil, rice etc, he will not take money from the business. During the discussion, Achari's father suggested he can prepare a shop using wood in about 3 months and they can have a store in addition to the home delivery. We all slept hopeful of a bright future in our own ways.

May 07, 2007 (Sunday)
Since I have visited the Kurnool market many a time and knew where the wholesalers are located, I took them straight to Nehru Road and we located a shop open on a Sunday and we bought stocks for Rs 350. Items bought included Rs 5 Ponds Talc, Rs 5 Santoor soap, Rs 2 Amrutanjan Balm, Rs 2 Jet Mosquito Coil, some locally popular detergent etc. From my company distributor, I had arranged stocks worth Rs 150, mainly comprising Chik, Fairever and Chinnis Vermicili. I explained to Achari that he can get products from company distributors much more cheaply and hence the Acharis can make a handsome profit. He assured me that he will locate all company distributors in Kurnool and from the next purchase, he will buy from them.

After our stocks purchase, we bought a long note book and a pen to keep account of the daily sale that is to happen from the next day. I also bought a lot of pens, rulers, note books, pencils and sharpeners to give to the students of Bade Basha. I then went to a browsing centre and helped Achari prepare his resume and posted it in many job sites in a hope that he will someday land in a better job.

May 08, 2007
It was the last day in the villlage that I had planned for myself and decided to leave post lunch and catch the afternoon train to Hyderabad. Achari, Balakrishna and me woke up early next day and were startled to find a lot of activity going on inside the house. Usha Rani was helping Achari's father and grandfather to clean the front part of the house so that the new stocks could be displayed there for sale.

Me and Balakrishna meanwhile went to Bade Basha's house to meet the students and give them the gifts. The tuition was in the terrace and I was pleasantly shocked to hear the chorus "Good morning, Sir" when I arrived. It has been quite sometime that I passed of elementary school and it momentarily carried me back to those old days. Bade Basha introduced me saying I was highly educated and paid and that the students can become like me if they studied well. I asked some general knowledge questions and gave the gifts to whoever answered them correctly. I also asked each of them to tell me what they wished to become. It was heartening to hear many say teachers. They said they will come back and teach to students in their village so that more will study and they can also earn good respect as school teachers. Some wanted to become lawyers, some girls wanted to become Police Officers and it was heartening to hear their ambitions. I told them I wished to read in papers that the state toppers are from Rudravanam village and if it happens, I will travel to Rudravanam again to congratulate them.

When I returned back to the Achari's house, I saw that the products were all out hanging and the entire family looked at them with great expectations. We couldnt believe our luck when a young girl passing by the house noted that Chik is hanging inside for sale and quickly bought 2 sachets for 50ps each. I too made a purchase of few products and gifted them to the family.

It was getting late for me and I left the family wishing them great luck. The Achari family had got me a lot of freshly plucked drumsticks to carry home and expressed their sincere gratitude in many ways. They suggested that the new shop will be named after me and I strongly opposed saying that the shop should not only bring money, but also respect from the village people. 'Achari Stores' could thus be apt and also easily recognized by the villagers. They said they will never forget me in their lifetime and I too told them the same, for their hospitality amidst constraints was way too good to be described in just words.

The Achari brothers and their grandfather accompanied me to the railway station. We travelled on top of an auto and I truly enjoyed the journey and the scenery breaking through the beautiful countryside. On way, we visited a photo studio and got ourselves a photo. I soon boarded the train to Hyderabad and proceeded back to my home in Hyderabad. I got a call from the Achari brothers that night and I felt I should be the most happiest person around when I heard that they sold for about Rs 150 on the first day !

The next day I almost couldnt believe what I was hearing when the Achari brothers told me their sales touched Rs 500 on the second day. The third day was almost as delightful when I heard that they have confidently put the entire Rs 1500 I paid them as company's compensation in buying goods that they are going to sell.

Even to this day, I am hearing from them now and then and I am only too happy to hear of the Acharis' progress. I told my parents and close friends this experience of mine and I am too glad that I got such an opportunity in my lifetime. Hope my company wouldnt mind when I tell them that at end of the training stint, I havent learnt as much on how we could do business through them as on how they can do their own business through us !!!

Training in Malgudi - Part I

It finally was time to proceed to P Rudravanam for my rural family visit for a week. The purpose was to understand consumer behavior, the attitudes of our people living in rural areas. My company thought that management trainees like myself would have had our life spent in affluent parts of the country and a stint like this should broaden our understanding. In my view the stint has more than served its purpose.

Getting a glimpse of how 75% of our population live was in more ways than one, an eye-opener to what constitutes the real India. Rudravanam Village is in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh, a village of around 1500 people in about 300 families. I stayed with the family of Shyam Sundar Achari, son of K. Bramhiah Achari, a carpenter in this village.

03-May: Kurnool

After buying a kilo of mangoes for the family I am to visit, I waited with Achari to proceed to the village. To my dismay, I found that I need to wait for about two hours to get a share-auto to go to the village. I suggested that we hire an auto by ourselves and save the time. Achari was greatly surprised that I am ready to shell out a princely sum of Rs 50 just to save a couple of hours. He joined me and en route, we visited a welding shop where Balakrishna Achari, Shyam's brother was preparing a metal ring. It was to be fit over a wooden wheel his father had made which in turn would find use in a bullock cart.

