People who dare to 'do things differently'

People who dare to 'do things differently'
18 Sep, 2007, 0100 hrs IST,Shubhashish, TNN

MUMBAI: While most flock with the crowd, there are a few individuals who dare to create a path of their own. With nothing but belief, courage and conviction by their side, meet three such people who dared to carve their own niche by exploring opportunities in untapped territories.

They are people who are not lured by ‘what life has to offer’ but instead have something to offer to it. These are people who don’t do things differently but do different things. Three such individuals who dared to invent a new niche and even achieved paramount success give the phrase, ‘doing things differently’ a whole new connotation.

Canine companions

Wasiff Khan, straight after his graduation started a novel dabbawala service for pets! While Raju Patel, the man whose unparallel love for telescopes made him a famous telescope manufacturer and Priya Kumar teaches executives to walk on fire! Sounds interesting? Board the bus.

Wasiff Khan comes from a middle-class Indian family but with dreams unmatched and addictive enthusiasm! Khan gave the age-old adage, ‘A dog is man’s best friend’ a new interpretation altogether. “I was just another college graduate with no specific direction in life and highly skeptical as to what life had in store for me.

That’s when the idea of starting a catering service flashed through my mind,” he says. “I met several people in order to explore the avenue and realised that there was no one offering food for pets!” he recollects. He invested time and research and as he explored further, he knew he had struck gold!

“I began my research by visiting veterinaries and friends who had pets and started gathering as much information as possible but keeping the idea firmly under wraps,” he says. As one phase lead to another, Khan, without any money and no one ready to offer loan for this ‘unique’ business preposition, gambled on.

He prepared a questionnaire about food preferences of different breeds of dogs and approached dog-owners under the disguise of a researcher working on a survey! The intention was to create a database of customers, identify the possible problems with the idea and study the reactions of people of the service.

The next part was the most challenging and there were several questions still lingering in his mind. He wanted to provide freshly cooked customised food to his customers. Khan says that he would collect information related to the personality traits of various breeds, allergies that a particular breed is prone to, lifestyle, habits, etc before customising the food for a particular breed.

“I started making food from my home kitchen and fed stray dogs to put it through test! They liked it and I took the next step of distributing free samples to the dog owners from the database I had created earlier,” he says. “In the first month itself, I got around 35 confirmed customers elevating my aspirations and there has been no looking back since then,” recollects Khan. A dog is indeed a man’s best friend and when it comes to business, it can also be a man’s best bet!

Playing with fire

Ancient India was full of mysterious people who walked on fire, broken glass pieces and climbed ropes. But how would you feel if someone, in today’s world boasts of teaching you to walk on fire and broken glass pieces? Perplexed? This is exactly what Priya Kumar specialises in.

She always wanted to do what others never dared to try! “I never saw a point in attempting something everyone could do,” says Kumar. She feels that there isn’t any point in being ‘just another ordinary person’. Kumar was in Malaysia when she first heard about a fire-walking workshop and ended up enrolling for one. She was moved with the art to such an extent that she attended numerous workshops after that. “I was scared to try it the first time but eventually gave in to the adventure.

There were times during the sessions when my feet got burnt and there were times when they didn’t. I couldn’t understand the reason behind and hence, to understand the mystery, I attended the subsequent workshops as well. The organiser of the workshop was so startled by my dedication that he offered me to be his helper in conducting the workshop,” Kumar adds.

The idea of adding a corporate touch to the fire-walk occurred to her when she was attending a few workshops in Amsterdam. “I thought of starting a ‘Corporate Fire-walking Movement’ and it’s been two years since its inception,” says Kumar. She teaches fire-walking to liberate the corporates from unfocussed approach and make them understand the importance of discipline in their professional careers.

“The targets which seemed outrageous when announced by their bosses felt doable post the walk!” she says. Kumar has been fire-walking for the past five years and says that situations around us are the same, only perspectives differ. And the fire-walk is a novel idea to teach the corporate that important lesson!

Space explorations

Raju Patel, 53, is an ace telescope manufacturer since 1978, which means, in his own words that “99 percent of the telescopes sold in India are mine”! Astronomy was a cherished hobby passed on to him by his father. Patel was all of 20 when he made his first telescope right in the comfort of his home.

He wasn’t an academic person and with an insufficient score to get admission in any college, he joined Sir JJ School of Arts. “I enrolled myself for a photography course and passed it with a first class,” says Patel. He was interested in sky photography but did not have the money to buy a telescope. That’s when he thought of manufacturing small telescopes and selling them.

He eventually bought himself an American telescope. “I developed an instant liking towards manufacturing telescopes and couldn’t stop myself after that,” he says. But the sailing hasn’t been smooth for him. He was taking care of the travel agency which his grand-father started and was manufacturing telescopes alongside. “I quit being a travel agent after 18 years for the sake of astronomy. Astronomy has always been my passion,” he adds.

Patel says that being a non-engineer has been a major disadvantage for him. “One has to be technologically sound to manufacture a telescope and that is exactly where I fell short. It took me a laborious one year to manufacture my first telescope. I did not get any help from anywhere and had only two American books as my reference on how to make telescopes,” he says. But manufacturing telescope was his calling and Patel continues to do the same with penchant and dedication.

‘Different’ was the only word in their dictionary and ‘impossible’ had no place. With a will to make a difference in their lives, they ventured into territories where no one dared. And today, for these three individuals, there is no looking back!