Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Helped by a 'Halwaii'

In these last few years of creating and managing Internet products, I usually had a tough time explaining my 'work' to people and friends in general. Internet is, still to a majority of people, nothing more than Email and Chat. However a lot of kids would tell you that they know Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia.
I might sound like I live in a far off village somewhere in the Himalayas, but no, I am in New Delhi and that too in the heart of the city in South Delhi, however the setting is a mix of modern day apartments and an adjoining semi-urban residential colony.
Last evening, everything changed! Thanks to the neighbourhood Halwaii (sweet shop owner).
I was at Madhuvan Sweets to buy Kadai Paneer to have it for dinner. It usually takes 10 minutes to get it packed, so I was just standing idle waiting for my food to arrive. I heard the shop owner talk to another person, and was immediately drawn near as I heard the word 'Search'.
Bunty (the shop-owner) was expressing his inability to find a machine for producing 'Vark'. Vark is a thin silver foil that is edible and is used to decorate traditional Indian sweets. He said he had searched and explored all resources on the Internet. I became even more interested and as I thought I can really contribute, I suggested him a few sites like Globalsources, but he knew it all.
With people like Bunty looking at Internet as a utility, people like Praveen can enjoy the 'Kadai Paneer' and have a 'Rasmalai' too!!