#78 - Notes on Railways, Shawarmas and Music
Education Coffee is a Newsletter on People, Ideas and Culture.
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share some inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. In upcoming editions, I will focus on sharing insights, notes and realizations that I gather from people, ideas, books, films and podcasts. This month I have taken up a #30DaySubstackChallenge. I want to challenge myself to write a newsletter everyday for the next thirty days. I have really enjoyed writing this newsletter and this is a way for me to build my skill set as a newsletter writer. I will go back to writing a 2xWeekly Newsletter in January 2025.
1. Learning from People
On Episode 34 of #LearningStories we chat with Goutham Jayaprakash. Goutham is an Entrepreneur who co-founded Just Shawarma and Just X. Goutham grew up in Bahrain. He then moved to Bengaluru to complete his Bachelor in Commerce degree from Christ University. He also pursued a Chartered Accountancy qualification simultaneously. However he was always interested in Business because of his grandfather's stories that he had heard over the years. In 2014, he co-founded a quick service restaurant brand called Just Shawarma with his friends from college. Now the company is called Just X, where they are focusing on building multiple brands in the QSR industry. He loves playing badminton and cricket in his free time. We chat about shawarmas, finance, marketing, culture and the role of customer feedback in this insightful discussion.
Here are some notes from the episode:
University or College years can be a great time and place to find like minded people and to engage with challenging new ideas.
Solving problems you or your friends face is a great way to find great business ideas.
You can take ideas that work in one country and implement them in a new country with some contextual research and modifications.
Customer complaints are an opportunity and an important data point for you to improve your product or service offering.
Culture is something you have to live on a day to day basis as founders and core team members.
2. Learning from Ideas and Questions
I wanted to share some notes on #customerservice in this post. I recently got an opportunity to use the Vande Bharat train service by the Indian Railways in India. I have travelled around India on trains a lot and can easily say this was my best experience up to date.
Vande Bharat is a medium-distance superfast express service operated by Indian Railways. It is a reserved, air-conditioned chair car service connecting cities that are less than 800 km apart or take less than ten hours to travel with existing services. The first service was introduced in February 2019. By December 2023, about 35 trains were operational. As of 16 September 2024, 66 Vande Bharat trains are in service, which includes 18 sixteen-car services, 3 twenty-car service and 45 eight-car services. You can find data about their service here. Here are some notes on the trip.
Cost - This was conveniently priced at Rs 1000 to Rs 1500 for a six hour AC journey between two cities. This cost included a free newspapers, a free bottle of water , two cups of tea and one free meal. This was a good price point when you make comparisons to bus, car and flight costs.
Comfort - The seats were comfortable and had bottle holders, leg support, table for food feature, incline for rest feature, personal lights. There were large windows to see the awesome views on display between the cities. Train travel is the best way to see a country according to me.
Cleanliness - The washrooms and common walking areas were quite clean and well maintained on the trip. It would get harder to keep it clean in the second half of the trip mainly because of customer negligence. But there were air fresheners, liquid soap dispensers, toilet paper and sufficient walking space in these common areas too.
Communication - The staff were polite and courteous throughout the trip. They were easy to access. They were prompt with their service and cleared tables and spaces when needed. There were separate individuals assigned for different role like food, ticket checking and cleanliness.
As a consumer I would highly recommend this service and would use the same service the next time as well. I think it is easy to points out all the wrongs as a consumer. But I think a pat on the back goes a long way and I wanted the thank the Indian Railways for this amazing recent travel experience.
3. Learning from Books, Websites and Blogs
David Nicholls is the author of my favourite romantic fiction book titled, One Day. He talks about how he writes books and how it differs from writing for films.
4. Learning from Films, Videos and Shows
Here is my reaction to the recent CRED Advertisement in the #ADtalk series. #ADTalk is a Youtube series where I share my reaction to popular Indian advertisements. In this video advertisement, they use sarcasm and mock our fascination with gold medals at the Olympics in this video. I think it is a really clever advertisement and also throws light on how celebrities are used to sell products or services to customer.
5. Learning from Podcasts and Music
How do you find good music? I love these recommendations from Surel Ingale (a music producer from Mumbai) about how he curates playlists and listens to new artists. Here is my Spotify playlist with my favourite songs that I listen to regularly on loop. Do you have any song recommendations. Send me a song at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com
Thank you for reading this edition of #EducationCoffee. I look forward to writing weekly editions of this newsletter this year. I hope to continue to share resources that will add value to your life. You can also review the archive of Education Coffee for free at this link (77 past newsletters).
Please do send me your thoughts and resources on any edition of this newsletter through email at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com, Linkedin or Twitter. You can find my work online at this website. If you would like to read pieces in the future please do consider subscribing to this newsletter by clicking the button below. I love taking these discussions forward on those platforms and look forward to hearing your feedback.
Abhishek Shetty