Raghavan Died Young
One fine morning, in the early ‘60s, a young boy got down from the overnight train from Calcutta at Bhubaneswar with his carry bag that had very little in it. He had travelled close to 4000kms from his village in the past 24 months, with some time spent in two major metros of the country, Bombay & Calcutta. The stay in Bombay was not for long, even though there were many from his state, and some from his village already settled there. He decided to explore another big city, hence moved to Calcutta. However, before he could find employment of his choice, someone whispered to him about the new capital city being developed in the neighbouring state of Odisha.
An enterprising person, he was on the lookout for an opportunity to begin a career that had taken him far away from his family and village. The idea of a new city and to be part of its growth excited the young boy.
When he finally reached Bhubaneswar, he did not know anyone, had no friends or family; yet, he decided to stay back and plan his future. A chance meeting with a bureaucrat from the Government of Odisha got him a canteen space within the new secretariat building’s finance department. Thus, started the entrepreneurial journey of the 19-year-old boy from Kerala, K Raghavan.
The canteen was run by him with the help of a few assistants. He switched from being the cook, the steward, the cashier who collected the payment, and also the owner. Raghavan started serving popular south Indian dishes like Vada, Upama and Dosa for the employees of the Finance department. Slowly, visitors from other parts of the secretariat started dropping in mostly due to the word of mouth publicity of the canteen. In a few months’ time, Raghavan was running the canteen successfully and called his cousins from Kerala to join him.
In 1965, he decided to go beyond the boundaries of the office complex. His first independent enterprise was set up within the AG Colony, mostly eyeing the south Indian population of the AG office who reside in the locality. Considering the response and success, Raghavan was now ready to have his first regular restaurant, South Indian Hotel in Bapuji Nagar, which opened its doors to the public in 1966. This was not the first such restaurant of Bhubaneswar. Prior to that, another restaurant serving similar cuisine was operating in the Ashok Nagar area, called Ganjam Hotel. Yet, South Indian Hotel became a big hit and highly popular among the locals and visitors. This outlet continued to be a money-spinner for three decades until the landlord decided to get the premises vacated.
Raghavan also started the first organized bakery of the city, Sajitha Bakery in 1973 and went on to establish the Venus Inn in Bapuji Nagar in 1980. This inn, providing accommodation to budget travellers to the city, was an instant success, mostly due to the locational advantage, pricing and quality of food. The Venus restaurant on its top floor was the first air-conditioned vegetarian restaurant of the city, serving similar South Indian cuisine, yet at a premium price and better service.
In 1981, Raghavan brought in Milky ice-cream, which continued to be popular till the bigger national & international players moved into the city. Incidentally, the milk for the ice cream factory as well as the restaurants was provided by a dairy farm, again the first organized one in the city, owned by Raghavan himself. He was also one of the first proponents of broiler chicken farming in the city.
The lease with the landlord at Bapuji Nagar for his first venture, South India Hotel, was coming to an end. Raghavan decided to open another large restaurant in the Kharavela Nagar area, called Priya. This was his own property, located neither on a high traffic road nor was at a vantage location. Still, Priya went on to become the most popular restaurant in the city and continues to be one of the largest selling food outlets among all segments taken together. Many visitors to the city insist on staying in the hotel above Priya only because of the delicious food that is available below.
Raghavan continued with his enterprise and added on restaurants and hotels with absolute precision and all his ventures yielded the same result because of the Midas touch the man had. Swagat Inn, Keyar Restaurant, Swarna Restaurants, Essar bakery continued to flourish. The best part of Raghavan’s business policy was to assign each enterprise to one of his relatives, brother, cousin, nephew, son; the list is endless. Without interfering with their respective daily operations, he guided them to successfully promote their outlets with the same vigour and passion, which drove him to Bhubaneswar. Each of these profit centres was allowed to be owned by the respective individuals managing it. He was a communist entrepreneur who walked the tightrope with astute perfection, balancing personal growth and community promotion. No wonder half of his family and relatives from his village are now settled in Bhubaneswar!
Raghavan is no more. God had bestowed on him a tremendous sense of enterprise, incredible business acumen, outstanding organizational skill, superb human resource management expertise, uncanny ability to identify an opportunity and of course, the Midas touch. He started from scratch, in an unknown land, in a developing city, mostly with his skill and passion to succeed, creating his own team, with transparent honesty and unfailing sincerity that has seen his enterprise grow even after him. The count of restaurants is now beyond ten, with business volume multiplying at least 20 times.
Bhubaneswar has not seen many entrepreneurs like Raghavan. The story of the city is incomplete without the mention of Raghavan, one of the creators of the city’s unmatched comfort system and service infrastructure. His success was an example of the fact that an honest man with a spirit of enterprise and passion for excellence will succeed, at any time, in any circumstance. Regretfully, Raghavan passed away at the age of 56. No doubt, had he lived longer, his legacy would have been even greater and the city would have been the better for it.