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Serving Bangalore Inc.
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She gave up a management career and a stint in farming to start serving food for corporates. The figures are awesome — 6,000 lunches and 1,000 dinners every day.
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Photos: K. Gopinathan
Chitra Bali supervising the preparations.
A STERN chowkidar demanded identification at the entrance of the Catering Inn, much to my surprise, an innocuous deed that altered irrevocably my general opinion about the burgeoning number of catering units in the City.
Chitra Bali, the owner, is a youthful, doughty woman in her late sixties, dishes up food for Bangalore Inc. I ambled through establishment in Yeshwanthpur with near reverence, taking in the lunch and dinner menus neatly pasted at strategic corners of the walls, and women sitting in a circle, performing the mundane act of chopping cauliflowers with precision.
I was ushered into Ms. Bali's office as the delectable aroma of dal makhani wafted in the air. Nothing had quite prepared me for the cheerful and clean interiors, uniformed personnel, and the professional conduct of the employees of the Catering Inn.
A post-graduate in Personnel Management from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, as early as 1959, Bali pursued a corporate career in a Tata company for 12 years. Her stint in farming and agriculture lasted 14 years from 1972. "I did not plan my entry into the catering world, it just happened," she explains about the change in her life in 1989, when she gamely consented to serve a handful of corporates — friends of her husband — lunch for a week! And Bali has not looked back since.
It was a natural follow-up that The Catering Inn was born in 1994. "It has been only multiplication so far," she jokingly refers to the several thousands of lunches and dinners that her unit serves today. Almost 6,000 lunches and 1,000 dinners everyday. Dell International, Texas Instruments, Lucent Technologies, and Birla 3M feature among the corporate client list.
One ton of cooked rice, one-and-a-half tons of curd rice, 400 kg. onions, 400 kg. potatoes, 800 kg. vegetables for gravy dishes, 600 kg. vegetables for dry dishes, 650 kg. curds, 200 litres milk, 6,000 litres of water, and 14 gas cylinders — these are the eye-popping logistics that she has to organise on a daily basis.
Shakun Rakheja, Marketing Executive, Catering Inn, has been with Ms. Bali since its inception. "We undertake orders for parties, seminars, and conferences, but for a minimum of 25 people," she informs. When you place an order, the serving bit is on the house. Her team takes care of details: setting up shop at the venue and simply taking the burden off your shoulders.
"We have catered food for conferences at the Indian Institute of Science, ISRO, NIAS, and they feature on our list of regular clients," adds Ms. Rakheja with a touch of pride. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the former Prime Minister, Deve Gowda, are among the dignitaries Catering Inn has served.
With nearly 180 employees, the branch in Whitefield was set up to solely cater to IT clients.
Vandana Narula, Managing Partner, who joined Ms. Bali a few years ago, manages it this offshoot.
A self-confessed karma yogi, Ms. Chitra Bali believes strongly in the empowerment of women. "There is no need for reservation; Indian women have never lacked talent. It's just that they have been suppressed for so long, that's all," points out this feisty woman whose family was scarred by Partition when they fled Lahore to Mumbai. "It taught me about life; I knew I had to be independent, no matter what," she says with a smile.
"I want to keep going as long as I can," is what she says about her future plans. She also talks about her dreams. "I dream of an India where education for the female child is absolutely free, right from kindergarten to doctoral studies; then we will witness true progress."
Mother, entrepreneur, employer, all rolled into one, Ms. Bali's life has been a journey of courage, dedication, and determination.
HARIPRIYA SRINIVASAN
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
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Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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