Of all the ancient cities in the world that have seen continuous inhabitation Madurai is unique as it has flourished despite no river as its lifeline.  Vaigai remains a river on paper & gets to see water with the same rarity as my hundreds in exams. Madura Summers are full of festivity; The kanjeevarms & strings of beautiful tightly knit, sensuously seductive fragrant  malli’s adorning the womenfolk & a cool, sweet ripe mangoes  offers enough reason to keep the population exploding & the city thriving.

Madurai throws in many uniquities –the temple ( a great reference for master town planning & architecture), the proud natives, its malli ( a jasmine wouldn’t smell as great as a malli ) , soft hot idli’s ( birth place of Murugan Idli Shop) ,  cool Jighirthanda & our first “ha” – it’s halwa.

The Prema Vilas Tirunelveli Halwai Kadai  at college house near the Madurai railway station is flocked by its devotees in the evening. They wait patiently in ques  for their turn to have their dollop of hot, honey coloured wheat halwa served in medicinal & lightly fragrant mandharai leaves. Even today they run their enterprise in the same old place. There is hardly 4 feet x 10 feet floor  space inside the shop & around 10 persons are busy serving & packing  the goodies with a great speed. They have chosen to travel on the safe road of “premium specialty”. Year after year the premiums of their brand keeps on increasing keeping them comfortable.

The hole in the wall halwa kadai was brought to the south by a Punjabi immigrant family quite a few decades back, the same way as our second “Ha” – Haldirams - established  in Nagpur decades back by a Rajasthani immigrant family.

In the late eighties, it was a must for anyone going to Nagpur to bring home a pack of Haldiram’s Soan Papadi. It was premium & that famous. Over the years, the ambitious family grew to become a major brand in India synonymous with good food. Much about them is in public domain. Their food courts & restaurants in the Delhi & Kolkata are the safest places to have a variety of quality, hygienic Indian snacks & food combos that are rightly priced. Today the Haldiram’s Soanpapadi is available in every village grocery of India & has got its premium eroded completely. No one even in the higher bracket of the lower class buys it. At some Indian airports, you do get premium flavor variants of this soanpapadi.

Haldiram’s were amongst the earliest in India to take the other  road – “Mass market”. It would have been a difficult decision for the family to compromise their premium offering in search of riches. However the cash registers are  ringing nonstop-  faster & louder despite this compromise.  Haldiram is one of the largest Indian brands today  despite having no restaurant presence in over 80% of India. They have rightly tapped the wealth at the bottom of the pyramid  for their riches. A road rightly taken

Both the roads travelled have been fruitful, thanks to one common attribute – Quality. As far as the intents are good any road is safe & right. This lesson from “ha” & “Ha” take them to our list.