Gayathri Nayagam did her master's in international business and wanted to work the Jebel Ali
Free Trade Zone in Dubai.
But life had other plans for her.
Her first job is running a business in the temple town of Tenkasi.
It's a store that has been around for over 90 years and she and her mother-in-law are
the first women to head the business.
Her story is about coming to terms with everything that life throws at you.
Welcome to My First Job, where we find out what drives people, how chance intervenes
and the lessons they've learnt.
This is episode 11 and like every interesting career journey, it's full of twists, turns
and insights.
My name is Venu Gopal Nair.
I'm the host of the podcast and CEO of Ideascape Communications, an advertising agency into
branding, creative and design.
So settle in, sit back and enjoy the conversation.
Hi Gayathri and great to have you on the show.
Hi Venu.
What is it like?
You're running a business which has been around for a fairly long time.
Fairly long time is 90 years.
Give us a sense of what it is to run a retail store in a temple town.
Tenkasi obviously is very well known for the temple.
So this is like a semi-urban kind of a place.
So we have just been given, Tenkasi has been awarded a recognition of being the district
headquarters just two years back.
Till then it used to be a very laid back place, totally surrounded by a lot of villages.
Main thing is agriculture.
There are no industries, no big factories or big organizations or anything.
Office is running over here.
Our main customers are just in and around this small place who come here mainly for
wedding purchases.
That has been our main point of focus.
Wedding silks is something which we are very proud to have been for so many years and people
still come and tell their grandfather, grandmother, they got their wedding sarees in the store
and they still have it and it is still wearable.
That is a great thing.
That is like amazing to hear all such stories.
So loyal customers who have been with us for so many years, generation upon generation
and even people who go out, they come back and they visit this place with fond memories
of their childhood, coming and playing in the store.
There used to be a sofa kind of a thing near the silk saree section.
All the kids used to jump around and over here usually when people come, they come in
big groups.
Say 20-30 people come to get a single saree for the wedding.
So most of the kids even fall asleep, they shop for around half day or sometimes even
the full day.
Wonderful.
So what is your childhood like?
Childhood, I was actually born in Coimbatore.
I totally bought up in Bangalore.
From my primary education till middle school, I was in Bangalore.
And then my dad used to work in a bank.
So he got a transfer to UP.
We got shifted from Bangalore to a place called Muzaffarnagar which is very close to Delhi.
So we were there for around three years.
And then he luckily got a transfer back to his native Coimbatore.
And so I came back for my 10th, 11th, 12th and my college.
So did you pick up Hindi in Muzaffarnagar?
Absolutely.
Oh, that is a big story in itself.
I did my basic education in a government school.
My primary education was in Bangalore, which at that time used to be a government school.
First language was English, second language used to be Kannada and the third language
used to be Hindi.
And even in the sixth standard, Hindi used to be like hardly one sentence.
The answers used to be just in one sentence.
So putta kahan tha, ta yahan hai.
That's about it.
And that teacher used to write it on the board and we used to religiously see every word
and just copy it in our notebooks.
Was the thing till sixth standard and jumped to seventh standard and it was a CBSE school
where though medium was in English, but even English used to be taught only in Hindi.
So literally it was a big major shock for me.
The first period was Hindi.
Our teacher was like, she started giving out dictation notes and I was like, I just opened
the book.
I just started writing one word or whatever I could hear and people have just finished
the one page.
I was like, this is not going to happen.
I just kept quiet.
I just waited it out and went and told her, this is not going to happen.
You have to help me out.
Three years over there was tough.
I think I totally lost touch with English.
I lost touch with Tamil.
I lost touch with Kannada.
Everything I forgot, I remembered only Hindi.
Back in Coimbatore was like, again, I get a refresher course for all these other languages.
I used to be like, why are you talking weird?
That slang absolutely stuck with me.
The Hindi slang stuck with me.
Even English was bad.
But you managed to pick up Hindi and convert completely into that.
There's absolutely no go when you have to be in a school and you have to talk to people.
Though we were encouraged, it was a convent school and we were encouraged to talk in English,
but everyone used to talk only in Hindi.
