Bengaluru: Arya Durga Kirani Stores, with Rukmini and Saraswati outlets, are household names for all those residing in and natives of Dharwad. It was a humble and austere beginning, dating back a few decades, thanks to hard work, sincerity, and trustworthy behaviour with customers, the business flourished and grew in leaps and bounds in an unimaginable proportion.
Started working at the age of eight years! The owner, late Gajanan Vitthal Shetti, was primarily from Ankola in the North Canara (Karwar) district. Ankola, a coastal town, is renowned for its Salt Satyagraha during the freedom struggle movement. The financial condition of Shetti's family was too critical, making it too difficult to meet even the basic demands of day-to-day life. He began working at a ration shop while he was only eight years of age and continued working until he became 15 years old.
Mahalakshmi Hotel boomerangs: Then Gajanan Vitthal Shetti came to Hubballi to do business. He came with his father, Vitthal Narayan Shetti, who started the Mahalakshmi Hotel near the Railway Station. (It is still there, and someone else is running the same.) However, heavy losses forced them to return to their native place. He remained there for 4-5 years and came to Dharwad and got a job at the Ankola Kirani Stores, one of the handful of leading grocery shops at that period of time. He worked there for about 2-3 years and did a good job, earning the confidence and respect of the people around.
A voluntary offer to take over the shop: One fine morning, and as usual, while he was working, a gentleman by the name Beedikar approached him. He owned a hardware shop in front of the Ankola Kirani Stores, which had become small due to his volume of business. As he was impressed with the honesty of Gajanan Vitthal Shetti, the former voluntarily offered him the shop if interested. The proprietor of Ankola Kirani Stores also recommended the same, stating that Gajanan Vitthal Shetti was an honest person.
Rs 200 without sureties or conditions! At that time, Jagadish Dharwadkar's classmate Sunil Hiremath's grandfather owned the premises. So, Shetti met the owner and sealed the deal with a monthly rent of Rs 20 in 1954. Although he took the shop, but had no capital to invest in starting the business. Thanks to the Gajanan Vitthal Shetti's character of unimpeachable honesty, BG Doddamani and Sarasanand Dodwad, big businessmen of that time, were gracious enough to part with Rs 200/-, which could be equivalent to the tune of today's Rs Two Lakhs. They were magnanimous enough to lend the huge amount without any sureties or conditions. This way, Gajanan Vitthal Shetti stepped into the shoes of a small businessman.
Introducing green peas to the people of Dharwad: Interestingly, Gajanan Vitthal Shetti was also forethinking and believed in taking innovative steps. So, he went to Mumbai to bring green peas, which were unheard of in Dharwad at that point in time. It goes to his credit for introducing green peas to the people of Dharwad. The business started picking up gradually in Arya Durga Kirani Stores.
Wishing for a girl child ends up with six sons! The Shetti couple craved for a girl child but ended up with six sons! However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as at one time all six brothers were working in the very small Arya Durga Kirani Stores. Gajanan Vitthal Shetti was a shrewd businessman, introducing all his children to business at a very tender age. All of them used to reach the shop in the evening after school hours and work there. In this way, all of them had their basic education, in the sense up to the PUC level.
Jagadish gets a job, and so begins the growth story: It was only Jagadish, the eldest among the six brothers, who did PUC and a Degree, after which he appeared for the Bank examination and got through it in the maiden attempt. His father advised him to take up the job in the Bank of India, as they had a dire need for financial assistance and that too very badly. Jagadish recalls: 'Our actual growth story began from here.'
Shops soon after PUC: Although Jagadish was able to complete his Degree and join the Bank of India, it was not so with the remaining five younger brothers, as Gajanan Vitthal Shetti prevailed upon continuing further. Instead, he started setting up a shop for the remaining five younger sons once they completed PUC.
In the Azad Park shopping complex: First, he opened a new shop, taking the Lakshmi Generals, earlier owned by Rangesh Shenvi, on the Azad Park Road. The latter was a dealer of Parle biscuits and other products. Next, there was a shop called 'Bombay Footwear' in the Corporation shopping complex of Azad Park, which had been vacated by its occupants. Deepak Chinchore, who was the corporator at the time, helped obtain the shop. They started the 'Saraswati Stores' from there.
