THE COOKIE JAR
EPC brings you the latest from Pilani’s very own. A section by you, for you. Not necessarily about you, however.
Kamal Kapoor.
You know this face, but you probably don’t know the name.
For those of you naïve enough to believe that his name
could actually be Pappuji, Kamal Kapoor is the gnarled,
bespectacled man in the cockpit of the SkyLab. However,
call him ‘Uncleji’ even in passing, and he will throw you out
faster than you can say ‘VegChimoni’.
This fatherly figure, born in ’61, started working at C’Not at
the tender age of 9. His father worked in the Birla Museum
from ’58 to ’61. He first worked at a general store which was
converted to Raj Computers in ’95. This store is currently
run by his younger brother. Another humble beginning of
his was a chai stall, which he started with a partner. This time,
students helped him out a lot, and payment was upfront
even then. He took over the mantle of the Sky Lab in ’81,
started by BET. Since then, Pappuji has grown from a young
20-something shopkeeper to an old – but sharp, nevertheless
– constant of the campus. He stays on, partly due to
attachment, partly owing to disinterest in a full-time job.
the staff except him remember the entire menu. He jokes
about how a regular, who would have blueberry shake every
day, was shocked when one day, the staff assured him that
they made no such thing. The guy was on the verge of a
nervous breakdown, when Pappuji arrived to his rescue and
gave him a blueberry shake on the house.
He waves away rumors regarding his possession of an Audi,
a Swiss Bank account and a private jet, among other things.
However, he declines to comment on a certain calendar with
pictures of rich-people-things, having ‘Pappu’ inscribed
somewhere. Check it out if you can. January is Rolex with
Pappu as its insignia, and December is a Boeing 747 named
Pappu.
He receives immense respect from the ’72-’75 batch. Once,
an alumnus (from Punjab) upon seeing him in the busy
streets of New Delhi, immediately touched his feet. He takes
pride in the fact that he is still happy-go-lucky and doesn’t
need to keep a count of his monthly earnings. Maintaining
his characteristic humble demeanor has and always will be
his greatest hallmark. His smile disappears as he talks about
About his sons; one is working at IBM in Bombay, one is
how he was a ‘Chhotu’ to the students, who now address
studying in BKBIET, and one is pursuing an MBA degree in Portrait by Manesh Narayan
him with respect. He realizes he doesn’t have many years
Chandigarh. He remarks – only half-jokingly – that if they do
left, and says will miss the students. He wishes them the best for the future, and
not get jobs, SkyLab is always ready to employ them.
encourages them to keep up the fun and frivolity that he sees every day. Till then, he
Talking about SkyLab – it has, perhaps, the most exponential rise in eatables of any always will be the fast-but-not-too-coherent talking Pappuji who always remembers
eatery on campus. Boasting of tea, patties and the indispensable Shikanji when it started, every student’s pending accounts. So, it’s time to leave before he reminds me of mine.
it now has sandwiches, shakes, burgers and juices with so many variants that none of
The writer is the co-founder of Edvice, an on-demand tutoring app for Engineering Test first product out, often due to a strive for perfection and an attempt to include a
never ending list of features. It's humanly impossible for a bunch of people in college
Preparation, besides being a member of the English Press Club.
There are two things that have dominated the attention of the Indian public over the
past two years: elections and start-ups. Start-ups have become such household topics
because they not only impact Indian consumers directly, they have changed the way
Indian companies operate. Experienced corporate giants such as Narayana Murthy
and Ratan Tata have invested and backed these new-age companies. In simple words,
today is the best time for entrepreneurship as a career choice.
to build the snazziest, best performing and well-marketed product. So, don’t try.
Instead, launch your core-offering to the consumers in the simplest way possible. You
are bound to make innumerable mistakes. The take home point is to learn from them
and fix them and then build upon it as quickly as possible.
One of my favourite aspects as a founder is to manage your team and keep the buzz
going. There is no better motivation than to have an energetic bunch with their flush
of exciting ideas - even at 5 in the morning. The thumb rule for building a team is to
Think of any famous start-up based in India and try to describe them in a line. Now
bring on people who are smarter than you. The ultimate goal of a company - or North
take a moment to reflect on how simple their goal is. Everything from Flipkart to
Star as I call it - won’t be visible to you from Day One. You may know which galaxy it
RedBus will seem like a no-brainer. An obvious question that might crop up in your
exists in but these are the guys who will help you find it and help you get there.
head is why it hadn’t been done before. Or why any other company couldn’t copy the
same idea and succeed? The answer to both the above questions is that an idea is not
everything. It’s at most 1% of your progress in the long and engaging start-up battle. The past eight months seems Ɩ