When I was a child my father ran a cafe. It had some strange characteristics.
There were always four workers; my mother who prepared the idly hittu on the previous day (it took a couple of hours), my father who sat at the stove and prepared idly and coffee, one cleaner whose job was to clean the dishes, and one server whose job was to serve the customers.
The cleaner and servers jobs were rotational.
The very first server was my older brother Radhakrishna and I was the cleaner. We kept these jobs for many years, may be 10 until we left the village to go for higher studies (I went to Bangalore and Radhakrishna went to Chinthamani). After both of us left at the same time, my younger brother Gopala became the server (he was never the cleaner which was considered a lower level job) and Ramamurthy who was younger to Gopala became the cleaner. When Gopala left for higher studies, Ramamurthy was promoted to server and the youngest Sridhara became the cleaner. They were the last in the line and after I finished my masters in engineering and settled in a job in Bangalore, I brought the entire family to live with me and the hotel was closed.
The cafe ran for about 25 years and it supplemented our income which was crucial for supporting our education and putting food on the table so to speak (we never ate at the table, just on floor in the kitchen).
The cafe and our work in it influenced me heavily and I have always worked in a second part time job ever since I started my work as an engineer in Bangalore.
We had a standard clientele at the cafe. It consisted of mostly the staff of the only bus that operated from our village, the travelers who came from neighboring villages to catch the bus in the morning, and a few village folk.
- It was open only for 2 hours, every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year from 6 AM to 8 AM.
- It offered only two items, idly and coffee.
There were always four workers; my mother who prepared the idly hittu on the previous day (it took a couple of hours), my father who sat at the stove and prepared idly and coffee, one cleaner whose job was to clean the dishes, and one server whose job was to serve the customers.
The cleaner and servers jobs were rotational.
The very first server was my older brother Radhakrishna and I was the cleaner. We kept these jobs for many years, may be 10 until we left the village to go for higher studies (I went to Bangalore and Radhakrishna went to Chinthamani). After both of us left at the same time, my younger brother Gopala became the server (he was never the cleaner which was considered a lower level job) and Ramamurthy who was younger to Gopala became the cleaner. When Gopala left for higher studies, Ramamurthy was promoted to server and the youngest Sridhara became the cleaner. They were the last in the line and after I finished my masters in engineering and settled in a job in Bangalore, I brought the entire family to live with me and the hotel was closed.
The cafe ran for about 25 years and it supplemented our income which was crucial for supporting our education and putting food on the table so to speak (we never ate at the table, just on floor in the kitchen).
The cafe and our work in it influenced me heavily and I have always worked in a second part time job ever since I started my work as an engineer in Bangalore.
We had a standard clientele at the cafe. It consisted of mostly the staff of the only bus that operated from our village, the travelers who came from neighboring villages to catch the bus in the morning, and a few village folk.
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