03-May: Rudravaram

For about a half-hour on my travel, I neither saw people nor homes. A windy road took me and the Achari brothers to their village and we finally aboarded near a small mud-house of about 200 sq feet size outside which a lot of carpenting action was on. Achari had a younger sister Usharani who was helping the family with the daily chores. The house had a 5*3 feet bathroom on the outside covered partially by stone walls. The house did not have a toilet and I figured most people use the farms nearby. The family owned a cycle, and did not have a TV, radio or a fan. These luxuries wouldnt have been much use anyway as the village doesnt get power during the daytime. The house was lit by two bulbs and they used wood to make fire for cooking.

Immediately after the introductions with Achari's parents and sister, I requested Achari to take me around the village. To my surprise, I saw more cows, buffalos, goats, monkeys in that order than men during my visit. I heard stories of dried up wells, unfinished canals sanctioned to be completed during the chief minister NT Rama Rao period, and vast areas of arable land. On my way back to the village, I saw huge crowds of people appearing from nowhere and all proceeding towards a particular direction. My enquiries revealed that people are going to attend the wedding reception cum inauguration of a residential school built by one Raghava Reddy. The entire village was invited for the function and I too joined them accompanied by Balakrishna Acharya and Usharani. After 1 km of a leisurely walk, I reached the school and I was entirely taken aback seeing the arrangements for the wedding recception. I can honestly say that I have never seen a grander arrangement all my life. It was truly a food exhibition, about 100 people employed to serve the 5000 people invited for the function. Varities of Rotis, Parathas, Dosas, Biryanis, Vegetable and Non-vegetable dishes, sweets, fruits and so much more I didnt see all found its way into the menu served.

Here I am, just a 1 km away from a poor village, witnessing massive spends of money for food, orchestra and performances by famed movie stars to entertain the audience. Not much was required to prove the existence of the divide between the rich and the poor. Only one question was racing through my mind: “Who's Raghava Reddy and where did so much money come from?“ I found he hails from Rudravaram and had started a chain of residential schools in nearby towns like Kurnool and Nandyal. On inspecting the school that was inaugurated, I was impressed that the facilities match that of a average private school in a metro. Education has not just become exclusive and expensive but has become extremely profitable too.

The film and TV show stars were in full flow entertaining the audience. It started pouring down and still the audience did not budge from their seats. The craze for film stars and stage shows was too high for the mighty shower to interrupt. I suggested to Balakrishna that it probably is time for us to leave. He got so saddened by the idea of leaving half-way. He started looking for umbrellas and he finally managed to pull me under one, shared by 4 already. He pleaded to me “Please sir, 15 minutes“. His 15 minutes never got over even after 2 hours. When finally the stars called it a day, I silently let out a sigh of relief. It gave Balakrishna great happiness that he was able to shake hands with some stars when they descended the stage. It was already 11.10pm and I, Balakrishna and one more went back to the village through an unlit passage. I didnt let out a word as I was slightly scared and kept looking all around me for any signs of strange people.

I reached the village around 11.30pm and immediately had a bath and got prepared to sleep. The family suggested that me and the Achari brothers sleep in the mandapam outside a nearby temple. The mandapam was a simple shelter under an old neem tree and Achari explained that the four-way open ventilation made it one of the best places to sleep in the village. I got phone calls from Kedar, Shubham and Animesh during midnight. The Achari brothers got curious and asked me why phone calls were coming at that time and I replied that it was my birthday and my friends were wishing me.

04-May: Rudravanam

Birthday celebrations in rudravanam were under way without my knowledge. Achari had made some arrangements for someone in the family to go to town to buy Semiya (Vermicilli). I was pleasantly surprised to see Semiya Payasam served during lunch. I can see that more than me, it was them who were happy that they could do something special for my birthday. Usharani had told few girls staying in nearby households too about their new guest and word about me quickly spread around the village. Often there would be somebody coming to the house to enquire about who I was and the family members proudly introduced me that I was a friend of Achari and that I get paid a high salary as chik shampoo company manager. Most of them were dissapointed that they couldnt speak to me in the only language they knew, Telugu. I soon got acquainted with Bade Basha, a close friend of the Acharis. He is a voluntary teacher in the village govt school and speaks Urdu, Tulukam, and Hindi. His father rears goats in the nearby jungle and sells them to meat shops in Kurnool town. Basha takes private tuitons in his house and thus makes a living for his family. He soon became my communication link with the village people. He translated my Hindi to Telugu and told Acharis and others what I am here for.

Daylight slowly faded and as night approached, I took out the book I carried from home to read in case I was bored. I had chosen India Unbound by Gurcharan Das. As I randomly read some chapters “If we were once rich, why are we poor now“, Capitalism for the rich, Socialism for the poor“,“A million reformers“ I was convinced that entrepreneurs if encouraged well, could do wonders for any economy starting in as poverished a village as I am located now. Examples of Raghava Reddy's success came to my mind. If there is so much that can be done from a village, how much more can educated youth do for the entire country? My thoughts randomly drifted from one subject to another and I slowly dozed off. I woke up from my slumber to pick up a call from Nilavan in US. After he wished me on my birthday, I discused my experiences and thoughts and he told me that there is something I should be able to do to the village. He told me about the movie Swadeshi and said its a great chance for me to try and assist an Indian village. Once again I took my inspiration from Nilava's noble intentions and looked for ways to help the family.