First shop to sell cleaned grains in packs: Earlier, there was no concept of packaged grain products. It was the first shop in Dharwad to sell cleaned grains in a packed form along with dry fruits. Then Jagadish was working at Mahad in the state of Maharashtra, which had a concept of selling dry fruits. So, he renamed the shop as 'Saraswati Generals and Dry Fruits.' The general store was common, like any other grocery outlet, but the display of dry fruits on the nameboard was amusing to the native people, for they had not heard something like dry fruits. Some of them were even wondering what types of dry fruits are available for sale.
Figs, apricots and walnuts: Then, dry fruits in local terms only meant grapes, cashews, almonds and dates, whereas Jagadish introduced figs, apricots, walnuts and other fruits. This strategy clicked and evinced good business for the newfound products while new customers started visiting from far and wide.
Saraswati Dry Fruits, Rukmini: Another shop with the name of 'Saraswati Dry Fruits' was opened for the fifth son Pandurang Gajanan Shetti, and this shop also clicked well. The last son, Ravi Gajanan Shetti, was given another shop by the name Rukmini. He did extremely well and is now running four shops in all: Rukmini, Rukmini Generals, Rukmini Celebrations and Rukmini Utsav! Rukmini Utsav is a gift shop, and they indent items from Mumbai, and the shop is doing extremely well.
Dry fruit items in demand in the US: Every year, the typical North Karnataka cuisine, like Jowar bread and dry fruit items of Rukmini Stores, is imported by the various Kannada Associations in the United States, as such is the demand for the products. About 500 members assemble for the Houston Kannada Sangh meetings, while the catering is undertaken by the Dharwad-based Rukmini Stores, and these meetings keep happening four to five times a year.
The same zeal and enthusiasm all along: Although a small shop with just seven assistants, Ravi Shetti does a tremendous turnover daily. He is an excellent salesman in the sense, his zeal and enthusiasm remain the same when he opens the shop in the morning as well as the time of lowering the shutters at the end of the day. Generally, anyone else in his position will become tired by the evening and may prefer to retire for the day, but never ever in his case. Perhaps that characteristic happens to be his speciality and greatest asset!
Saraswati Shetty's contribution: Mrs Saraswati Shetti, wife of Gajanan Shetti, also has her imprint on the family's endeavour of doing smart business. She excelled in doing various types of chutneys, while the Appe Midi pickles prepared by her had a huge demand. While her name has been kept to the stores, so has been the name of Rukmini, Jagadish's father's mother.
No option left other than shifting the premises elsewhere: The fourth son, Subramani Shetti, was handed over the original Arya Durga shop, and he also excelled in doing very good business. Though it was in a small premises, his turnover was lakhs of rupees every day. As the volume of business was tremendously increasing, there was no option left other than shifting the premises elsewhere.
A supermarket with 50 workers: Then, Subramani Shetti set up shop at the seven guntas of land in the Saptapur residential locality. That land was purchased for Rs 27 lakhs with the help of financial assistance extended by the Bank of India. Subramani Shetti built a supermarket facility on the ground floor and rented out the premises on the first floor, fetching him a good rent. There are 50 workers in his shop now.
Number one businessman in Dharwad: He goes to the shop as early as 07 AM and goes home for lunch at around 03.30-04 PM for lunch, has rest for about an hour and again returns to the shop where he will be until 11 PM. He is a very hard worker and tough master, and has been doing extraordinary business and has been rated as the number one businessman in Dharwad now!
Rukmini, Saraswati...become household names: Thanks to the hard work of all six Shetti brothers, these days, the Rukmini, Saraswati and Arya stores have all become household names not only in Dharwad, but even in the adjoining twin city of Hubballi. Every day, about 40-50 customers come to the Rukmini Stores from Hubballi. Not only that, customers also keep coming from Belagavi, Ballari. Thanks to online services, goods are sent from Rukmini stores to Bengaluru daily. There have also been repeated requests from the North Karnataka people residing in the United States to open up a branch of Rukmini stores there!
All because of the elder brother Jagadish! The prosperity of the remaining five Shetti brothers was made possible only because of Jagadish, the eldest among them all. Jagadish, thanks to his job in the Bank of India, helped all his younger brothers to avail bank loans for investing and expanding their business ventures. He helped Ravi Shetti of Rukmini stores to borrow a loan of Rs 12 lakhs to buy four guntas of land in Sadhanakeri. These days, the price of the same land has skyrocketed to Rs 50 lakhs per gunta!
