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A Man From Tamil Nadu Who Started Selling Dosa And Idlis With Just ?1K, Now Has A ?30 Crore Empire
Prem Ganapathy was a class 10 passout when he decided to move to Mumbai. He had no particular skill set, but with enough determination, ?200 in his pocket, and a zeal to make something out of himself, he established a ?30 crore food empire. His is a story of hardships and betrayals – one that gave birth to the beloved Dosa Plaza franchise.
Telling his early life’s story to “The Economic Times”, Prem Ganapathy revealed that he belonged to a poor family from Nagalapuram in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district. Due to financial problems in his family, he had to abandon his dreams of higher studies to support his which included his seven siblings.
Shuffling through a number of odd jobs, he barely managed to fetch around ?250 a month, which he used to send back home.
He left for Mumbai when an acquaintance offered him a salary of ?1,200 per month, unaware of the fact that he’d be robbed off of his own little savings that he had. Without informing his parents about the decision to shift his base, he was left stranded in Bandra. Back then, he was just 17 years of age.
He hardly understood the language and didn’t know anyone in the city. He wanted to return, but having no money on him, it was not a viable option for him.
So, he decided to stay and hoped that lady luck would change his fortune. And she did.
In his heart to heart with The Economic Times, he also revealed that he had got a job washing dishes at a local bakery with a meagre salary of ?150. In the next two years, he picked up a number of odd jobs at various restaurants. He managed to save as much as possible.
Fast forward two years, he had enough savings to start his new venture selling idlis and dosas. He rented a handcart and ploughed in ?1,000 to buy the basic ingredients. He set up a shop on the street opposite the Vashi train station. Seeing his business boom, he brought in two of his brothers, to help him out.
What set them apart from the local competition was the fact that they laid a huge emphasis on quality and cleanliness and were well-dressed.
In a conversation with Your Story, he said that the recipes of the idlis and dosas came out of his native place, the authenticity of which attracted a lot of customers. Soon, the small venture started generating a net profit of around ?20,000 every month. They even managed to rent out a small space in Vashi where they would prepare all of the ingredients and masala every day.
In 1997, they leased a small space in the same locality and named it Prem Sagar Dosa Plaza.
The outlet was frequented by a number of college-goers who taught him how to use the internet. The access to a wealth of information gave him the opportunity to experiment with a number of recipes from across the world – schezwan dosa, paneer chilly, and spring roll dosa. By the first year itself, they managed to introduce 26 innovative dosas, reports The Economic Times.
Ganapathy had always dreamt of opening a small shop in a mall. After being repeatedly turned down, the management of Centre One mall offered him the opportunity to set up an outlet in their mall.
Garnering a lot of praise from the public, he was bombarded with a number of franchising requests. He happily agreed. The first franchise outlet opened in 2003, at Wonder Mall in Thane.
According to The Economic Times, they now have 70 outlets of Dosa Plaza across the world, with seven being spread across New Zealand, Dubai, and Oman. The business which started off with a seed capital of ?1,000 has now grown into a ?30 crore company.
All the mishaps that followed after he stepped on the soil of Mumbai could have made him turn back and leave. But he decided to stay. Stories like his is a testament to the fact that having your eyes set on a goal will lead you to wherever you wish to head in.
Source: ScoopWhoop

Brand Story
Here is All You Need to Know About The Author of Rocky And Arjun : Author Vijay Sharma

Vijay Sharma AKA VijayKrishna is a writer and author of the book “Rocky and Arjun – Eventual Days with my Mountain Dog”.
Birthplace and Family Background: I was born in the small town of Batala, in the district Gurdaspur of the state of Punjab in India. I grew up with two brothers and a sister in a middle-class family in Delhi and completed my education in Delhi. I am currently living in Delhi and Mumbai.
Profession: I am working as a business professional with a Medical Device company. I love traveling and for my work I traveled to many cities across the globe.
My Ambition: To be a successful person to help or support as many people as I can in my life.
What made me write this book Rocky and Arjun: I was writing short stories and blogs on different online platforms under my pen name – VijayKrishna and during the COVID-19 lockdown, I thought of converting one of my short stories into a book/novel. I really wanted to tell this story to the world as I love dogs very much. I wrote three different versions of the story and the published version of my book Rocky and Arjun is one of the versions which I rewrote after a lot of discussions with my family and friends who were my initial audience.
My Future Plans as a writer: After my first book Rocky and Arjun is published, I got the confidence to write more fictional stories, especially Children’s Fiction Stories compiled in the form of a book. My second book will be for children, adults, and geriatric readers who love to read compilations of simple yet interesting short stories. My third book will be a novel dedicated to “Mothers”.
My Message to the new generation: I grew up reading books written by Guru Rabindranath Tagore, Gulzar, Ruskin Bond, Leo Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov. My message to the new generation is to read books written by these eminent writers who are my inspiration. Also, read good books written by young writers of the current generation. Keep reading to enrich your knowledge.
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A Surgeon by Day & a Poet by Night, Here is All You Need to Know About Dr. Shadab Ahmed

