A hive of entrepreneurs

A hive of entrepreneurs

On a bright sunny morning, while I was waiting near a highway for catching bus, I saw a man holding a saw, a carpentry tool who asked a person who was dragging his punctured bike across the road, whether he could repair the puncture. The person agreed and the work was done. After he person rode away with his bike, I anxiously asked the man how he knew the work of puncture repair. He replied saying that he was having a puncture repair shop nearby which is closed now. Now he works as carpenter for a builder. As our discussion went forward, he shared that his name was Sanjay.  He has two brothers, namely  Varun and Anuj . Sanjay has a cow and a buffalo, he sells the milk early in the morning and then leaves for work. Varun knows how to repair two wheelers and owns his own garage too, but he works as a plumber in city because he earns more in city than repairing two wheelers near the highway in his garage. As I wished to talk with him even more, I took him for a tea with Bhajji to which he readily agreed. I shared that I had some carpentry work at my home. He agreed to work. Since there was no hope that bus would arrive soon, I asked him more about his skills. He shared that he is married and his wife (Amba),  knows good pottery art, they open a seasonal shop during summers where they sell mud pots for making water cold during hot summers. His son(Krishna) who is barely 18 in age, puts a shop with his wife’s brother(Lakshman) to sell ‘ponk ‘ (fried Bajra grains) and ‘Kawtha’ a local fruit. They close it after the harvesting season is over. His son has left school as it is far and he thinks that nothing much is taught there. His son makes brooms and sells it once in a week in city with Anuj.  Anuj also lends tractors on hire and has five labourers under him, in a way a contractor. Since the earnings from tractors are restricted to sowing season, he also supplies tiffins to labourers in nearby factory. Anuj’s wife(Sita) used to papads for Lijjad pappad. Recently she stopped working and took a small loan to start a small business to make and sell fried namkeens and a tailoring shop with their neighbour’s wife. Sita has  learnt tailoring from her mother who used to make clothes for their whole family. Moreover She also has a small organic farm. Anuj had tried their hands to open a welding shop to weld tractor parts but it failed due to some reasons. Anuj is the only most educated person in their locality with an ITI course in industrial welding. As I expressed desire to catch an auto rickshaw , Sanjay shared that his neighbour (Ram) have two rickshaws , he has rented one of them , earlier he tried his hands on running a pan shop but closed it as supplies of material to village was irregular. Now after this highway is made his father has re opened it and runs the shop. Ram’s son Anshuman runs a sugar cane juice shop and also drives his own small truck to transport industrial items and vegetables. Anshuman also has a vegetable shop nearby which is run by his wife and his mother. Anuj and Ram tried their hands on opening a small eatery in a rented shop near the industrial estate but had to close it as the owner of the shop wished to convert it into a godown. They tried to reopen it at another place but lacked funds to continue it hence had to close it.

As I looked around, I realized that there are even more entrepreneurs , to name a few, the tea seller and the bhajji seller where I stood with Sanjay, the tempo drivers who drove past us while we ate, all owners  of their assets, who were using their own passions skills and intellect to run their businesses.

Did you note the enterprising quality of these people here? They might not even have heard the name ‘start up’ but they are doing the same work . May it be seasonal or failed businesses of Anuj and Sanjay or enterprising ladies  Sita or Amba  or even Ram’s pan shop or even Krishna or Varun.

While all are entrepreneurs, businesses are unregistered and they close and reopen according to external circumstances. Such is the life in a village.

There are numerous such families in countless villages, who without any external support have enterprising attitude.

Do you have plans to make their start-ups more sustainable? Suggestions awaited.