From living in a Mumbai slum to owning a restaurant chain in Maximum City, Hari Kotian agrees his life has definitely changed for the better. Though he still remembers the days where his mother couldn’t pay his school fees and how his father succumbed to alcoholism.
But reminiscing about the days gone by, Hari narrates how he and his brother, Prasad, rebuilt their restaurant business thanks to years of perseverance, a self help push and one of Mumbai’s favourite street foods — Pav Bhaji.
‘We didn’t have money for school fees’
Hari’s parents, Kutty and Nalini Kotai, came to Mumbai from a small village in Mangalore in the year 1950. His father had only passed Class IV and his mother was a housewife. Kutty began working as a waiter in his brother’s restaurant and saved every last penny.
In 1965, Kutty managed to start two restaurants of his own in Matunga by the name — Shree Durga Parmeshwari Bhuvan. “It was a 40-seater Udupi restaurant that served samosas, dosas,…