Software engineer sells furniture on pavement

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K. Dasari Anand, 26, is waiting for a call from an IT company even as he runs a fairly successful furniture business on a busy pavement of Velachery main road.

The engineering graduate from the JNTU University in Nellore hopes he would be a software engineer in a good firm before the monsoon arrives to drench his bamboo-cane joolahs (swings) and chairs.

“I finished my IT degree in April and applied to a few software firms. Rather than sitting at home till someone called, I decided to set up this pavement shop,” Anand told DC.

He had gained experience in the business having spent his annual vacations helping his father at his wayside furniture shop in T’Nagar. His brother too had a similar business at Vizag.

“I make about five hundred rupees in a day; sometimes I am luckier. I have many educated and well-to-do clients,” smiles Anand, ignoring wife Gowri’s attempts to restrain him from ‘talking so freely to a journalist’.

“Some Tamil paper wrote about our shop and the police pounced on us the next day. We had to move to another pavement”, she explained. She helps Anand in his business even while taking care of their eight-month-old son.

But is it safe to leave his wares on the pavement during the night? “I sleep here,” replied Anand.
“Gowri and kid go home in T’Nagar in the evening. Friends sometimes offer to take care at night and I go home to rest”.