Tough times call for tough measures

Owner of Sree Agarwal Bhojanwala on the business lessons learnt from the pandemic

Tulsiddas Agarwal, who runs Sree Agarwal Bhojanwala at Sowcarpet, says he has sailed through the pandemic because of the wise investment made by his parents years ago and the hard lessons he had learnt in the 20-year-old business. The eatout is located at the same building where he resides and is owned by the family. “I would have been coughing up ₹50,000 every month if I had to operate from a rented building, which would have surely burnt a hole in my pocket as we are already stressed with ‘no dine-in’ and other restrictions,” says Tulsiddas. Before the neighbourhood brand became famous for its Rajasthani thali and other North Indian delicacies, Tulsiddas ran a sweet shop. Enquiries by people on where to get good food led him to start his own food joint. He started out in a small way from the terrace of his house doing only parcel service catering to residents of areas found within a three-km radius.