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Tuesday,June16,2009
ABYTE OF LIFE
MADE IN CHENNAI
Ambika Appalam Depot
FREE CIRCULATION
Vol. 3No. 111
02
SOCIAL ENGINEER
21-year-old Lalitha Ramesh runs Maatrutva, an NGO that not only collects funds for theneedy but also ensures that every penny is well spent. Anusha Parthasarathy reports.
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PAGE 03
 
ERGO
Tuesday,June16,2009
NAMMA CHENNAI
02
Celebrate France weekend
The Alliance Francaise is playing host to a week-long festival of movies.Fete de la Musique is celebrated yearly with a festival of movies that aremusical and where music is celebrated. For details call 2827 9803/28271477.
 T
heir appalams have alwaysbeen a part of the traditionalmeal in most households andtheir
paruppu
and sambarpowders have become a hit over the years. Ambika Appalam Depot isone brand that has carved a niche innamma Chennai, and in two dec-ades they will complete diamond jubilee.
Dawn of a business
It all started in a humble way inthe early 1920s. K.A.Velayudham’sfather came to Madras from Thris-sur to earn his livelihood, where hestarted by making 
papadams 
at hisresidence.“My grandfather passed away inearly 40s and hence my father Ve-layudham took over the business atthe age of 17,” says K.V. Sukumar,the third generation who runs thebusiness along with his brother Vi- jayaraghavan.“In Chennai, appalam was pop-ular amongst the masses and my fa-ther wanted his business to grow.He soon rented a 50 sq ft shop inMadavan Nair Street and startedselling about 10 to 15 bundles of ap-palams daily.”In 1945, Velayudham moved toNorth Mada Street in Mylapore andnamed the shop after Goddess Am-bika. In two years time, Ambika Ap-palam Depot’s second outletopened on Usman Road.“In mid-1960s, the goddess trade-mark was registered and my fathergot a proprietorship. This is whenhe started to export to various cities– Bombay, Delhi, Pondicherry, Jam-shedpur, Trichy, Madurai andCoimbatore. On a mutual under-standing, for easy administrationand sharing of profits, I took care of the business in the southern beltand my brother was in charge of theexports to various cities,” says Su-kumar. What started of with justfour people increased to 300, com-prising all relatives assisting them.
Ups and downs
However, the unit did face somechallenges. “There was a labourstrike in the early 70s and the unit was closed down for about two years. While some labourers gotscattered into other trades, a few started making appalams from theirhomes. We restarted by buying ap-palams from them and soon got ourown manufacturing unit at Choolai-medu. My mother was very good atmaking various cooking powders,snacks,
vadams 
and we began man-ufacturing them too,” says Vijaya-raghavan.
Marketing
Their first medium of advertising  was the radio in 1975. With thebusiness getting better, shopsopened under the brand of Ambika Appalam Depot in Adyar, T. Nagar,Nanganallur, Alwarthirunagar andTriplicane, with the latest being onC.P. Ramaswamy Road. With requests coming from cus-tomers the depot also started stock-ing provisions and groceries fromthe late80s. With their thinking caps con-stantly on, they launched an instant
semia payasam
and health drink powder having 27 ingredients andvarious flavours of appalams: jeera, jackfruit, tapioca, pepper and garlic.“We plan to rename our outlets to Ambika Super Store in a couple of months as ours is now a one-stop-store selling all that one needs torun a kitchen,” adds Sukumar. What makes their appalams dif-ferent is the taste and freshness.“We use grade-A urud daal andavoid preservatives to retain theoriginal taste. Maximum produc-tion happens during the summersand we stock our appalams for theentire year,” says Vijayaraghavan.They plan to start e-business intheir website that was created in1996.
■
 Made in Chennai is a column that showcases the evolution of home- grown busines 
This appalam company  started in a humble way in the 1920s, has today branched out to over half-a-dozen outletsin namma Chennai 
DEEPA VENKATRAMAN
Time Line
 1920
Velayudham’s fathercomes to Chennai to startpapadam business
 1940
1st shop opens onMadhavan Narayana Street,Mylapore
 1945
2nd shop at NorthMada, Mylapore
 1966
Velayudham getsproprietorship and the brandis registered
 1975
First ad on the radioand many stores opened inthe following years
 1996
Website is created
Taking business forward: (From left)Velayudham, Vijayaraghavan andSukumar.
PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN
 All the way from Thrissur
 
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
03
M
aatrutva’s
modus operandi 
is unlike your usual NGO.Though the intent is thesame – providing basicamenities and uplifting the poor –the means used in attaining thesegoals are on a different tangent. Per-haps this is because it is being run by a 21-year-old girl.Lalitha Ramesh, an Engineering graduate, began Maatrutva knowing  well that donating funds to deserv-ing orphanages wouldn’t really make a difference because there were no accounts on how the funds were used. So, she decided to pool ina group of friends to ascertain exact-ly what the needs of orphans are.Though Maatrutva – sanskrit for‘motherhood’ – officially came intobeing February this year, it was afterthree months of groundwork and re-search to make sure the work they did would make a difference in thelives of a few. Gathering a few volun-teers, who later became members of the team, Lalitha set out to differentorphanages and, with or without theconsent of official authorities there,interacted with the children aboutthe facilities and made a list of thingsthat weren’t provided to them.“When we approached ashrams tointeract with the children some letus but most didn’t. They were rudeand didn’t want us to interact with-out supervision. But we managed to work our way through them with afew white lies. The kids were pretty expressive about their problems andquite ready to tell us what they need-ed. We were shocked to find out thatsome of them didn’t even havetoothbrushes and had to share withothers over a period of many years. And we came to realise how little of the funds that were given were ac-tually used to help the kids,” Lalithaexplains. After they drew up a list, they be-gan to gather volunteers, doctors,professors and donors to help themout with their tasks. And they makesure no funds reach the orphanagesdirectly and provide for the kids inthe form of textbooks, clothes andother kind. And they don’t stopthere. Periodic visits are made tothese orphanages to make sure thematerials reach the target people.Maatrutva will also be teaming  with Chennai-based music band Ra-diance, who will be releasing theirsecond music album next month.“Our band was thinking of oursecond venture when Maatrutva ap-proached us for a tie-up. We knew the cause was genuine and our work  wouldn’t go vain and hence accept-ed the deal. All proceeds from ourupcoming album,
Pudhu Yugam
, will go directly into Maatrutva’sfunds. This way we know we are do-ing our bit for society,” Jayanth, amember of Radiance, says. Accord-ing to Lalitha, Maatrutva would beusing the proceeds to fund educa-tion of underprivileged children andset up a library for the poor.Maatrutva has carved a niche foritself in the four months that it’sbeen around. Though the team didhave difficulty convincing people todonate in the beginning, word of their work has spread around andbrought more volunteers, willing tohelp.“We have many plans but needsome support from whoever can of-fer it, to make them real,” Lalithainsists.To contact Maatrutva mail them atcontactmaatrutva@gmail.com orcontact Lalitha at 9952969058.
■
 21-year-old LalithaRamesh beganMaatrutva as anNGO that would not just donatemoney to thedeserving but also see to it that every  penny counts
ANUSHA PARTHASARATHY
anushaparthasarathy@hotmail.com
 A social engineer
“We wereshocked to findout that someof them didn’teven havetoothbrushesand had toshare withothers over aperiod of manyyears. And wecame to realisehow little ofthe funds thatwere givenwere actuallyused to helpthe kids”
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