If I asked them a question in English, say, I need this notebook or something, they just
not be bothered to even reply me back.
So I had no other go but to change myself and pick up Hindi.
And I'm very proud to say I even excelled in Hindi and the teacher was so happy at the
end of the 9th standard.
She was like, oh my God, look at this girl.
She's come from somewhere where she didn't know Hindi at all.
And she has stopped Hindi and Sanskrit.
Sanskrit was totally new to me.
I had to look back.
It feels nice.
But those three years were really tough.
But you still know that's the amazing part that you went from knowing nothing like you
said, the dog was here or there to actually talking in class.
You know, what are the things that you looked at?
What were your options?
Usually 10th standard, no schools, usually they don't entertain new admissions actually.
Once I had good grades, they were like, okay, so they took me in.
After 10th, I had no idea what to do.
Since my dad is in the banking sector, I really like that I was more into what he was doing.
So I thought, okay, commerce is thing I'm going to go in for commerce, even though I
was very good at science, but I really thought commerce would be good for me.
And I even I got fairly good marks.
I think I was school third during my 12th standard.
After that, again, the struggle of getting a good seat in a college that started and
even though I scored 97%, I couldn't get a good college seat.
Nearest option was a good option was a college called GRD College of Science.
I was like, no, I'd rather do my correspondence and all that.
He was like, no, no, no, you're already very quiet.
You need to go and mingle with people.
And he literally pushed me to go into college actually.
And those three years of BCom also was like, it's very funny if I look back and see there
were hardly five girls in the class with 30 boys.
And we used to never interact with anybody.
And I had one good, very best friend with whom I used to only with her I used to talk.
And looking back, I even still laugh.
We both laugh like, oh, God, how we have been.
So you were the introvert that the whole world was trying to make an extrovert of?
Especially my parents, because they both talk well.
They're feeling like, why is she not talking?
Puzzled and even fearful, like I will not even talk at all or I'll never open up.
You were very comfortable being that, right?
You didn't require somebody to be around and have conversations.
Because I'm a single child, I've always been content with being with my own company.
I have never needed anybody to come and keep me company or keep me engaged.
That's actually a strength, being comfortable with yourself takes a fair amount of doing.
Because...
It's true.
Okay.
So you finished your BCom then?
Yeah.
So finished my BCom and I thought, okay, now is the chance when I'll be really rewarded
for my marks.
I got, I topped the college to have a change of place.
Same group where I used to not talk and all that.
So I thought, okay, maybe I should have a change of place.
And I even got good admissions elsewhere for MBA.
But then my HOD was like, I'll give you a marriage seat for Master of International Business.
So MIB.
And he was like, why don't you just, you just get me a university rank and I'll just give
you this seat for you free.
I was like, okay, fine.
I was like, okay, maybe my dad's burden will be a little less.
I was like, okay, MIB sounded different too.
It sounded more better than MBA, but everybody else was doing MBA for a PG.
So I thought, okay, maybe, okay, MIB fine.
But those two years were like really the best years of my life, I would say.
Really had a wonderful time in MIB with a class which is still close knit even to date.
We keep in touch with everybody.
Even though I still used to not talk much, but still I had a very nice time with all
those people, they accepted me for what I am.
So it was nice.
So you finished your MBA and then did you really want to take up a job at that point
or was it more about?
Actually MIB was like every semester they used to take us out for our IV visits and
used to be really good places.
They even took us to Dubai and Oman and we got to see the Jabal Ali port and all those
big, big giant corporations working over there.
I was really fascinated seeing that.
The first thought was like, I want to work in Jabal Ali in some big corporate like this
because it is like larger than life.
At that point of time, it was newly constructed with 64 berths, manmade port and that itself
felt like great.
So I was thinking, okay, maybe if I go for a job, I should work in such a place.
So I really was looking forward to that once probably the course completed and we started
getting campus interviews.
I was selected for a few, but then what happened was like I met my husband when I was studying
in MIB.
He was my classmate and my very close friend.
He proposed to me and I said yes.
So that became my priority.
I thought, okay, I think I want to get settled.
So that was a total change of plans and I think as soon as I finished my PG, we told
to our parents and they said yes and just we just got married.
