India trip 2004
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JANUARY 31, 2004 � MYSORE, KARNATAKA
Meet ANAND KUMAR
I met Anand in the triple w world, perhaps introduced by Mr.Google. We have been corresponding (email and chat) and we had agreed to meet in Mysore, on my trip. Today I met him and his wife Shobha in person and had a very good lunch at their home.
A multi faceted and talented young man, Anand is presently running the family business, started by his father. This is a small shop- a retail shop, originally started as a lock and key shop- now evolved into a sales agency dealing in many items. The place has a museum quality as far as locks and keys go.
I assume that it was circumstances that have led Anand to do what he does now. I do not want to mislead you- I did not hear him complain or apologize. There is pride here. But there is also enterprise.
An MBA who for a short while taught at Maharaja�s college in Mysore, Anand �s sales agency, today sells photovoltaic( solar ) products- lanterns to street lights. What makes his approach unique is that he sells many of these as kits which the buyer himself can assemble. This of course was reason we had decided to meet.
But it is this tinkerer quality that makes Anand a very interesting person. He is presently working on converting a small two-wheeler to a solar powered vehicle- with a photovoltaic panel and a battery mountable on the vehicle as required.
infraSys plans to watch his innovations and progress and hope to associate and work with him. There is general agreement on this, since Anand is also interested in matters rural. Visit http://www.ec21.com/srilkul.
I took the Mysore Chenai Express in the evening at 6:00 PM.
I arrived at Central station by the Mysore Chennai Express. It was 4:30 am. I had asked my friend to come at 6 or later. No point both of us being woken up early!
You see clear evidence of the rural to city migration when you are at a railroad station of a major city in India. Mostly men but in some cases families arrive to seek work and a better life in the cities. I chatted with a group from Bihar- all young men in their 20s who had arrived from Guwahati. They were waiting for a "contact" to arrive, someone who would take them to a place to live. I asked what they were planning to do in Chennai and they told me they would either work in hotels or in construction.
6:00 am
Punctually at this hour as I stood on platform 4, there appeared this lady (Murugamma) and two trash bins on a cart. She was lean, in her late forties, well groomed and with a bright face. We made eye contact and we both broke into a faint smile, the kind strangers in India offer one another.
Then I saw her get down on to the railroad tracks and begin collecting the litter and debris that Indian Railway passengers so casually throw out of the windows and from the platform. After a few minutes she came up to retrieve something from her cart.
Emboldened by the smile we had exchanged I approached her and sought permission to talk to her. She said yes, with a smile. I asked her if she was employed by the Railways for a salary. She said no. She was a contract employee. Once again I sought permission to ask her what her wages were. (All this was in Tamizh and something is lost in the translation)
She informed me that she was paid Rs 40.00 per day for her work. She works from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm- 7 days a week. From that Rs 40.00 she said she must have her tea, vettalai (paan) and her meals and get to and from work.
While I was aching inside in my heart, looking at her eyes, she continued to talk, telling me of her hardships, yet happy that someone had bothered to ask. And that smile never left her face. What a lady!!
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