Dharwad, 03 January (HS): Purushottam Madikar owns the Madikar Taila firm renowned in Dharwad for traditionally extracted edible oils or a cold-pressed variety of multiple oils becomes categorical when it comes to leading a healthy life devoid of allopathic medicines for health disorders like hypertension and blood sugar. He vehemently argues against using these four 'enemies' of the modern age.
Thanks to Rajiv Dixit: Purushottam Madikar, who had previously ventured into several lucrative businesses, plunged into the oil field thanks to Rajiv Dixit's influence. The late Rajiv Dixit created ripples in the last decade of the previous century through his 'Azadi Bachao Andolan', the organization he founded. It made a vociferous attempt to take the multinational companies in the FMCG sector, head-on. He was immensely influenced by Gandhian historian and thinker, Dharampal. Rajiv Dixit, through his newly floated outfit, launched a tirade to propagate Swadeshi economics to oust globalisation and neo-liberalism.
Give up these four things': Edwin D'souza, a senior batchmate of Basel Mission High School, retired DFO and a gentleman to the core introduced Purushottam Madikar at the sangeet ceremony of the son of Sanjeev Kulkarni, another senior batchmate of BMHS, recently. Purushottam Madikar has launched his Madikar Taila brand of oils through Swabhimani Swadeshi Kendra, following the example of his source of inspiration. He vehemently propagates-To ensure a healthy life, it is very important to give up four things in daily routine. They are refined oil, refined salt or white salt, refined sugar and dairy milk. Giving up on these four things can guarantee freeing oneself from about more than 50 per cent of ailments...
...No house without taking medicines: If, you were to conduct a study or research; it would be practically impossible to find any house where the inhabitants do not take modern drugs for whatever reasons. If you are to consume refined oil, refined salt, refined sugar and refined milk every day in the morning, then there is no way you could be free from taking tablets. And, if you intend to give up taking tablets, the only way out is to forget the four things repeatedly mentioned earlier.
Just one per cent of the population: When pondered on the reach of his products within the city, Purushottam Madikar just laughed. He gave his reasons-Let us assume that Dharwad city has a population of around eight lakhs; Forget 100 per cent, forget 50 per cent which is four lakhs, forget 25 per cent which comes to two lakhs. Just one per cent totals up to merely 8,000 and the sad predicament is that we are not able to cater to this small fraction of the population...
...Outlets on all possible directions: Everyone agrees that Madikar oils' are good, yet some of them give their reasons for not making it like complaining that the outlets are at a far distance, and so forth. To start with we launched in four directions, extended them in all eight directions and are now in a mode to set up our shops in 16 directions. Along with this all-out drive, I am also giving up franchise tie-ups as well.
Home delivery at no extra price: Edwin D'souza reminded us about the tendency of Purushottam Madikar to drive his vehicle early morning daily to reach out to the clients at their doorsteps, for which Purushottam Madikar explained-Yes, it is part of home delivery services. We extend home delivery as well and it is our motto to reach quality products at the doorsteps without charging anything extra for the same. Irrespective of the quantity indented we ensure prompt supply to the houses...
...To make a name with a little margin: Luckily, I am a well-to-do person and have no scarcity of money. Hence I am not craving huge profit from this business. The objective is to provide good-quality oil that all demand. I am at it expecting a minimum margin while the aim is to do good and earn a good name. When quizzed whether he is happy about the way his business is doing, he shot back claiming-Yes, I am happy. I am very very happy.
Tailoring to start with: Purushottam Madikar, to start with was into the tailoring profession. Later he switched over to the readymade garments sector business which he did for 35 years and it was only accidentally he got into the oil business; thanks to the influence of Rajiv Dixit. Thanks to the blessings of Rajiv Dixit and the Swamiji of Kaneri Math, he dedicated himself to the oil business. For being in an adulteration era, he thought to himself to give it a try to do his bit.
Challenging task: Purushottam Madikar admits-It was a challenging task to start with and braved it to become successful. Thanks to modernisation, all the age-old traditional craft personnel like carpenters, blacksmiths, potters, etc have all vanished. So, in this uphill task, it was making a name which mattered to me the most rather than minting money.
Corona, after two days of launching: I launched the products on the eve of Ugadi and only two days after the initial launch came Corona and immediately after two days of the launch entered the lockdown! But, there was no thought to go back and it was a Herculean task to make the sales. As it was a complete lockdown, hence, initially had to restrict myself to supplying only to close relatives, known people and friends...
...DC's letter, a shot in the arm: However, we approached the local DC and requested him to permit us to do the sales and convinced him about the quality of the essential commodity products. He obliged and gave us a letter permitting us to do the oil business. This way, we pasted his letter on the vehicle and started moving around selling the oil, recollected Purushottam Madikar.
The goal of 1,500 litres per day: Despite Corona and the complete lockdown Purushottam Madikar never gave up hope. He struggled to drive his vehicle across the city to make a success story while his incessant hard efforts paid rich dividends. Thanks to the word-of-mouth publicity, he has been able to set up eight cold-pressed oil-making units in the last five years producing around 300-500 litres of oil every day. He intends to start up another new factory and escalate the production to 1,500 litres per day. As of now, he is doing a business of around Rs 01.50-02.00 lakhs per day.
400 youths trained: He also laments at the turnaround of the ground situation in post-independent India-Before independence, there were around eight lakh small scale oil making units across the country and every village boasted of an oil mill, while almost all of them became extinct with the advent of Palm oil. As a result, all those involved in the business of making oil lost their earnings, jobs and livelihoods. Thanks to the motivation of Rajiv Dixit, I gave it a try to accomplish something in this field and have trained around 400 enthusiastic youths of whom I have been instrumental in setting up 125 cold-pressed oil-making units.
Various types of oils: Purushottam Madikar jovially remarks-These days, everybody selling oils stating that their oil is far superior to others in the market. Those selling at the rate of Rs 200 per kg also proclaim their goods to be the best. But, we don't make any claims and the buyers are eyewitnesses to our process of making oil. It is they who tell about the quality and not us. We make different types of edible oils like groundnut, safflower, coconut, sunflower, white gingelly, black gingelly, linseed and niger. Apart from these we also make Neem and Castor oil also.
Hindusthan Samachar / Manohar Yadavatti