That's it.
So there was a change of scene at that point in time.
Life went on and you have two children.
Yes, I have two boys.
And then of course, you suddenly had to because of the tragedy that happened, you were at
a kind of crossroad and you had to figure out, okay, where do things go from here?
I know it's hard to this thing, but can you go back to some of the things that in your
mind you decided that, okay, this is what I need to do and take it forward from there.
My husband is the only son.
He's got an elder sister, but he's the only son.
He actually wanted to go settle abroad and probably do his MS over there.
But then since he was the only son, parents were like, they pressurized him into coming
to their family business and get settled down here itself.
And then he did try to go and study abroad, but it didn't happen.
So then he thought, okay, why not let us come and settle down here itself.
So when we got married, he had already come into the business and he was working for some
time over here.
And once I also came here, it was like, literally I was a housewife for almost say, say 10,
12 years with both kids, small kids.
I used to take care of them and all that.
But he used to always tell me, you have to come, you have to come into the shop.
Once the kids were kind of big and he was like, you have to start knowing things, how
things work over here.
You have to understand what all goes into this business.
Also you have to know what all I know.
He used to keep telling me that I have to be his clone so that we can make this easier
for both of us.
Because even he goes in the morning, he comes back only at night, the whole day I have nothing
much to do.
Kids go off to school.
So then he was like, you come to start coming to the shop.
So I used to be like, not very happy coming to the shop and taking over business.
That was not my cup of tea I felt because like, since I'm from the working class background,
things I have never felt is all that.
No, I feel why you have to keep sitting full time taking all this tension.
You go work for somebody else.
You have your fixed timings.
You finish your thing.
You come back home.
You spend time with family.
This is like totally you lose your life sitting in a place.
I didn't see the point at all.
He used to say like, no, see, this is going to change once you come and sit here and you
start making money off your own.
Then you will start getting an interest.
He used to tell me this often.
And I know that the monies have no interest.
I just want your company.
That's about it.
So the main reason I started coming to the shop is I could spend more time with him.
We used to share a cabin and he used to force me to do a lot of stuff.
Back then it used to be value added tax, VAT, file VAT every month, pay EF, PFESI challenge
and all those things he used to make me do.
And I used to be like, this is really hard.
He used to teach me and I used to always forget.
And he was like, why you have to do all this?
Get somebody to do it for you.
But he used to always say, no, you have to know.
You have to know that firsthand.
You have to first equip yourself with knowledge and only then delegate it to somebody else.
The only thing I didn't try out was going to the counter and doing a sale as such.
Everything else I have tried.
I have tried building everything, cash.
He made me do all that stuff.
In a way it was very good.
It really helped me take over seamlessly because this is like without knowing anything, you
just come in, it's like being blindfolded and left off in a forest.
It is literally like that.
This exposure really helped me take over the business once he was gone suddenly.
Even though I did have a lot of initial hiccups, but I am very happy.
The staff, all these close to 100 people who work for us, they are so supportive.
I wanted to do that back to them.
I just didn't want to leave them hanging.
I can't do this.
It was very easy for me to say, no, I can't do this.
That's it.
Do something with it.
I am just going.
I am probably going back to Coimbatore or something.
Easy for me to say.
But what about these 100 people with their families who are totally dependent on the
shop over here for so many years?
I still have staff who are working over here for more than 40 years.
They are pretty old.
Nobody is going to give them a job again.
And the good thing is over here, we don't chuck people out just because they're old
or something.
Even my father-in-law had the same ideologies.
He was like, you keep people till they feel, no, I'm not able to do this or they have
their own personal reasons to quit.
So till such time, we don't say, no, you can pack up and leave.
That's amazing.
Because in today's world, you hear of 600, 6000, 10,000 people being let go in one single
call.
Do you think it's part of an older time, a more gentle time?
They felt like family.
They used to take part in all the good and bad.
So you cannot expect that in the younger generation because of other society pressures also, I
would say, like they have their own cost of living is increased.
So they have no other go but to even if somebody gives you 2000 or 3000 extra because of their
family problems, they have no other choice but to move on.
