Jayeeta Majumdar Singhee

Subhiksha, Reliance Fresh, Godrej Agrovet, Aditya Birla Retail (More…), ITC, APMC, Food Bazaar, Chandrababu Naidu’s Fresh

You name the BIG brand and they are all there….selling kirana and vegetables. Competing with your local kirana store and the bhaji wala. Not saying this is bad at all….modern retail offers a much wider choice to the farmers and the buyers like us, helping exercise all that we couldn’t before.

But then…this also makes one point crystal clear - money is the only thing that makes the world go round. There is really really no such thing as acceptable business and non-acceptable business. I remember Sanjay once getting this pan masala dealership for AP. I put my foot down, and never let him do that. He still regrets the fact that he lost a golden chance...thanks to my silly salaried middle class values. Actually, maybe....he is right. Ten years from now, selling pan masalas may suddenly become hot.

When Sanjay started his restaurant business a few years ago, everyone in his family sniggered (and were also really upset) about the fact that it sold non-veg items. Reason - they are marwaris and marwaris don’t have anything to do with non-veg. Today, we have all the big clan marwaris selling just that and more, in their super stores, restaurants, and all. The Goenkas and Birlas, all respectable marwaris – don’t want to miss the race, just for some silly things like non-veg.

My family was upset about something else, though they did not show it as much. Food joints? Not acceptable at all. Basically LS (low society). Just yesterday, we went over to see a new joint that Roll Call opened in Hitech City (they have quite a few now). While Sanjay was behind the counter, Ishaan asked me, "Mumma, Papa roll wale hai kya?" with that cute smile of his. Sanjay didnt like the idea, nor did my mom. I didnt think anything wrong about it. Thats where the money is honey. This business today could become a million dollar business, with a little more effort and capital.

Last week, I was watching this show called The Big Fat Wedding on NDTV Good Times, and the wedding of the day was this huge and rich Aggarwal wedding. They had food from all over the world – Italian, Continental, Chinese, Indian, Sushi.

Hell. Sushi?????? They had a lot of Japanese clients, so they supposedly had to keep it ….If this does not prove our life runs around money, then what does?

So, the truth of the matter is that if you do not listen to market signals, you will just shrivel into nothing; if you do, you will profit. Culture, Acceptable/non-acceptable, religion, are all basically passé. All that matters is that you keep the green paper coming in.