NOVEL NEXT Chapter 546: Kaak Roti 2
Matheen and Masthan returned home with troubled expressions on their faces; they were now stuck with a dilemma.
"Brother, should we still continue with our plan?" The first hurdle had already made Masthan hesitant. Even though he was not cowardly by nature and was very brave—considering he dared to leave his homeland and come to a foreign land for a living, he was still a person who valued stability.
In his opinion, the best way forward was to continuously expand their land, hire more workers, rent or buy more farm equipment, and gain recognition among the people of their village. After becoming familiar with the community, they could then make other plans to climb the social ladder. But the proposal made by Matheen looked very promising to him.
So, even though he would have preferred for their growth to be more stable, he agreed to his brother’s proposal and decided to give it a try after minimizing their risks to the lowest possible level.
But now, after coming back from the market administrator’s office, Masthan understood that, not to mention opening a shop, even selling the flour was not a small matter. This made his insecurities rise, and doubts about whether they were making the right move began to grow stronger.
Matheen was also disappointed since he had hoped to sell the flour they had produced and the rotis they were planning to make in the shop today. But the requirement of a company and approval by the BSO greatly stumped him.
However he was still optimistic,
"Of course, we should continue with our plan. We’ve already milled 50% of our produce this year. If we are to sell this flour and not let them go to waste, we should definitely get the required credentials."
"Didn’t the administrator uncle say that the task wouldn’t be difficult? Let’s give it a try; there’s nothing to lose anyway."
Masthan could only nod, feeling sad at the thought of all the flour they’d made going to waste.
With the decision made, Matheen immediately invited a familiar grain merchant from the local area who knew how to read and write the Bharati Language to their home. They had the merchant fill out the form and explain its contents to them.
When Matheen and Masthan emigrated to the Bharatiya Empire, they learned the national language, Bharati, assuming everyone in the empire would speak it. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. It was only after arriving in the state of Vijayanagar that they realized each state in the Bharatiya Empire had its own distinct language, with various dialects derived from it.
This left them feeling quite isolated in a society where everyone spoke Kannada.
Thankfully, both Matheen and Masthan made an effort to learn the local language, enabling them to initiate small conversations with the locals. Throughout the time they have been here, they had mostly communicated only with each other or occasionally with merchants from other states who preferred speaking in Bharati rather than Kannada.
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Now, fast-forwarding to the present day, Matheen and Masthan stood in front of a room within the Panchayat.
Uncharacteristically, Matheen, who was the bravest among the brothers and the most enthusiastic about the future, was actually second-guessing himself, constantly asking himself if it was worth it. But once again, uncharacteristically, Masthan, who had always been hesitant from the start, showed his brave side at this moment.
He simply took Matheen’s hand and bravely led him into the trade office within the Panchayat. Matheen was taken aback by the sudden pull, but after he realized what had happened, he couldn’t help but feel thankful for the support he received from his brother.
Trade offices are found all over the empire, some small, some large. Small offices are for regions where there aren’t many people using this service, and large offices are for cities where people are constantly registering companies, selling shares, privatizing state-owned companies, or similar activities.
The Panchayat Matheen and Masthan had entered was in a Panchayat located in a outskirts town of Mangaluru called Chikmangaluru, or "Small Mangaluru." Most people who establish companies do so in Mangaluru for better infrastructure, not in Chikmagaluru, where there aren’t many supporting industries and no entrepreneurial environment.
As a result, this trade office is rarely visited and remains within the Panchayat rather than having its own building.
The civil servant, Miss Lekha Chandra Shekhar, was surprised to find two young men hesitantly entering the trade office. She doesn’t get visitors that often, and in her usual time, she just helps out the Panchayat with its documents, as she doesn’t like being paid for doing no work at all.
More importantly, she feels that she has worked too hard to get to her position and worries that if she doesn’t do something, her efforts will go to waste.
"Welcome, sirs, what can I do for you?"
Matheen and Masthan were immediately embarrassed as they could not understand her words since they were in Kannada and not the usual Kannada they were used to; it was the type of Kannada spoken in a very formal way. "Ma’am, can we speak in Bharati language?"
Lekha was momentarily taken aback, as all the people she had interacted with had spoken to her in Kannada. For that reason, she had to learn this language before taking her job posting here; however, fortunately, she was not originally from Vijayanagar State, so she naturally knew the Bharati language, which is the language of the empire. "Yes, please sit down. What can I do for you?"
Matheen and Masthan were relieved. They sat down on the chairs with smiles on their faces, and Matheen carefully handed over their application document, which was written to establish a food company.
Lekha took the document and quickly read through it. She took out the ledger book that had rarely been used, blew the dust off its top, and started entering the details from the application.
Lekha then took the identity documents from Matheen and Masthan, wrote down the ID numbers on the documents, and handed them back.
"Alright, most of the formalities are done. So, Mr. Matheen and Mr. Masthan, have you decided on a name for the company? If yes, please let me know; if not, please pick one now, which is satisfactory. In case you want to change it in the future, you can for a small fee."
Matheen and Masthan immediately looked at each other with firm expressions on their faces. "We have decided, ma’am. We are going to call it M&M Food Company."
Lekha nodded her head and thought inwardly, ’What a good name! Although it’s so simple, it’s very catchy.’
She immediately entered the name into the ledger that would be sent back to the trade office in Mangaluru City
"Congratulations to both of you! You are now the proud owners of M&M Food Company, owning 100% of the shares between yourselves."
"For the final step, I see that your company’s products are mainly food products, so I will apply for the BSO officer to inspect the manufacturing conditions of your food product. In case there is no problem with it, you will receive the safety and hygiene certification as well as the BSO 120,000 series certification from the Bharatiya Standards Organization.
You can then take the business license, which I’ll provide you in the next few days, and these certificates will allow you to start the business anywhere in the empire."
"Also, there is good news: a few years ago, His Majesty made opening a business tax-free for the first two years for anyone in the empire."
"But now that opening a business is not too rare, these tax benefits have been reduced from not being taxed to minimal tax for the first two years."
"But you two are different; you are from Baluchistan, so you enjoy special privileges. For the first four years, both of you will enjoy tax-free privileges. That means your company doesn’t have to pay tax on the profits for the next four years and will only have to pay half the tax for the next four."
Matheen and Masthan did not know of such a regulation, but since it was advantageous, they were happy nonetheless.
"Brother, us being Balochi is not a disadvantage after all," Masthan lamented.
Matheen couldn’t help but agree.
Both of them happily went home in order to quickly prepare to welcome the arrival of the BSO inspector.
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A few days passed, and the BSO inspector arrived at their home. The inspector noticed the fields and immediately understood where the raw material came from. He put a checkmark on his list regarding the origin of raw materials.
The inspector then went on to check the quality of the crop and the amount of yield, which would give him knowledge about the quality of the raw material used to make the product.
After giving a moderate rating for the quality, the inspector went on to inspect the flour mill where the flour was made.
The inspector noticed that there was a chance for contamination since it was a public mill, but he also observed that Matheen and Masthan had actually cleaned the internals of the mill with a few kilograms of wheat first, which was disposed of, and only then was the flour milled, avoiding contamination to the greatest extent.
To be continued...