At age 13, after failing an examination, Jayaram Banan left his home in Udupi district, Karnataka, and boarded a bus to Mumbai with little money and no clear idea of what lay ahead. His journey would eventually take him from washing dishes for Rs 18 a month to building Sagar Ratna, a South Indian restaurant chain with annual revenue of nearly Rs 180 crore.
Banan's first job was washing dishes at the Hindustan Organic Chemicals (HOC) canteen in Panvel, Navi Mumbai, for Rs 18 a month. At the time, many people from Udupi were moving to Mumbai in search of work, and the city's Udupi restaurants and canteens provided employment to many of them.
Banan gradually moved up the ranks, from washing dishes to serving customers and eventually becoming a waiter, head waiter and manager. He spent eight years at HOC, earning about Rs 200 a month by the end of his stint.
The experience gave him more than a livelihood. It exposed him to the day-to-day workings of the food business, including purchasing, kitchen operations, customer service and managing staff.
His first entrepreneurial idea was to open a South Indian restaurant in Mumbai. But he eventually dropped the plan after concluding that the city already had too many such establishments.