The Fourteen Idli Annachi is no more!

Given his misgivings people might raise eyebrows on a tribute to a man convicted for life imprisonment for murder and died a few days into his sentence.

For me he is a man who revolutionized vegetarian food in Madras. A kind of disruptor in his business almost 3 decades back.

Madras was famous for its Dosas, Idlis and other delicacies primarily dished out by all the ‘Vilases’ and dominated by the Udipi restaurants serving filter kaapis. The sad point was the kaapis were served with a couple of fingers of the waiter dipped in it and the idlis were served by the same hands. The cutlery was predominantly made up of highly dented and beaten up sheen less stainless steel plates and serving dishes.

Then Annachi happened… and he focused on the most important ingredient in any restaurants recipe for success and that was cleanliness which was missing all along in the industry. Cleanliness was confined to the Five Star rated restaurants or the second tier restaurants, frequented by the celebrities.

He employed revolutionary management techniques that were well ahead of its times.  A very distinct one comes to memory. You sit peacefully having a meal in one of their outlets and suddenly have burly bouncer looking men dressed in Full Black or in White shirt and khaki pants alighting from a Maruti Omni and rushing in and landing on your table and pick up, what was in your opinion a spotlessly clean glass and shouting aloud why the Glass wasn’t properly washed. You can call it a gimmick but I call it a very successful Management Technique since if I can recall that incident almost 3 decades later, that definitely left an impression in every other customer present there including me and prompting us to revisit Saravana Bhavan for its focus on cleanliness.

As a friend correctly mentioned, he kind of McDonaldised Vegetarian food in Madras. He came up with innovative dishes, predominant among them were the Fourteen Idlis.  He did this when the whole world knew of idlis that were made of a particular diameter, he reduced its diameter and called it mini idlis and made 14 of it and made them float in sambar.  Though down the line as inflation caught up and many competitors came up with versions called Floating Idli in which the numbers of idlis were less than fourteen. This in turn made the makers of the Stainless steel Idli moulds to reduce their diameters too and cater to an entirely new market for mini idlis.

If this was not disruptive what else is?

RIP Annachi and thank you for entertaining our taste buds all these years.