Initially, Gopala Iyer was very enthusiastic about his new venture. The cabinets and the counters in his shop were all of the latest fashion. A row of ceiling fans hung overhead. A telephone sat on his table. And he bought a swivel chair for himself. Whether or not there were any customers in the store, all the fans kept turning and all lights were always kept on. “We cannot keep turning each switch on and off all the time, can we? This is what we will do. We will keep all the switches on all the time. When we open the store in the morning, we will turn the main on, and we will turn it off when we close,” said Gopala Iyer. He started ringing for the boy next door to run errands for him. I still remember what my friend Moolakkaraipatti Reddiyar—he had a restaurant close to Gopala Iyer’s shop in those days—used to say about Iyer: “My business is going well, but it’s never really crowded here. People eat coffee and snacks here and head straight over to Gopala Iyer’s shop to look at clothes,” he said, laughing as he wiped his armpits with a towel.

Khader got along very well with Gopala Iyer. One can’t say he pushed back against even some of Gopala Iyer’s most ill-conceived schemes, but he did assume full responsibility for running the shop. He traveled to buy new stock. He got checks signed by Gopala Iyer and punctually dispatched them to out-of-town merchants. He supervised the boys working in the shop, but there were also times he engaged with the customers directly, showing them the merchandise. He managed the accounts and went in person to the income-tax and sales-tax offices to declare the revenue.

Gopala Iyer came to place enormous trust in Khader. He was confident that he did not have to worry about the business at all and started spending a lot of time on the floor above Reddiyar’s restaurant, playing cards with some serious gamblers. Every once in a while, he’d come to check on the store, and Khader would say to him, “You don’t worry about a thing. I am in charge here.” They made good profit that first year.

But in due course, it came to a point where Gopala Iyer had no idea what was going on with his shop. He had to speak to Khader to clarify even the most basic queries about his business. He could not answer any questions from customers; Khader had to deal with that too. If anyone asked him about pending payments, he needed Khader to decide if and when the checks should be sent. He realized this situation was pathetic, and it gave him a nagging sense of inferiority.