Kiran hardly fits the hairdresser stereotype. He is smart, talks good English and is highly knowledgeable about his clientele and the general happenings around him and the world!
I met him at his salon on a Sunday afternoon in the township where my wife presently lives in Hyderabad. He welcomed me with a warm smile and asked if I have joined GMR Airport recently, I said no but quickly added that I am a fortnightly visitor at the township. He asked me a series of questions in a manner that conveyed a certain eagerness and sincerity.
His knowledge of the airport business impressed me immediately and I said "...Kiran you are really smart and communicate so well, you are the most knowledgeable hairdresser I have come across..." to which he modestly replied that his 6th grade class teacher once asked the entire class what-do-you-want-to-do-in-life? Kiran raised his hand and said " I want to be a barber", stunned by his answer the class teacher asked why, standing in front of the entire class, he replied , that was his family profession and his father will be pleased if he continued. Touched by his honesty and innocence the teacher asked the entire class to applaud. That incident left a deep impression in me for life and has only strengthened my resolve to never abandon this profession no matter what else I pursue later in life, said Kiran.
Kiran's life and story is that of a man with a village-simplicity, directness, steely resolve, pride and loads of self-motivation.
Hailing from Shamshabad a non-descript and not-so-sleepy village 22 kms south of downtown Hyderabad, he heard about the development of a new airport in his village in 2004-5. When he saw L& T arrive with a workforce of 2500+ people for a project spread over 36 months, Kiran identified a great opportunity for himself and his family. He approached the project-director and convinced him to allot a tiny workspace at one end of the project site and struck a deal to provide hair-cutting & shaving service to this large workforce at a contracted rate Rs. 15/- per person.
With the airport operational in 2008, he approached the management of GMR with contract & recommendation letters from L&T to set-up a similar shop in the airport-taxi holding area. He told the GMR team that the 1500+ taxi drivers will need to look clean-shaven and smart to complement the world-class customer service that the airport operator promised. The rest as they say is history, he now runs a 15'*15' salon that serves the airport taxi drivers 24*7*365 (we are open on Tuesdays also!).
Some people just cannot stop, their life may have commas but no full-stops. Business-acumen and service mindedness runs vein-deep in Kiran, he next approached the township committee with a similar proposal and the result of this was the setting for my Sunday hair-cut and navaratan-tail maalish.
As the accumulated stress around my shoulder blades were slowly vanishing, I asked Kiran what he does during the weekdays - he shyly whispered that he works as an area sales executive for a leading Mumbai-based plastics company handling the sales responsibilities for Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mehboobnagar and Rangareddy districts. In these last 5 yrs he has managed to complete his MBA, marry and add 2-floors to his ancestral home in Shamshabad.
I was stunned and my throat was feeling dry unable to fully come to terms with my new HERO, who was here and now!. Very few people make such an impression with so many wonderful achievements - all of this done with 100% devotion, dedication and simplicity. No business-plan, incubation, R&D, P&L, balance-sheet, top-line, bottom-line, etcetera.
I happily handed him the township-contracted rate with the full realization that it felt much easy on my wallet than what I paid the O2 spa at the Novotel Hotel just a month before.
I met him at his salon on a Sunday afternoon in the township where my wife presently lives in Hyderabad. He welcomed me with a warm smile and asked if I have joined GMR Airport recently, I said no but quickly added that I am a fortnightly visitor at the township. He asked me a series of questions in a manner that conveyed a certain eagerness and sincerity.
His knowledge of the airport business impressed me immediately and I said "...Kiran you are really smart and communicate so well, you are the most knowledgeable hairdresser I have come across..." to which he modestly replied that his 6th grade class teacher once asked the entire class what-do-you-want-to-do-in-life? Kiran raised his hand and said " I want to be a barber", stunned by his answer the class teacher asked why, standing in front of the entire class, he replied , that was his family profession and his father will be pleased if he continued. Touched by his honesty and innocence the teacher asked the entire class to applaud. That incident left a deep impression in me for life and has only strengthened my resolve to never abandon this profession no matter what else I pursue later in life, said Kiran.
Kiran's life and story is that of a man with a village-simplicity, directness, steely resolve, pride and loads of self-motivation.
Hailing from Shamshabad a non-descript and not-so-sleepy village 22 kms south of downtown Hyderabad, he heard about the development of a new airport in his village in 2004-5. When he saw L& T arrive with a workforce of 2500+ people for a project spread over 36 months, Kiran identified a great opportunity for himself and his family. He approached the project-director and convinced him to allot a tiny workspace at one end of the project site and struck a deal to provide hair-cutting & shaving service to this large workforce at a contracted rate Rs. 15/- per person.
With the airport operational in 2008, he approached the management of GMR with contract & recommendation letters from L&T to set-up a similar shop in the airport-taxi holding area. He told the GMR team that the 1500+ taxi drivers will need to look clean-shaven and smart to complement the world-class customer service that the airport operator promised. The rest as they say is history, he now runs a 15'*15' salon that serves the airport taxi drivers 24*7*365 (we are open on Tuesdays also!).
Some people just cannot stop, their life may have commas but no full-stops. Business-acumen and service mindedness runs vein-deep in Kiran, he next approached the township committee with a similar proposal and the result of this was the setting for my Sunday hair-cut and navaratan-tail maalish.
As the accumulated stress around my shoulder blades were slowly vanishing, I asked Kiran what he does during the weekdays - he shyly whispered that he works as an area sales executive for a leading Mumbai-based plastics company handling the sales responsibilities for Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mehboobnagar and Rangareddy districts. In these last 5 yrs he has managed to complete his MBA, marry and add 2-floors to his ancestral home in Shamshabad.
I was stunned and my throat was feeling dry unable to fully come to terms with my new HERO, who was here and now!. Very few people make such an impression with so many wonderful achievements - all of this done with 100% devotion, dedication and simplicity. No business-plan, incubation, R&D, P&L, balance-sheet, top-line, bottom-line, etcetera.
I happily handed him the township-contracted rate with the full realization that it felt much easy on my wallet than what I paid the O2 spa at the Novotel Hotel just a month before.
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