So I wouldn't blame them totally or tell them they're not loyal.
I wouldn't tell that.
But earning becomes the number one main thing in life.
But nothing can be done.
So to a large extent, coming into the business, it also meant the difference.
I think you were now making all the decisions, not just helping.
You knew by then most of your vendors and people that you.
Since it's an established business, you also have say something like a flowchart kind of
a thing.
You know that goods come in.
Next, what has to be done?
It has to be put under the LR entry should be there.
Then the process is already set in place.
So I need not keep monitoring people and being a ringmaster, getting work done, do this,
do this, do this.
No, people know what is the next thing to do.
Since these people are there for quite a long time.
So that was also easier for me.
Many other things I had to learn from them actually to be true.
Never once I have felt like they are trying to say like, oh, God, this girl doesn't know
anything but she's come here as my boss.
Why should I listen to her?
I have so much of experience, but I but still I have to listen to her.
Not once I have either heard a complaint or a behavioral change in any of them.
What is the best part?
The goodwill that you earned in all the number of years that the businesses was around obviously
helped to get over that very difficult phase in which you had to, which you found yourself.
Now that you have managed the business for about four or five years, do you think that
there is anything personal that you bring to it or is it a continuation or a continuum
of the earlier thing?
I think I have wanted the women's touch to the business because it's always been managed
by men as a typical small town.
Really welcome women to be at the top of things.
And it could be very simple things also.
20 years back or not 20 years, say 18 years back when I just came to the town, I was so
used to driving a two wheeler back.
I told like, I need I'll bring my two wheeler.
It was a scooter.
I'll bring it over here.
And my father-in-law was like, no, no, no, you cannot go about driving a two wheeler.
You literally be the talk of the town.
That's what he told me.
And I was very shocked.
I was like, why should I be the talk of the town if I'm just I'm going to mind my own
business?
They don't welcome such kind of sudden changes and all that over here.
So driving a two wheeler, see there's a sudden change.
Yes, absolutely.
Because at that time, at that point of time, there was not a single lady who used to drive
over here.
But then my husband said, no problem.
See you have a car.
You take the car and go.
That's about it.
Simple as that.
You want to go around, take the car and go.
My husband gave me so much of, you know, motivation and the desire to do things which I really
liked.
And I used to really like, like driving a lot.
So he was like, you do that.
That's your passion.
Do it.
You knock me daily in the store.
Come and pick me back from the hair.
I was like, I was very happy with that.
Once I started driving, even the small kids in the town used to come out and look like
and see.
And there was I still remember taking the car out and a small girl, she was hardly three
years old.
I'm not even sure if she could speak fluently.
She was like, you're so poor, you can't even afford a driver.
She asked me this question.
I was laughing at her.
What do I explain to a child?
I was like, no, I like to drive.
Oh, nobody over here drives.
But it's amazing that the thing in the mind of the child, a woman who drives.
I'm so poor to afford a driver.
You know, these are things that I don't think you'll ever come across in the city.
Like you said, in Coimbatore, you would do it without a second thought.
And here you have to carefully consider what would the impact be if you were seen driving
around town alone in the store?
So like you said, you brought the woman's touch.
Now what do you think that is?
Is it in terms of color?
Is it in terms of deco?
Is it in terms of how you interact with people?
Everything, probably everything, a little of everything.
At least I had a chance to come to the store and start doing a few things when my husband
was alive itself.
But my mother-in-law, she's now 75.
She's never had any exposure to the shop at all.
She's literally been at home all her life.
So once my father-in-law passed away first, so once he passed away, my husband was like,
you're not going to be alone at home.
So he brought in his mom to the store.
He was like, you come with us daily.
You, whatever time you are comfortable with, you just come stay here.
Just, you just be here.
That's about it.
Do any work.
Just be here.
She's very good at administration.
My mother-in-law was like amazing at administration, getting work done from people, extracting
work.
She's very good at it.
So why don't you put that into action and start managing people for me?
That's the thing which she gave her first.
For that, my mother-in-law was like, you think I have never done this before.
I'm not sure and all that.
She said, no, no, no, you don't think anything about it.
Just do what you like.
