This friend of mine Dr. Ramdev was of a different sort. In the early 1970s he was a rather sharp and enterprising fellow of about 22 years who had just graduated with a degree in dentistry from Bangalore. He founded a dental clinic and named it 'Aryadanta Dental Clinic' in a small premises taken on rent in a business locality of Bangalore called Sajjan Rao Circle. He was from the middle-middle classes and as a result found it very tough to arrange for the wherewithal to start his practice. He somehow convinced another friend of his who went by the name Shiva and happened to be affluent and had quite a lot of funds and was interested in investing his money in some business. Dr. Ramdev convinced Mr. Shiva to start a business that supplies dental equipment and that both of them could be partners with Dr. Ramdev giving the know-how of the business and Mr. Shiva investing the funds. So both of them in a partnership buy a whole lot of stuff from dental equipment wholesalers at wholesale rates and set up a shop in the premises of Mr. Shiva and call it 'Brokentooth Dental Suppliers' (to wit). Dr. Ramdev has essentially got them to buy stuff that he would be needing over the next few years as Shiva is totally ignorant of the dental business and is rather unaware of what moves fast and what margins of profit are involved. Shiva imagines that Ramdev would advise him adequately from time to time in the business as a sort of goodwill in friendship. So we have that Dr. Ramdev of 'Aryadanta Dental Clinic' places an oral order with 'Brokentooth Dental Suppliers' to supply some dental equipment to 'Aryadanta Dental Clinic' on a credit basis. The material is supplied without any proof of delivery and some time later when Shiva asks Dr. Ramdev for the payment from Aryadanta Dental Clinic for the equipment and material he has supplied, Ramdev defaults on the payment over such a long period of time that Shiva considers filing a suit in a court. Ramdev manages to convince Shiva that his intentions were not to cheat after all, and if he has the audacity to presume such inconceivable things in a close friendship, why, he was willing to buy him off in the partnership. Shiva tries his best to sell off as much of the remaining material that is lying with 'Brokentooth Dental supplies but Dr. Ramdev just handles the pricing for the material and the clientele looking for the merchandise in such devious ways that they just cannot find a suitable client to buy the material. Finally, tiring of the whole sordid experience, Shiva sells off his partnership in the business to Dr. Ramdev at a throwaway price.
It was after this deal that another friend of mine, let us say Dr. Suresh, who just graduated as a dentist, sought to place an order for a brand new dentist chair and drill with 'Brokentooth...' Dr. Ramdev inveigled this raw new dentist Dr. Suresh to pay a hefty sum for the equipment he required and supplied a second-hand set of equipment that he just purchased at just the right time from another dentist who was selling off his equipment in order to migrate to the USA.
When Dr. Suresh realised that he was grossly overcharged and supplied inferior second-hand equipment to boot, he complained bitterly to Dr. Ramdev
"What a sad thing Ram! You even cheated a man who totally trusted you!!"
"If you don't cheat a man who trusts you, can you possibly ever conceive of cheating a man who doesn't trust you?!" he replied tersely.
The next post will have more about the way he advertised his practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment