Later on, he delighted in telling his friends about the very first time he earned an entire rupee. While he was employed at the Noor Jahan Hotel, he ran a side hustle. He sold packets of powdered rice husk, for a paisa each, to people who brushed their teeth at the local pond, and over time he managed to make an entire rupee. Khader used to tell his friends that even when the hotel owner caught him scooping rice-husk powder into the folds of his clothes and kicked him out that day, the joy of holding a whole rupee in his hand outweighed everything else.

From the age of twelve to twenty-two, he was engaged in innumerable jobs—and what a staggering variety of jobs they were! He sold balloons and kites at the Suchindram chariot festival. He assembled picture frames at Kolappan Asari’s shop. He rolled beedis. He repaired bicycles at the M. S. V. Cycle Mart. He worked as a newspaper boy for the Travancore news agency. He even sold combs, needles, and mirrors by the side of the road. He sold the “Shamana Prakashini” cure for indigestion. He earned commissions fetching clientele from the bus stand for local hotels. Finally, at the age of twenty-two, he got a job at Pillai’s textile store. By then, he had already saved over three hundred rupees.

Finding employment at Pillai’s store was a pivotal moment in Khader’s life. He worked there for about five years. Those five years held a particular significance in his life story. It was during those years that he found some stability. Until then, he had been jumping from job to job, moving from place to place. But now he wanted to focus and master a trade, learn all its nuances. He was tired of running around, always out in the sun and rain. He now wanted somewhere cool and indoors to do his work, and those five years showed Khader that he wanted it for the rest of his life.

Fate sent him Mahadanapuram Gopala Iyer. Khader happened to hear that Gopala Iyer was planning to open a new textile store. On a Friday, when Pillai’s store was closed, he met with Gopala Iyer under the pretext that he was in the area to collect payments from someone in Velangudi. The meeting with Iyer allowed Khader not only to confirm the rumors but also to size up the man.

On his way back through the fields to the bus stand, Khader could not help but chuckle to himself as he thought of the meeting. He was hatching a plan.