I give you full freedom to do that.
So that, that itself was a big change for her.
So once just one year since my father-in-law passed away, even my husband passed away.
That's when I told my mother-in-law, no, you have to come to this job.
You have to be with me because she's my biggest support.
I feel since I'm not a person who's very vocal, I get things through, done through her, you
know, something like that.
It's easier actually for me to get work done through her.
Just do this for me or get this work done from these people or manage this for me.
So she does that very well.
Half my burden is less because of that.
I don't need to go and do this ringmaster job of like, don't do this.
Why this is here?
Why does that?
Nothing of that sort.
I'm not doing any such things.
All those things she manages.
So that is a great big change from how this store has worked for so many years.
And also in terms of collection and all those things, saris are purchased by men.
The maximum they could do is like imagine how his wife or somebody would look like in
that sari.
That's about it.
But when we go in person and get, we, I feel have better perspective of the colors which
suit people and also the designs and what is in trend.
That is also a big factor.
These people are so used to buying the same, same old, keeping to the tradition kind of
same old stuff.
Ever since we have taken over these five years, a lot of people have come to tell us personally
that they really like this change, this collection, even how people interact with them.
All those things have changed.
It used to be like very mechanical.
It used to be, it's a lethargic kind of laid back town.
People are lethargic.
They come, they'll be sitting, it'll be like this.
That's about it.
That's how they used to welcome people.
And nobody used to feel bad about it because they are so used to the store being like this.
So they still feel bad like what is this?
We are not being properly received or something.
It used to never be a complaint itself because and also everybody knows everybody.
Even people who come till now, now also, my staff, they call them with relation.
They mention like mama, auntie, they call them like that.
That is a nice integral part of this.
Personal touch.
They ask them like how their family is, what the kids are doing.
So that is a good thing.
So that has not changed.
But we have definitely told them like you also need to be a little bit active, more
active in welcoming people, you know, probably with a smile or even standing up or just not
be like, OK, if they want, they'll come and take, otherwise they'll go home.
No, that attitude has to be has to change.
So your selection of sarees, when you point it out, it seems obvious for 90 years.
It's always been men who ran the store, who bought the sarees, who bought the stock, who
sold.
And here it is where in the last five years, it's it's completely shifted.
What are the kind of things that you look for?
Color is one thing, but you're also very aware of how women want to be perceived.
Most of our purchases used to be from people who used to come and visit our store.
The whole samples used to be bought by those people, suppliers.
And they used to show us all the samples, even the colors, designs, everything, whatever
little thing they bring.
That's about it.
That used to be the sample.
We could only purchase in that very limited set of variety which they had to offer.
So now what we do is we started traveling extensively.
I have created a kind of a team, a purchase team, which will go around places.
Pan India, which my actually my husband used to do that.
He used to travel Pan India single handedly and do all the purchases.
But since I'm not able to do that, like too much be too much on travel all time.
So I had to bring in a team who could do that from all the readymade purchases are mostly
from North.
So it was the only way we could ensure that whatever comes to the market first, it's here
immediately.
It takes six months for a trend to pick up over here in this place.
But now since media has come, people are watching a lot of serials, Tamil serials and all those
serials.
They like to see what those people are tying in there, what they're wearing in that serials
or whatever is shown in the media.
And they come immediately and they come and ask, I need that kind of particular names
of serials.
And they want only that what she's tying that actress is saying, no, we want only that.
That thing we have to keep up with that online business is boomed so much.
Even after covid online business like really flourished.
Anything which is being sold in Ahmedabad, people over here are able to look at and buy.
They come and show us like we need this very close people.
They even ask us to purchase.
I don't know how you will get this, but I need it.
So we try to find out from our suppliers and try to meet the demand.
Now we are having a lot of agents.
Usually agents, what they do is like they give us a lot of variety.
They take us to a lot more of suppliers than we traditionally used to.
Probably first it used to be hardly say 100, 100 suppliers used to be there.
They used to keep giving us the same old stuff.
But now we have a variety.
We can go and see 100 stores, different suppliers, select what best is there they have to offer.
And we try to keep that in trend with the times, changing times, like what was being
shown in media.
