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Name: Mushafiq Gulzar Semester: 5 Semester: Department: Management Studies

Javid Parsa struggled to find his purpose after abandoning engineering studies and interior design. He worked for Amazon in Hyderabad but felt drawn to return home to Kashmir. In 2014, he resigned from Amazon and opened a fast food outlet called Kathi Junction in Srinagar, serving kathi rolls which he enjoyed in Dehradun. Despite facing challenges like strikes and mockery from his village, the outlet became popular particularly among youth who came for its affordable food and Kashmiri culture. Parsa used social media instead of advertisements to promote the brand and get customer feedback. Eight months later, Kathi Junction has been successful in providing a local experience and redefining Kashmiri culture, leading P

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147 views4 pages

Name: Mushafiq Gulzar Semester: 5 Semester: Department: Management Studies

Javid Parsa struggled to find his purpose after abandoning engineering studies and interior design. He worked for Amazon in Hyderabad but felt drawn to return home to Kashmir. In 2014, he resigned from Amazon and opened a fast food outlet called Kathi Junction in Srinagar, serving kathi rolls which he enjoyed in Dehradun. Despite facing challenges like strikes and mockery from his village, the outlet became popular particularly among youth who came for its affordable food and Kashmiri culture. Parsa used social media instead of advertisements to promote the brand and get customer feedback. Eight months later, Kathi Junction has been successful in providing a local experience and redefining Kashmiri culture, leading P

Uploaded by

Mu Sha Fiq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NAME : MUSHAFIQ GULZAR

SEMESTER : 5TH SEMESTER

DEPARTMENT : MANAGEMENT STUDIES

TOPIC : SUCEESFULL BUSINESSPERSON/ENTREPRENEUR

ASSIGNMENT ON : JAVID PARSA (KATHI JUNCTION)

SUBMITTED TO : “MUBASHIR BABA” SIR

SUBMITTED ON : 09-MAR-2020
Engineering confused him, designs disillusioned him before business
completed him. And today, a Bandipora boy is successfully running a fast
food hangout in Srinagar. Saima Rashid reports the journey of the junction
and its food jockey

Javid Parsa at his fast food outlet.

The moment a lady lapping a baby steps inside the restaurant, he comes
forward – greets her with a friendly face. This seems his signature move.
Without waiting for his employees to take orders, he himself attends his
customers.

At 26, Javid Parsa – born in Bandipora and brought up between Kashmir and
Hyderabad, is the proud owner of a food outlet, Kathi Junction. But before
starting his career with eatery business, Parsa was a ‘blank-minded youth
trying to seek purpose in life’.

“It may sound funny, but I got admission in three engineering colleges in three
different cities and in three different branches, but I ended up wasting my two
years,” says Parsa. “I shortly divorced engineering!”

After parting ways with engineering, Parsa pursued his area of interest –
Interior Designing and Architecture. “During my graduation,” he says,
“management subject interested me a lot. With the result, I excelled in this
subject.”

But like a typical restless youth, Parsa grew disillusioned with Interior
Designing. He then moved to Hyderabad where he opted for MBA in project
management and human resource from Maulana Azad National University
(MANU). In the university, Parsa rose to become the first Kashmiri student to
be elected as general secretary of MANU’s student union.

“While doing MBA, Amazon took me as an intern and later on appointed me


as FBA specialist,” Parsa says. “I was making good money there, even if I was
doing nothing, still one lakh salary was coming along monthly, a feeling of
going back home was getting stronger.” But he needed a strong reason for
homecoming.

For the next eight months, Parsa would often sit to type a resignation letter,
but couldn’t tender his resignation on face of prevailing uncertainty. The
deadlock finally broke on May 15, 2014 when he resigned from Amazon to
start his own food outlet in Srinagar.

But back home, it was no cakewalk for this Bandipora boy. “Strikes,
shutdowns and other clampdown tactics made me reckon that I have to
overcome big bottlenecks before banking on my business. It was such a hard
time,” he says, “But then I was reminded of my favourite quote: ‘One life, live
it.’ So, like a man I took struggling shots on my chin.”

However, taking shots and making the ‘mare go’ are two different things. He
was still elusive about the thing he wanted to start in Srinagar. It was then a
flash ran through his mind: “I had spent most of my life in Dehradun and was
fond of Kathi Rolls there. It was then I thought why not to start the same
outlet in Kashmir.”

He then set the date with his new destiny on September 9, 2014. But to his
woes, the devastating deluge drowned the valley. A month later, Parsa finally
had his ribbon-cut moment of his Kathi Junction outlet in Srinagar’s Sarah
City Centre Mall.

After taking off, he apparently had a bumpy journey with many discouraging
him in his endeavour. Fierce flak followed. “People in my village would mock
me, saying: ‘So, you went outside just to learn how to cook Biryani!’ But then I
shrugged off all cynicism as I enjoyed lot of support.”
Amid pot-shots and praises, Parsa stood unfazed and continued working to
spread a positive word about his food outlet. Without spending sum on
advertisements, he ‘smartly used’ social networking sites, particularly
Facebook to promote his brand. He used the medium to interact and get the
feedback from public.

Eight months later, Kathi Junction has become a favourite hangout for people,
especially youth. “Kids celebrate their birthdays here,” Parsa continues. “You
see, the main motto of my food outlet is to provide an affordable food, home
like feelings, connecting them with Kashmiri culture through music and
language.” To maintain a local effect, he says, he has directed his staff to speak
in Kashmiri language.

A unique feature of Parsa’s food outlet is the compilation of comments on a


comment board written by visitors. “Redefining Kashmiriyat in its own way.
All the best,” writes Ankit from Hyderabad. “You may be rolled down by the
taste of Kathi Rolls,” writes a guest from Jammu.

After his successful ‘rolling’ stint, Parsa is now eyeing to open similar outlets
in South Kashmir and in other rural areas. Today, the erstwhile employee
of Amazon is quite amazingly having a rolling ride with his outlet. Perhaps
being blank-minded, disillusioned and restless have its own fruition – no,
Parsa?

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