Darshini godfather plans juice kiosks

Darshini godfather plans juice kiosks
New INdian Express

BANGALORE: In the late 1990s, Gandhinagar witnessed regular traffic jams during lunch hours. That made front page news in newspapers because the cause was unusual. A hotel had sprung up in the area offering a Bharjari Oota (sumptous meal) and an ice cream for Rs 10.

The low-cost lunch was a big hit and the queue only grew by the day. The hotel made profits with thin margins on the food sold, and made big gains by selling in volumes and squeezing operational costs. It was a new concept in the hotel industry, used till then to priceing on a cost-plus basis.

With the arrival of Bharjari Oota, the rules of the hotel business had clearly been rewritten. And the author was R Prabhakar, the man who has pulled off many such miracles in the hotel industry in Karnataka and elsewhere.

For instance, imagine life in Bangalore without the Darshinis: where would you catch a quick breakfast before you set out for work or college? Where would you grab that coffee mid-afternoon? For ordinary folks life would become impossible without the fast, clean, inexpensive service that the friendly neighbourhood Darshini dishes out.

And now for some mindboggling statistics: There are over 3,500 darshinis in Bangalore today and they feed more than 50 lakh people every day. And it was again Prabhakar who pioneered Darshinis in the City as far back as 1983. Inspired by the fast food chains abroad, he set the first darshini called ‘Cafe Darshini’ in Jayanagar and the rest as they say is history. This model was so successful that darshinis proliferated all over the city.

Prabhakar says, ‘‘Darshinis provide tasty food, quickly, efficiently at a very affordable price. This is because they operate on the same principle as the MNCs -- making profit by volume sales. Darshinis operate in a small space, employ fewer people, and have a fixed menu’’. The most important element for the success, he says, is tasty food, for which fresh and quality ingredients are to be used.

Prabhakar is not all that happy about the new trend of Darshinis serving Chinese and North Indian dishes which are neither authentic nor healthy as they rely on synthetic additives to enhance taste. He urges people to stick to local cuisine as south indian food is healthier and more hygenic.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Prabhakar came up with another original concept of setting up ‘Nammura Hotel,’ which prices its eats by weight. The novel idea has been a big hit and one can see big queues in front of this outlet in JP Nagar.

Halli Mane, the traditional food joint serving authentic rural Karnataka food, is also his brainchild. A native of Kundapur in Udupi district, Prabhakar came to Bangalore for higher studies and later entered the hotel industry. He has also been active in organising the hoteliers’ association. ‘‘My next project is to set up sugarcane juice kiosks to provide good, hygienic juice at Rs 4 a glass.’’ This is another project that is bound to succeed.