But then it also increases the complexity of your inventory, right?
Yes, absolutely.
Textiles, you don't need too much of inventory, but readymades, you have to have a lot of
stock to show variety, plus because it is like divided into a lot of sizes.
But what we buy, we have to buy in all sizes.
We need to have a large amount of stock to at least cater to the basic demands of people.
So we need to travel more.
Even purchasing should be like almost, I wouldn't say you cannot do it accurately, but still
you have to be very cautious when purchasing because dead stock is going to be the biggest
profit eater.
That's money stuck.
There's literally money stuck in the.
So it literally eats away your profit.
So our main goal is to get that dead stock down.
We mean we should not have that stock.
How did you set up this group of people who had to go and purchase stuff?
OK, so this store is being managed by my husband's very close friend, childhood friend, actually,
for the past 15 years.
He's been with us.
He used to only manage the readymade parts of it and the staff, mainly staff, customers,
only those things.
Once my husband passed away, I had immediately I couldn't start going out to purchase.
Luckily, he had quite a good experience buying men's clothing.
So I had to give him additional responsibility, actually.
I had like even the women's and children's clothing.
He had to go in and he had to learn from scratch.
He had to learn.
Like I said, a lot of people come over here to get, you know, they bring their samples
and then we used to purchase in store itself, order for our goods in store.
They used to bring us stuff and show us stuff.
So from that, we slowly, we slowly, we are changing to totally going outdoors for purchasing.
Whatever it was, purchase was done in store.
Initially, I used to do it.
And then this thing started to be, they started going out for purchases.
So I started taking up whatever places I could visit easily, Surat or Bangalore, Salem, Dharmavaram,
all the saree related stuff, Chennai also.
So all those things, you know, I could, I could go easily, single handedly go and purchase.
So all those things, I started taking up.
The rest of it, which was harder to travel or I could not do it single handedly, probably
needed a team of two, three people at least to go.
I have delegated to him.
So he's got, I have got a store manager, I have got a purchase manager and I've got a
counter head.
Like say, for example, I have a section in charge, that person, he's a person who is
going to actually know what is selling.
Not me or not the store manager.
We just look at it from the next level.
We just see, okay, what is the sales today?
That's about it.
We are not going to see whether pink color is selling more or yellow color is selling
more.
What size is selling more?
What is that which doesn't sell?
All those things, those little nuances, only the counter in charge will know.
So we have to take that person along too, because they have better idea of what is,
what will move.
When you decided that you were going to get the purchase done, you had to overcome that
thing of earlier it was your husband managing purchases.
Now you went.
So what was it like in the initial bit?
Actually, that was not very hard.
Actually, that was not hard.
Probably the travel part was hard because we are not properly connected by road or by
rail or by flight.
My nearest big town is 60 kilometers away and nearest large town is 150 kilometers away.
The travel portion was the most trickiest portion of it.
We end up losing a lot of time and travel because from here to just catch a flight,
I need to travel 100 kilometers.
And from there, there is no direct, it's a small airport.
Madurai is a small airport.
So from there, I don't have connectivity to all major cities elsewhere in the north.
I have to go to Chennai and only from there, there is connectivity.
So half the time goes in travel itself.
My mother-in-law was not very initially not very happy about me going alone.
So my dad used to accompany me most of these travels.
He used to come along for the fun sake of it.
He loves traveling.
So he was very supportive in that way.
We both used to go to Surat also and we used to go and finish our purchases and come back.
Once I got used to that, then it was easier for me also.
Till date, I have not gone to few places at all thinking it will be hard.
It is not a place where women go alone.
There are few places they say, I don't know, probably I should go.
That would be my next level probably in the next year I should do that.
Dug into your reserves of Hindi, have you dusted it?
It has really helped.
So that's when I, you know, thinking back, everything happens for a reason.
Life gives you so much of opportunities and lessons, which at that point of time may feel
like what is the point of this?
Why am I going through this?
But then somewhere else, it comes of use.
I have observed that so much.
I feel like, okay, so everything happens for a reason.
Same thing, like if I hadn't come to the shop every now and then, even every now and then,
I wouldn't have taken over the CC.
