Some Ideas some thoughts and some possibilities.

Before I go on to these plans or rather my ideas I would like to tell everyone who is gonna read these things that I am a kind of a non believer. I don't really believe that God in anyway is gonna help us get something. This makes a mockery of our sixth sense. This is the biggest belief that I have and I will have hopefully till the moment I breathe last.

When I look back I don't understand what brought me to the business. Though I would say certain events between my UG and PG along with some other external forces colluded in pushing me to business, I would personally rate the one month work that I did between my first and final year of PG that took me into business. July 2 2003 was my my first day in the final year of my college and it got over at 12:40 PM. I was in office by 14:15 hours because I had learnt to love it more than anything else in the whole world.

Born to a family of businessmen who were looking into various fields I do believe it was all the more natural I came here. Ok, this is not the time to write my history into business. But for a change I would love to have these thoughts that I wish to do in future when business shapes up well. I don't know how far I will succeed but in case any reader here gets an inspiration and performs well based on my ideas I would be all the more happy.

a) Transport Business:

If somebody had told me around 8 years back that I would be fascinated by long distance bus travel I would have mocked at them, shown faces or at worst ignored them. Bus never fascinated me then when it comes to long distances. I would prefer train as I felt safe in that than the buses though I preferred going around Chennai in bus than in train.

I vividly remember my first long distance bus travel which also coincided with my first official travel too. With one of my dad's then best men by name Chelladurai, we set out to Tuticorin on a rainy day from the SETC Bus Stand (then in Parrys Corner near High Court) at 9:30 Pm and reached Tuti by next day afternoon around 1 PM. Today I have travelled a lot in Bus and this 600 KM distance was just a beginning.

As I started travelling more by bus and road and trying newer routes and endeavours, I become fascinated by the travels business. For long my most favourite bus firm is Bharathi. Now I have added SRM to the list. I like SRM for its punctuality. I would love to start a bus travel too on these lines.

All my buses would be of volvo airconditioned only. These days I don't travel by anything other than volvo (unless until there is no other go like the secondary routes) and so all my buses would be volvo air conditioned only. All the a/c vents would work and the blankets that are given would be washed daily and will eb used only alternative days (they stink :O ) and I don't wanna trouble my customers with the stink. My drivers and cleaners won't have to stay on the bus (The Bharathi bus driver Pandi my dear friend has explained to me the deal - 15 days up and down and 15 days holiday) instead they will have a house with all amenities for them wherever they go alongwith food. Water Bottles will be provided compulsively (Only Parveen other than State Government buses give water bottles) and my buses will be daily screened for any kind of problems. Passengers cannot enter without giving their name, age, address, contact details and a photo identity card. The number must be land line only for requirements of emergency and it will not be the passenger's mobile number.

There will be two drivers in each bus that travels for more than 8 hours. One cleaner. The back seat of the bus will in any day (including special days) be reserved for the benefit of the second driver who can take rest or sleep. It will no way be sold to any passenger at all. This will be strictly implemented. There will be seat belts in each seat and also the driver and cleaner must wear seat belt. Any non adherence to this policy will mean them losing the job. Passengers must wear seat belt and I hope there is a system which makes the vehicle not start if seat belt is not worn.

I have made some mental calculations on these kind of transport business and hopefully I would be able to break in to transport business in a couple of years may be three at max. My first route would be Chennai to Tanjore via Kumbakonam or Chennai to Bangalore. As I become a frequent traveller some travel agents in these places have often tried to bait me into the transport business. They paint it all rosy but I know for running a route and to make it moderately popular I must be ready to run it in loss for alteast three months. This is known from the following incident. There is one bus between Chennai and Madurai by name PVK. I twice went through this bus but to my dismay I found that PVK doesn't play on all days and it is wayward. Suddenly it plies and suddenly it doesn't . I don't understand the need for running a bus and not running it some days.

Next is my tourism plan. This is something which I hold so close to my heart and though I have discussed a lot about this I don't want to go on telling everyone but I do believe this is the juncture I need some inspiration. So I will write about it in the next blog.