One plot and one shop to each brother: Gajanan Vitthal Shetti had advised Jagadish, the eldest son, to ensure that all the remaining five brothers purchase one plot and own one shop. And Jagadish made no mistake in enabling the same with the financial assistance of banking institutions, as none of the brothers had any capital of their own to invest in the business.
All flourished and names to reckon with: The efforts of Jagadish didn't go a waste, and instead they paid rich dividends due to the equally striving mentality of the remaining five brothers. All of them not only flourished in their individual businesses but have grown to such extraordinary heights that all their outlets have evolved into super-duper brands worthwhile enough to reckon with in the business circles.
Father's foresight shows the way forward: Thanks to the visionary foresight of Gajanan Vitthal Shetti, Jagadish's timely handholding with funds from the banks, and his down-to-earth approach, attitude, always being grounded, and not falling prey to vices and bad habits, helped the brothers in becoming success stories of their own!
Now, banks behind the Shettis: Apart from the stupendous business acumen of the Shetti brothers, their prompt dealings with financial institutions have also earned them laurels from lending companies. These days, they are flush with funds and are least bothered about borrowing, forget applying for the same. But, it is the other way round, and the banks are behind them, going by the track record of prompt payment of all previous loans.
Unity to the core: The best thing about the milestones of the Shetti brothers is that they are all united to the core. Whenever any decision needs to be taken about venturing into any business or purchasing a property, a 'general body' meeting of all the brothers is summoned, and the matter is discussed threadbare, taking into consideration the pros and cons. However, the crucial task of availing funds will be entrusted to Jagadish. That way, Jagadish says, he is ever indebted to the Bank of India.
Jagadish is held in high esteem! Jagadish remarks-'All my five younger brothers are extremely good in their business and are drawing an income to the tune of multiple lakhs per month. All my brothers hold me in high esteem. They respect me like anything, and whenever a decision is warranted, my word is final. If at all required, and if I feel like having any problem, they all just keep rushing. Not only our brothers, even their wives are equally united. Perhaps that is the best characteristic of our family ties.'
Dharwadkar remains only with Jagadish: It may sound amusing that only Jagadish, the eldest son and Sunil, the second son's name that ends with the 'Dharwadkar' surname, while all four younger brothers' names end with the family surname, Shetti. When quizzed, Jagadish recalled, "My father somehow avoided the surname Shetti while admitting me and my younger brother Sunil to the school. Perhaps, he forgot to make the same changes with my brothers".
Hard work will definitely yield good results: To sum up in a nutshell, Jagadish tells, ' There is no alternative to hard work for success, and there is no reason why success will not oblige by doing hard work. One will definitely succeed through hard work, but the interest should not be short-lived. You just need to keep doing hard work without even expecting good results, which, anyway, is assured after a point in time. At the same time, we also need to be forethinking on the turnaround of the situation and conditions later"
16 guntas of prime land! To drive home the point of thinking ahead of time, he narrated an incident involving his father's foresight- ' Our father's one pigmy account got matured, yielding a total of Rs 8,500/-Then he bought 16 guntas of land near the Kalaghatagi Toll Naka when the cost of one gunta was Rs 500/-. It was in 1965. He gave four-four guntas to his brothers and four guntas to me, and my portion came towards the main road itself! Now the same plot's value is to the tune of crores together.'
Don't ditch: Jagadish signed off by saying, " My father always used to say, be honest, hard working and don't ever think of cheating anyone. He also stressed not withholding any payments to the vendors. Instead of keeping balance and waiting for the subsequent day/s, he used to insist on making the payment as and when the goods were delivered. This gesture is also used to have a positive impact on the suppliers with competitive prices and no one should question your credibility."
