Bechuda on line

Bechuda on line ……………………….. I always remember my late PA.S N Bose for making my life comfortable in Kolkata during my six years stint in BHEL, Eastern Region office starting from October,1994 to November 2000. He was like friend, philosopher and guide to me. In case of any odd requirement outside office I used to rely on him. Many times on his own initiative he would bring some interesting character to me, he knew about my diverse interest. It was he who brought renowned artists like Yogesh Dutta for mime, Lopamudra Mitra, Srikanta Acharya etc for music. He had wide network of acquaintances. It was sometimes in October 1995 just after Durga Pujas I was sitting in my chamber in Chatterjee International when Bose entered with a gentleman of 50 something in ordinary bush shirt and trousers. I was not busy at that particular moment, Bose knew that. “Sir, meet Bechuda.” Both of them walked towards the guest chairs in front of my table. I invited them to sit down and smilingly looked at Bose for further introduction. “Sir, remember 21st September?” Bose mischievously asked. “ Oh yes, how can I forget? I got a ring from my nephew Pappu that Lord Ganesh’s idol is drinking milk in the city. I asked you to check with people you know.” “Yes, I gave ring to this Bechuda and he told me it was true and he was busy in doing brisk business in milk. I brought him to you for that. He does not run regular business but when opportunity comes then he makes a business of that for a short time, rest he will tell you.” Bechuda just shrugged his shoulder and said, “ I don’t want to get stuck in any fixed business but I make enough to feed my family. The moment I heard about Ganesh drinking milk my sixth sense told it was a business opportunity. I rushed to all milk vendors and purchased their stock. I did not have that much money so I took loan. Then I ran around to purchase big idols of Ganesh. By afternoon time I had hired people who put Ganesh idols below trees at prominent places along with milk stalls, in the meanwhile all the house wives were madly searching for idol of Ganesh and milk. This news of drinking milk has spread like wild fire. Yes, I made good money then.” “Oh!That was smart!” I said. “Tell him about your new idea.” Bose nudged him. “ I have noticed that many people have purchased vacuum cleaners from Eureka Forbes with the idea that they will vacuum clean their house thoroughly. In reality it did not happen, it was used for a few month and now lying idle in most of the households, we are not like first world people where they do all cleaning extra by these type of gadgets. We get cheap maid servants to carry out mopping and cleaning.” “Yes, I too have purchased one but lying idle now.” “I have two ideas. One I will train up some unemployed youth of my area to operate these cleaners and then they would go door to door offer their services for a price in operating the idle vacuum cleaners of that household. The second idea is that I would offer to purchase those vacuum cleaners which of course I will get at a much reduced price and then offer to offices for cleaning their premises. That is the reason why I have come to you.” “Yes,why not? You send your proposal I will examine. I may advise my site offices to use your agency.” After that we talked about various subjects and left my office promising to send the proposal. 

 Many years have passed , I retired from BHEL,Bhopal and settled in Kolkata. While doing some shopping in Vijaygarh market noticed an eatery named “ Bechudar cabin”. I walked in curiously, yes it was the same Bechuda but like me had aged. He recognized me immediately, came forward and invited me to sit with him. I informed him that I have retired and stay in Golf Green. ‘Excellent, you stay nearby only.” He said. “ I noticed your name so came in thinking whether it is you or someone else. I am happy to meet you after such a long time. You must be knowing that Bose is no more.” “Yes, very unfortunate, I attended his funeral.” “By the way you said you don’t do regular business but here I find you are running a restaurant.” “Have you seen any menu board here?” I looked around, did not find any. Then I looked at the cliental and the items they were eating. The items were just anything from ordinary rice dal to biryani. Even noticed some people were having choicest sweet but there was no visible sweet displayed. I was baffled and asked him to explain. “This double storey building is my ancestral property. When the government allowed us to run business establishment from the ground floor then I got this idea of running an unique restaurant.” “Unique?” I asked. “Ok, tell me when you walked down the road then did you feel like eating item what you saw in those shabby joints?” “Yes, I was feeling like eating Moghlai from Abar Khabo, but it was so crowded inside and I was to stand on the road to eat.” He called a helping hand ,gave him some money and wrote something on a paper. That boy hurriedly went out. After 10 minutes he came back with a plate covered by another plate. Bechuda kept the plate in front of me and removed the covering plate, it was a Moghlai paratha . Bechuda signaled me to eat. I relished eating hot Moghlai in a decent environment; I was ready to pay double the price. I understood his business model. There is no kitchen in that cabin, some microwave and heating gadgets. There are clean utensils, cutleries, filtered water arrangement. Everything else is outsourced. “The street food is my menu. My clients are well off people of this area. Lot of flats has come up so the number is swelling. You can visit my webpage where the names of all the food joints which are not upmarket type around this area are listed. You can book your time and order chosen item. My people will take care of that. The cost of course will be higher than what you would have paid on direct purchase but then these people don’t much bother about that. They are happy that they are enjoying those simple foods made for ordinary folks. My cabin is antithesis of branded restaurants. I have made arrangement with those small eateries to use fresh cooking oil for my client; I pay them extra for that.” I was impressed; it was a novel idea of a business with minimum investment. “ Slowly it has become like a club, most of them fix time and menu after discussing with each other. I have also allotted time slot to each such group for a cost of course.” He said with a wink. “It means you have priority customers?” I got warmed up to the subject. “Yes, something like that. My neighbor who is my friend has offered to let out his ground floor in case if I want to expand.” “ Why don’t you contact poor household to engage the housewives to cook food in their houses which you can offer to your clients. You can purchase the ingredients so that they don’t have to invest. If the housewives are ready to cook larger quantity then you can pay for their helper, the housewife can supervise in her own house.” “Yes, it might work. Let me talk to the local counselor because he can help me to identify the needy.”