We went on the heritage walk on Avenue Road, organized by INTACH, this morning (watch Citizen Matters for a detailed report on how the shopkeepers of Avenue Road engaged with the walkers..a first-time combination!) and we took a bus back home. On the way home from the bus stop, we were amazed to see an entreprenurial iniatitive…a push-cart with pani puri! The young man, Raju, said that he was from UP and had come here to make a living. Since neither of us was in the mood for a full lunch after the excellent "prasad" of pulioygare and mosaranna provided at the Balaji Temple during the walk, we both decided to have some!
A young man and woman were also there, but it was the young woman alone who had the pani puri with us. We got to talking to them, and they said they are software engineers…who want to spread the word of Swami Vivekananda during their free time, and as a volunteer group, go door-to-door on weekends. They gave us the latest issue of their newsmagazine when we made a donation.
Two unusual things…one, a very worthy business enterprise (take the product to the customer, don’t wait for the customer to come to the product!) and a worthwhile not-for-money effort (which can be hard work on holiday afternoons)….we were impressed with both, and came home feeling happy that we had stopped for "junk" food and met such interesting people. ⊕