Our team had been in touch with Dr. Shadab Ahmed for some time. We had always seen him smiling and in a positive mode. His books are well admired and he has a great persona, for which we decided to cover his story. Today we present you with a true gem of a person, Dr. Shadab Ahmed.
Dr. Shadab Ahmed hails from Bihar, India. He has spent good segments of his life in North-East India, New Delhi, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu. True-Blood Bihari by thinking and living, his mantra is “Carpe Diem”, or to seize the day.
Dr. Shadab Ahmed was born and brought up in the resilient and magical North-East India, growing up between guns and roses. He moved pan-India at various ages, finishing his schooling in Manipur and Delhi. His voracious appetite for knowledge and wisdom led him into books, refining his perception and understanding of the good, bad, and wicked in life. He is a scholar of literature and poetry, and his interests are diverse in Norse, Hebrew, European, Mughal, Russian, Iberian, Latin-Modernism, Metaphysical, Alhambra, Mandarin, Turkish, Persian, Indian, Baltic, Celtic, and Castilian poetry and literature. He retains an inner child and has a very combustible imagination.
Dr. Shadab Ahmed is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon by profession, and he is also an Associate Professor (Reader) in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Vinayaka Mission’s Sankarachariyar Dental College, Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation (VMRF-DU), Salem, Tamil Nadu. He completed his UG from Buddha Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Bihar, and his PG from Meenakshi Ammal Dental College & Hospital, Tamil Nadu. For pre-destiny, he altered his academic path and took the bold risk of jumping into college management and administration, and has never looked back since. He is distinctive in methodically drafting policies for NABH, NAAC, NIRF, and AISHE and implementing protocols of the Dental Council of India. He focuses on qualitative and quantitative institutional growth. He has previously served as Joint Coordinator and Administration Advisor to dental institutions and has worked as a dental surgeon with the North-East Frontier Railways, Assam. His interest in OMFS goes into Head and Neck Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Cleft and Craniofacial Disorders, and Maxillofacial Trauma.
Inspiration to write a book: Dr. Shadab Ahmed has always been fascinated by books and wanted to write since he was a child. But for his chosen and formidable academic path. He never managed to complete his books, which were left on the shelves and acquired dust over time. His inspiration to write books came from his father, who proudly declared one day that he would never be able to write a book. Today, Dr. Ahmed is the author of 3 published non-pedagogical books related to World Poetry, with several others in the press and under progress. He devotes his free time maniacally to reading, understanding, and translating various canonical poetry texts and their interpretations, along with their “Pre-Text” in history and “Con-Text” in contemporary times and ages. His extra-academic interest bridges across Bards, Rhymes, Hymns, Epics, Odes, Elegies, Zajals, Poesies, Ballads, Sonnets, Quatrains, Verses, Couplets, Qasidehs, Muwashshahs, Masnawis, Haikus, Limericks, and Runes. His distinctive interest lies in European Literature and Poetry (covering the Jacobean Era, Elizabethan Era, Edwardian Era, Georgian Era, Stuart and Caroline Eras, Renaissance and Post-Renaissance Eras) and Mandarin Poetry, encompassing the Ming, Yuan, Song, and Tang dynasties.
Dr. Shadab Ahmed has several books in progress and manages to write in what little time he gets after his professional duties. Two more of his books are in press and slated to be released in the coming months this year. He aspires to open a bookstore someday, thereby completing the trinity of visions he envisioned as a child (Doctor-Author-Businessman). He prays he gets the time and chance to see his pre-science conceptualizing in the coming months and years. He believes in taking decisive risks and lives for the day.
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Zepto, 10-minute grocery delivery app, raises $100 million

Only five months subsequent to dispatching, 10-minute basic food item conveyance application Zepto on Tuesday reported it has raised $100 million driven by Y Combinator, taking its valuation to $570 million.
Other than the raise money, Zepto has been developing staggeringly rapidly and is significantly increasing its client base consistently.
In the course of recent months, Zepto has extended past Mumbai by dispatching in Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune (Kolkata to follow), the organization said in an assertion.
“Financial backers are reliably deciding to back Zepto due to our top tier execution. This is giving us extraordinary energy – we’re developing at an amazing rate, clients are adoring the item experience, our center unit financial matters are solid, and we have one of the most outstanding startup groups in India today,” said Aadit Palicha, Co-Founder and CEO.
The Series C raising money round saw support from new and existing financial backers, including Glade Brook, Nexus, Breyer Capital, Lachy Groom, Global Founders Capital, Contrary Capital, and that’s just the beginning.
The round came 45 days later the organization reported its $60 million raise money in November.
Conveying food in a short time is a game-changing encounter for clients in the nation, and a few players are presently joining the race.
“We are eager to twofold down and lead this round in Zepto. They initially dispatched with an alternate model, quickly turned to speedy trade in August 2021, and are presently adding 100,000 new clients consistently, 60% of the ladies,” said Anu Hariharan from Y Combinator.