India Uncut

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Monday, May 09, 2005

No batata wadas in Patiala

In response to the Girish Shahane article that I linked to here, Vimalanand Prabhu writes in:
There are many Marathi businessmen in the old "Anantashram" mould. Just go to "Aathavale and Shahade" just outside Dadar station, who sell handloom cotton towels, etc. Request for a towel (we call it pancha, it is made of a thin cloth like a dhoti). He will show you a towel, max two. All this with a blank expression on his face. It is as if you are placing a burden on him by buying stuff from his store. Similarly, go to "Vaman Hari Pethe" Jewellers, once again outside Dadar station. Similar attitude. Everytime I have been there, I wonder why I went there in the first place. But the quality of goods, and the reliability (important for gold and all) really is impeccable.

[...]

[O]ne more thing about the above-mentioned Marathi businesses is that they proudly acclaim in their advertisements, "Aamchi kuthehi shaakha nahi" (We do not have any other branches/ franchises). As if it is a great honor. They will never understand the logic of McDonalds. Alas, we will never get a Batata-Wada (Marathi equivalent of Aalu-Tikki, but much better) in any part of India other than Mumbai.

No, I am not going to start a Wada v Tikki debate on this blog – I like both. For more on the subject of Maharahstrian business culture, read Gaurav Sabnis's post, "Why Anantashram deserves to go out of business".
amit varma, 6:53 PM| write to me | permalink | homepage

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