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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

‘Dosa king’ dead in final chapter of rags to riches story

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New Delhi: When P Rajagopal was advised by an astrologer in 1981 to start a business, he probably had no inkling of how big his restaurant chain would become, or that he would meet a tragic end whilst serving a prison sentence for the murder of his love interest’s husband.


Rajagopal, who died of a heart attack in the prison ward of a government hospital on Thursday, started the Saravana Bhavan chain of restaurants specialising in vegetarian cuisine that same year with a single, nondescript restaurant in the southern Indian city of Chennai.


Today the chain has over 80 outlets across 21 countries. Rajagopal was born in 1947 in a mud hut in a village in Tamil Nadu which was not even on a bus route, according to his autobiography in Tamil Vetri Meedhu Aasai Veithen (I set my heart on victory).


He worked as an attendant at a grocery shop in Tamil Nadu’s capital, Chennai, formerly known as Madras.


He recognised the demand for quality fast food and took over a small restaurant that was not doing well and renamed it Saravana Bhavan, according to his autobiography.


Rajagopal’s restaurants with their limited menu of dosas and idlys —crepes and steamed cakes made of rice and accompanied by a variety of chutneys — grew exponentially over the next few decades. His two sons PR Shivakumar and R Saravanan now largely run the business.


Rajagopal’s portrait is prominently displayed in each outlet. Patrons and employees did not appear perturbed by his murder conviction by the Madras High Court in 2009, or the Supreme Court’s decision in March to uphold it.


Earlier in July, Rajagopal requested the court to delay the start of his prison sentence, citing ill health, an appeal the judges turned down.


Rajagopal surrendered to police on July 10, arriving in an ambulance with an oxygen mask strapped on his face, and was taken to the prison ward of a government hospital to begin serving his sentence.


As his health deteriorated, he was shifted to a private hospital, where he suffered a cardiac arrest and died.


According to a Madras High Court document cited by the New York Times, Rajagopal decided he wanted to marry the 20-year-old daughter of an employee in the late 1990s, possibly on the advice of another astrologer.


He was found guilty of murdering the young woman’s husband in 2001. On Thursday, large numbers of people, as usual, thronged an outlet of Saravana Bhavan in New Delhi’s Connaught Place at lunch time, unaware of his death.


Rajagopal adhered to strict quality standards at his restaurants and looked after his employees, according to an article in Outlook magazine.


By the latest count, Saravana Bhavan had over 8,000 employees across the world and a revenue of $10 million in 2017.


He gave employees free heathcare, housing, education stipends for their children and marriage funds for their daughters.


The workers called him “Annachi” or “elder brother” in Tamil. — dpa


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