Its an old gujju saying referring to others who fail in business.
“Jeenu kaam tenu thai…bija karo so gota khai”
So true!
Yesterday I was in Vile Parle, with my father. On an impulse he entered “Panshikar”- one of the oldest and famous (20 yrs ago!) fast food joints of the Marathi vasti-Vile Parle.
The place was steaming with waiters. There were more no. of waiters than the people and all of them were too busy (watching a cricket match) to cater to us.
We got water only after we asked for it.
The elaborate menu card looked good and my father ordered a missal.
“Aaj missal nahi.”
My father let out a chuckle right in front of a waiter, as if he’d half expected it. Being a hotelier in the past, he didn’t waste time looking at the menu again. Instead he asked “Mag kay milel?”
“matar wada”
“Corn wada”
“ek corn wada….” he was definitely hungry.
I settled for a wada pav…coz I didn’t trust what would come and I could see the wada in front of my eyes.
Our order came and I must admit the food was pretty good…
But nobody came for a repeat order.
Next we kept waiting for the bill, which never came and so we paid at the counter.
And I decided never again to visit this place again…
So what did the hotel lose???
# They missed another order, coz im sure if somebody would have come we would have ordered something more, but the attitude put us off.
# Because we didn’t get the bill at the table, the waiter missed his tip.
# And finally even with a good quality of food, cleanliness and reasonable price…they missed a repeat customer.
I seriously wanted to give them some lessons in customer satisfaction…but I let it be.
On the contrary, today I went to an udipi restaurant for breakfast….
As soon as we sat 2 glasses of water were shoveled at us. One anna stood by us, helping us to choose and sold to us a panner mysore masala dosa (the costliest ofcourse!)
We got the second (and third) serving of sambar without asking…and satisfied in the end, we left a good tip. The service was swift and friendly…and so much for just a passable dosa…
As somebody rightly put it ”udyogi la mahapur ani aalshyala ganga dur”
Another example.
I stayed in nerul for 4 years and all 4 yrs I had a Bangladeshi woman to do the house work. Initially I had a Marathi bai for the first 2 months.. but we had a college to attend at 9:30 am and she could not come before 9. On the other hand this Bangladeshi bai came promptly at 7 every morning and so we stuck to her even though she took many holidays.
One more.
I stand outside Andheri station every day trying my luck with the rickshaw wallas. My house is such that the distance is too long to walk after a tiring day but too close for a rickshaw ride.
And in most cases, the rickshaw which takes me home is that of a bhaiyya. I hate to use this word but the Marathi fellows are such “majhkhor” that I thank these bhaiyyas and even tip them.
Marathi manoos cannot do business because what he wants is
# Respect, without wanting to earn it.
# Money without wanting to invest, and
# Fame without wanting to slog it out.
This leaves them incapable of working in competitive private environment and so they are happy with government jobs. They ride high on the job security that Mr. B.T and his illustrious nephew is promising them. But they fail to realize that this is only hindering their growth and the chacha bhatija are not going to come to their rescue. What’s even more worse is the attitude that “me tar nahich karnar, ajun konala hi nahi karu denar”…
Jaaga Marathi manoos! Ata tari jaaga!!!
Disappointed,
Abha deshkar
6 August 2010.
