The balcony

I would describe entrepreneurs as people who dream and then have the courage, conviction, passion and dedication to fulfill their dreams. Some of them make good money in the while, some don't. Whether they end up making a good business of their enterprise or not, entrepreneurs LIVE their dream and enjoy every moment of nurturing their creation. In the past one year, I have come across at-least two entrepreneurship ventures that impressed me for the quality of what they deliver or have delivered. In the post below, I am talking of one such venture.

-------------------------------------------

After a lazy half an hour stroll on a Sunday evening, we enter our favorite fast food joint for a cup of tea. A young couple run the joint. The wife, is frying samosas on a choolah (a stove) set up neatly outside the fast food joint. She gives us a beautiful homely smile and quickly averts her gaze back to her cooking. She reminds me of those ladies who run their small eatery in the mist covered hillstations of India.

"I will take you to a new place.. Come.. " My husband had told me with a mysterious excited look on his face about two months back. That was the first time we had landed up in the new fast food joint "The balcony"*. My first impression of the joint was that it looked very homely. The owner had replied to our request for tea, with "Which tea do you want - Normal tea, Adrak wali chai, lemon tea, or Masala tea?" I was stumped for a while. Rarely, do you get so many varieties of tea in a small fast food joint.

"The Balcony" has a small lounge on which there were two tables with four chairs each. The joint overlooks a small road and one can have a good view of people travelling to and fro. The place is clean. The food is healthy and tasty. A variety of sweets like the boondi ladoo, kaju katri, besan ladoo lure us from behind the glass counter.

That day, we go in to order for "chats". I come out to talk to the lady.

This time I have a good look at her face. She is probably in her early thirties, dusky, has sharp features and a homely welcoming smile that can light up any person's day. She is tall, wears a pair of worn out blue jeans and has her shoulder length hair neatly tied up in to a pony. All in all, she somehow did not look like an "experienced" restaurateur to me.

I get talking to her. They had started “The Balcony” about a year back and May 6^th was their first anniversary. “Celebrate tho karna hai. Patha nahin kya karenge. Aap aana zaroor,” ("We will definitely celebrate our anniversary. Though we don't know what celebration we are going to have. Please do come,") she says with a beatific smile. Husband had been working in a garments factory for the past 11 years. He wanted to do something on his own. So we started this joint.

“Oh me...? I was a school teacher…” she says with a smile and gets back to her cooking. “I taught maths and science from class three to class six in a small school nearby…” I am amazed. “No wonder" I think, "she looks like a primary school teacher.” I return her smile.

“We haven’t really made any money so far. We have been putting our own money into it.” I look for some trace of disappointment or struggle – I find none. With a smile, she says again, “This is a tough business to handle. We have had man power problems. I would have to cook a lot many times.”

“Only last two three months we had money left in our account after paying up the expenditures,” says a voice from the back. The husband has joined in. He had been quietly listening in on our conversation.

“We had put up a stall at IIMB for their annual fest a few months back.” He says with pride in his voice.

Wow!

“We did not make a lot of money. But we completely enjoyed the experience.” He continues with a proud smile. I smile back.

The entrepreneur in me, is concerned though. I can see problems in their approach of “just enjoying the experience, not making money,” , “I need to do the cooking myself sometimes”. I am concerned by “Its been a year since we have been set up, and only now we are making some surplus.” Considering the quality of food they are delivering, that should not have been the case.

But the entrepreneur in me is also saying, “I am sure they will have their share of struggles, but they will figure their way out at their own pace. At-least they have had the courage to try...”

“How often do you get to meet a couple who have the courage to live their dream...”

------------------------------------------------

Note : The name of the restaurant has been changed to maintain the privacy of the people mentioned.