So now, how is it for this whole thing going forward?
You brought a woman's touch.
How do you see this evolving?
See, this is your first job.
This is literally your first job.
Absolutely.
Okay.
So you've built on it, you've created your own space, you've created your own environment.
You have understood what it means.
And the amazing part is that you told me that you have a hundred people working in the store.
So obviously, it's a very large response.
And to be running a store with a hundred people in Tenkasi is not a small thing.
Only when people run a business do they understand how much is actually involved.
You know, from the outside, it looks as if stuff just magically comes and goes.
So in a sense, you have chronicled the kind of garment preferences of Tenkasi in a temple
city.
It is not the, your biggest customers are still people from the town itself.
And the villages nearby.
Okay.
So for them, you are one of the big stores because they come to Tenkasi to buy that there.
So how do you see this evolving, Gayathri?
Do you see this as a continuum saying that, yes, I have now made some changes, which I
think will be adopted as part of the practices of the shop or, you know, this is what I've
brought into the entire thing.
But what are the things that you wish to sort of put into it going forward?
Every day is a learning experience in my design because these five years, every day I've learned
something new and every day, probably not every day, at least every other day, I have
tried to put something new into my working little, little practices we have changed.
So this is never going to be like, is going to be for the next probably 10 years, things
are going to be like this.
No, I absolutely cannot say that because since this place has become a district headquarters,
we are having a lot of competition also.
Even big companies have started coming like Reliance Trends by ECPIE and such kind of
corporate, you know, major players are coming in, stepping in now.
There will be another family store.
This is in general a family store where you can almost shop for everybody, not just ready
maids.
There are also textiles, even shirting, suiting, even dhoti, towels, everything.
We deal with everything, furnishing, everything.
Such kind of family stores are also coming up.
So if we keep thinking, OK, we'll be like this, whoever comes for us will come.
If that mindset we have, we are not going to improve at all.
So every day we need to keep innovating to do what, how not to lose our trusted or loyal
customers.
That is the major thing.
Is there a little more acceptance of you as a businesswoman now in the town?
Yeah, yeah, of course.
People who I interact with, they do appreciate me and they have a whole lot of respect for
me of how I'm actually able to manage this place without just like taking the easier
way out.
I would really say this is the easier way out for me because this is no territory rather
than going and starting something new or going to a job where all of us are totally new.
I have never been or worked under anybody.
So this is easier.
That's what I would say.
But they feel like, no, you're trying to make this sound very simple.
So, but get a lot of compliments on that.
Like I have done a good job.
So that is nice.
So the confidence in your decisions, Gayathri, you made it tentatively, but now you're more
sure.
Trial and error.
No, no, no.
Absolutely trial and error.
But then experience also does matter.
So most of the time, if you are going in for something really something which we have never
tried, so that is going to be a trial and error.
Like recently I had to change my total flooring and I had absolutely no idea where to start
and how to end it, whom to get.
I had, because since there are a lot of choices, I didn't know whom to choose to do this job.
And we had time constraint also because we cannot just close the shop and say it is closed
for work.
I can't lose that.
I just had two working days taking that kind of decisions, you know, which is totally new
to me.
I was not actively involved at that time where the flooring was last changed, probably some
10, 15 years back.
So I had no idea what actually goes into it.
So all those things I had to really learn.
I had to learn, ask people.
It is very easy to say, no, see, she's done something for the flooring.
This doesn't even look good.
It doesn't go with the decor.
In mine, the additions were mostly taken like that.
But thankfully, you managed.
You got it done in two days.
Got it done and yes, yes, we did it.
Did you focus on color?
Did you focus on the ease of placing it?
Did you say this is what I want to change?
So not made such kind of total 180 degree changes, nothing of that sort.
But I'm planning to totally change our front elevation.
All those things are going to be another big experience for me.
Big decisions.
I am more of a finance person.
Till now I could, I personally feel that has been one of my strengths.
Manage this whole thing easily because I knew how finance was coming in and how it was going
out, what taxes I have to pay, what, who else I have to pay.
All those things was like easier for me.
