“The word ‘Petti – Kadai’ is derived from the colloquial translation meaning box or a suitcase. So petti kadai came to existence meaning neat box shaped shops which fit neatly into an area. My brother was a milk delivery agent. He brought me into this business and I started my early life delivering milk to each and every household. But somewhere deep down, I had a calling to set up a shop that would encompass all of our services. So I took a loan from a pawn broker and started this shop. But it was quite a task repaying that loan as one can’t imagine to make a huge fortune from a shop like this. We are placed right in the middle of a busy street like this yet, customers today would much rather prefer to spend thousands in cafes than a small shop like this. So I had a very hard time paying back my loan and I vouched to never ever take a loan ever again. The profit we make from this shop is quite meagre. Mostly it will be in pennies and when aggregated, it would lead to a sum at the month end. But otherwise, it’s a rather run of the mill routine that I have. My day starts at 4 AM. I have to go pick up newspaper stacks from the consolidation point. After that, I would need to deliver milk to a couple of households in person. I open my shop around 6AM and then close it by 11:30 PM. We hardly get around 3 hours of sleep but this hardship is required to sustain our livelihood on a daily basis. Rainy days usually attract a huge crowd as they come here to take shelter and sometimes order a drink or a beverage. On other days, we always have our smart phones to give us company. One shouldn’t be scared to put in the work required to come up in life. Not all have a level playing field but it is important to do the work before expecting a lofty result.”
