During my stay in Alappuzha I'd stumbled across the Indian Coffee House initially thinking it was some kind of hybrid Dutch coffee shop. It wasn't, it's a chain of canteenesque cheap cafeterias that sell an extensive range of Anglo-Indian breakfasty, lunchy dishes. Intrigued, I got chatting to a waiter, then onto the manager's office, and discovered that it is run on employee friendly lines whereby the staff get a stake in the business, of which there are 53 branches in Kerala alone, as well as many more scattered throughout the country.
So on a whim and chasing a news story I left Kochi by bus and made my way for a few hours inland to well-off-the-beaten-track Thrissur to hunt down the head office for which I had an address. Checking into a hotel to the abject surprise of the staff, I dug out my best shirt, ironed it by hand, matched it up with a pair of long shorts, and headed off to the office in a tuk-tuk.
After a lengthy search we sat looking at an empty space, the building didn't even seem to exist any longer, so with disappointment I decided to carry on up to Goa to see the hippies. But on the way back to the hotel to collect my bag, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted one of the aforementioned branches, yelled at the driver to stop and wait, went in and got the new HQ address from the waiting staff. Five or six of them came out onto the street and bellowed directions at the tuk-tuk driver who seemed to be enjoying this unexpected morning adventure, and he certainly knew his town.
So on a whim and chasing a news story I left Kochi by bus and made my way for a few hours inland to well-off-the-beaten-track Thrissur to hunt down the head office for which I had an address. Checking into a hotel to the abject surprise of the staff, I dug out my best shirt, ironed it by hand, matched it up with a pair of long shorts, and headed off to the office in a tuk-tuk.
After a lengthy search we sat looking at an empty space, the building didn't even seem to exist any longer, so with disappointment I decided to carry on up to Goa to see the hippies. But on the way back to the hotel to collect my bag, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted one of the aforementioned branches, yelled at the driver to stop and wait, went in and got the new HQ address from the waiting staff. Five or six of them came out onto the street and bellowed directions at the tuk-tuk driver who seemed to be enjoying this unexpected morning adventure, and he certainly knew his town.
Ten minutes later, after a journey through Thrissur's back alleys he dropped me off outside another office building and in I went to a friendly reception, a cup of tea, and a chat with the firm's PR man. An hour or so later I was at the railway station for a long distance train north. Job done.