“Stick to what you know. Never lose your confidence and compromise on quality of work”, says Patricia Narayan, the FICCI Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2010. The owner of a chain of restaurants called “Sandeepha” in India, Patricia’s life has been a perfect example of the “rags to riches” story.
Born to a conservative Christian family, Patricia was always a passionate cook. Her marriage came as a struggle to her, with her husband being an alcoholic, a drug-abuser and a wife-beater. Moving away from her husband was one of the most difficult tasks that Patricia had to do. Staying on the Marina Beach at Mumbai, with two very young childrenwith her, Patricia gathered the courage of starting out on her own. Selling tea, coffee and other eatables on her mobile cart gave her the courage to break-in as an entrepreneur. After putting in endless hours of work, Patricia managed to gather around Rs 20000 a month with her mobile cart. One thing led to the other and Patricia was offered to run a canteen at the Slum Clearance board office where she witnessed a roaring business. Widely popular, she contacted the Sangeetha restaurant group, where she managed to get a partnership in one of their units. Destiny played truant against her as she lost her daughter in a road-accident. Witnessing a cold behavior by the ambulance operators for the dead body of her loved one, Patricia decided to help others in need. She now keeps a private ambulance on that very spot, which helps people in need to reach to the hospital on time. Though shattered, Patricia did not deter from her goal and went on to start her own chain of restaurants, called “Sandeepha”, in her daughter’s memory.
An awe-inspiring story of heroism, Patricia Narayan is a motivation to many who wish to pursue what they believe in. With a smile on her face in whatever she did, Patricia faced all odds of the male-dominated world and stopped @ nothing, to become what she is today.
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