Hunger - Satisfied

Hunger - Satisfied

The idea of writing a blog on Hotel Sri Anandha Bhavan (HAB) started at around 2200 hours on a fine Thursday evening, when a dear friend of ours was leaving Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai, to join XLRI Jamshedpur. Due to unfortunate events this was pending since then.  Any ways I would now like to start with describing the place and the people who cooked for us with all heart.

 Hotel Sri Anandha Bhavan was started in the year 2002. It is located in the prime location of Mahabalipuram, on the Aanaikatti Street opposite to the Indian Bank. I had the opportunity of speak with Mr Varatharajan, the owner of the place, as the time when we reached they were just about to close. But to our surprise he let us in and served us what we ordered. This showed us how customer centric the man was. When we entered inside we could relate his behaviour with one of the posters that he had put up.

The restaurant has a seating capacity of approximately 50 people with a table capacity of 4. It has a counter at the end of the dining area (approximately 500 – 600 sq. feet).

This counter serves South Indian Dishes right from idly up to full plate meals. It also caters to the beverage needs of the people entering their restaurant with Coffee, Tea and Cold Drinks. It also has a deep freeze for storing Ice Creams.

The small hotel handles about 300 – 400 customers a day with an average turnover of about 30 – 35 Lakhs yearly of which Mr Varatharajan claims 15 – 20% as profit. Before starting with the hotel business, Mr Varatharajan was engaged in his travel business which he had to shut down due to increase in the number of players in the market. Another reason adding fuel to the fire was his long time plan of entering into the hotel industry.  His venture has about 20 staff members of which there are 4 cooks.

Let us move ahead with the cuisines offered by “HAB”.

Though the main menu displayed above is that of the South Indian dishes, the majority of the business comes from the small open kitchen right up the entrance which is headed by Mr Aakash and assisted by Prakash and Madhav. All 3 of them hail from Nepal and have been working for Mr Varatharajan for the past couple of months.

Mr Aakash has been very keen on learning how to cook since his childhood days and has been cooking since a very early age. He has had his training at Karim Hotel near Masjid-i Jahān-Numā commonly known as the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi for over a year. He then ventured out to Babuji ka Dhaba at Gurgaon for his next level of training for a period of 6 months. He has also worked at many other hotels as an assistant in Mumbai and Delhi.

I, for once had a doubt whether; what the man was boasting about him was anywhere close to truth. But to our surprise, the very moment he served the food, all of us very gaga over the food. Most of us would agree that for Vegetarians (North Indians) the food choices are limited and especially when you are in a place like Manamai / Kunnathur.

 Another source of income for Mr Varatharajan is from the Pan Shop (Commonly known here as Beeda Shop), taken up on rent by Mr Pandey from Uttar Pradesh. 




He and his brother are striving hard in order to find a shop in an area near our College. When I spoke to them, they confirmed that they had visited the site and also spoke to the owner of Hotel Akshaya. They wanted to expand from just a Pan Shop to a full-fledged Ice-Cream seller.

The main problem as put in words by Mr Varatharajan is managing the whole show single headedly. Though he uses an accounting package to make sure that there are no discrepancies in the billing or the total collection from the business at the end of the day, he feels the need for a better person to manage the show. 

Probably when Mr Varatharajan’s son, who is currently pursuing engineering from a college in Chennai, takes over this business, his needs shall be satisfied just like our need for “GOOD FOOD”.


Saket Sharma
FT13468
Great Lakes Institute of Management