This is going to be like I have to start budgeting for that.
How I'll be able to manage that big expense without getting a crunch of any sort or without
like because I am very particular about my payments to my suppliers.
We majorly have a goodwill only because of that with our suppliers all these years because
we have been very prompt with our payments and so Bombay stores, if you just tell that,
people have a different kind of respect for the name itself because we have been so good
at it.
So I want to maintain that because if your finance is strong, you can try to at least
overcome things because overheads keep, they are like, they keep increasing day by day.
But our, the rest of the things remain the same.
Salary is not getting increased in that pace as expenses.
People salary, I mean, or their earnings are very pretty meager in this town.
Not nothing compared to big towns.
So they still, they run a family with a mere 10,000 rupees.
They run a family of four or six people.
I really don't understand how they are able to do it, but they are content.
Everybody's content with that.
This town doesn't have much of big avenues for expenditure.
You don't have any place where you can just go and splurge or something.
Absolutely nothing.
Just recently for four months back, we got a good restaurant in this town where we could
sit and eat.
You finally got it.
Yes, finally got it.
Because till now, it has only been a very, very small mess kind of places where four
people, maximum eight people sit and they eat or mostly it is parcel taken home.
Only such kind of places used to be there.
So now we have got a proper resident where we could sit and eat and people are like,
now they are finding out, oh my God, one dosa costs 100 rupees.
Now they're able to tell that because till now it has only been 40.
It's very, very reasonable.
Very reasonable.
You still get one vada, one tea for 10, 15 bucks.
How is it with the next generation now?
Where this business will go from a…
My son's coming and taking over that.
How do you see this?
No, no, no.
I have no idea because my husband also was very, very clear about that.
Since he too didn't want to come and get settled over here, he was like, he was literally
forced.
He used to say like, I was literally forced into this business because there was no other
alternative.
I had to take care of this business.
So I won't do that to my boys.
They have full freedom to choose whatever they want to do.
If they come and they choose to do this business, I'll be very happy.
But I will not subject them to any kind of emotional blackmailing like my parents did
like, no, you only have to, you have no other goal.
I am not going to do any such stuff.
He used to say that and I feel the same.
It's totally up to them.
But I do try to actively tell them what is happening in the store, how I manage it, what
all we do so that they get, they also get an idea, you know, what I'm going through
so that they also like in the extreme eventuality or something goes wrong somewhere, they also
should be equipped with some knowledge to take this forward.
Yeah.
Or even if they are really interested, that also creates a kind of interest.
Shopping, going to new places, buying stuff, meeting new people, all those things, even
they have to, if it is of interest to them, I'll be very happy.
I think from everything that I'm seeing in the people who have commented, the kind of
respect that you've earned, it's been an amazing story.
I think the sheer practicality with which you've approached so many things and said
that, yes, this is the circumstances that I am in at the moment and this is what I need
to do.
Keeping the interests of a hundred people in mind, a hundred people and their families
in mind, your own family and how you felt managing an entire generational shift in gender.
Because like you said, in 90 years of the company, this has been one phase where two
women have literally been at the helm of affairs.
And the fact that you've brought in a woman's touch, you've brought in things which are
so important to your audience and everything else.
It's a truly inspiring story, Gayathri.
And I think thank you for taking the time.
I was very skeptical, very, very skeptical of doing this.
I had my own.
Thank you to Deepa for ensuring that.
Yes, all thanks to her.
She was constantly telling me, no, you can do this.
You have to do this.
So I did it for her.
So it totally is for her.
And I think I learned so much about how the attitudes in a town and like you said, from
the time that you weren't allowed to ride a two-wheeler through town to actually shepherding
the entire store and all its people and bringing about fresh practices.
More strength to you, Gayathri.
Thank you for spending the time.
And it's been a real pleasure having you on the show.
Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Good to see that you agree to do this.
It's an opportunity for me to also step out of my comfort zone.
And I'm so glad.
Yeah, right.
So this is one of a kind.
I've never done this kind of thing before.
I had my own fears.
I am so nervous.
I can assure you there was not a single moment when you seemed nervous.
I am sweating a lot.
Thank you, Gayathri.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
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