A brief of the Shetti Brothers' series of acomplishments: To sum up the remarkable accomplishments of the six Shetti Brothers, here is a glance at them:
*Jagadish Dharwadkar is the eldest among the brothers. He started working in the family-owned grocery shop when he was studying in the fourth standard and continued doing so until he completed the B.Com degree. Only after getting through the Bank examinations, and on the advice of his father, Jagadish took the job in the Bank of India and remained there in various responsible positions at several places until superannuation. Thanks to his first posting at Mahad in Maharashtra, he was frequenting Mumbai almost every week and purchased goods for the family-owned shop at Dharwad. It goes to the credit of Jagadish in introducing the MRI Cricket Rubber Ball to the cricket-loving folks of the twin cities. Introduction of clean-packed grains and dry fruits has already been mentioned. Last but not least, Jagadish takes pride in visiting the Rukmini Celebration, his youngest brother's shop, almost daily!
*Sunil Dharwadkar, the second brother, opted for a different path altogether. He also worked at the family-owned Arya Durga Kirani Stores for about 20 years. However, he preferred to switch over to a different type of business. He had become a Class-1 contractor and shifted to the neighbouring twin city of Hubballi. There, he founded a Shell grit powder company to cater to the huge demand for poultry feed. He is well settled with enough good contacts in the business and social circles in and around Hubballi. He is liberal and generous enough in helping all his younger brothers in settling and expanding their business ventures.
*Ramdas Shetti had been a hard worker at the family-owned Arya Durga Kirani Stores, and his foremost duty was to keep the shop clean and tidy, apart from indenting the required goods every now and then. Thanks to the commitment to his assigned duties, he is now well settled and happened to do a roaring business with the Laxmi General Stores. However, he has rented out the same and moved out to the SDM campus. Veerendra Heggade, Dharmadhikari of the Dharmasthala shrine, voluntarily let out a shop, moved by his plesant manners. Interestingly, he is doing a very good turnover even in the newly set up shop there. Prashant Shetti, his equally enterprising and multi talented son is also shouldering the responsibilities.
*Subramanya Shetti's stint with the family-owned Arya Durga Kirani Stores has been for more than 30 years! A strategically talented businessman, he dreamt of indulging in business in a big way to evolve into the Numero One businessman of the city and has been successful in making his dream come true. He launched the Aarya Super Bazaar, a supermarket in the prestigious Saptapur locality. He is very quality-conscious, taking the customer's satisfaction as a top priority, which also happens to be his USP.
*Pandurang Shetti has also served with the family-owned Arya Durga Kirani Stores for more than 20 years before starting his own Saraswati Generals & Dry Fruits outlet.The credit of introducing multiple varieties of dry fruits, neatly cleaned and packed groceries to the people of Dharwad goes to him. He is inherited with an amazing capacity of calculating on par with the speed of a calculator. Not only that, he is also gifted with the unique quality of attending to three to four customers and that too simultaneously. Thanks to his background of hard work, today he is a well settled businessman.
Ravi Shetti, a young and dynamic businessman from Dharwad, is a well-known and respected personality in the region. Known for his down-to-earth nature and strong work ethic, his journey from humble beginnings to entrepreneurial success is nothing short of inspiring.
To begin with worked at the family-owned Arya Durga Stores: The sixth son of Gajanan Shetti, Ravi grew up in a close-knit family where values and dedication were deeply rooted. Like his elder brothers, he too worked at the family-owned Arya Durga Stores for over 20 years. While his father had envisioned a medical career for him, hoping to see him become a doctor, Ravi had different aspirations.
To deal with happy, satisfied customers rather than those in distress: He pursued and successfully completed his Diploma in Pharmacy (D. Pharma). However, instead of opening a medical shop, Ravi chose a different path—he ventured into the condiments business. His reasoning was both simple and heartfelt: he wanted to deal with happy, satisfied customers rather than those in distress, as is often the case in the medical field.
A testament to his hard work and business acumen: With this vision, he established Rukmini General Stores, named after a figure close to his heart. His commitment to quality, service, and customer satisfaction led to rapid growth. Today, he proudly operates four thriving stores under the Rukmini brand, each serving as a testament to his hard work and business acumen.
A proud and emotional milestone for the Shetti family: Continuing the legacy of fulfilling family dreams, Ravi Shetti’s daughter, Miss Roshni Shetti, is now stepping into the world of medicine. In honour of her grandfather’s wish, she will begin pursuing MBBS this year, marking a proud and emotional milestone for the Shetti family. Ravi Shetti’s story is a beautiful blend of tradition, ambition, and service—a true inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs.
-Manohar Yadavatti
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