At 8 in the evening you realise that an assignment is  due tomorrow and you don’t have blank assignment
sheets to write on. There is no stationery shop in a radius of 10 km near your
hostel and there is no transport facility to take you to college, which is
again 10 km away. What will you do? Beg, borrow or steal from your hostel
mates? Curse your destiny to put you in such a situation?  Miss out on an important assignment?  When you get the blank sheets, you realise
that your compass is missing, or halfway through the assignment your pen runs
out of ink. Even the thought of facing such situations is tormenting.

However, this is not a hypothetical situation for some.
Students of IIT Indore, currently staying at a temporary residential campus at
the Silver Spring township on the outskirts of Indore, faced these difficulties
on a daily basis. Three friends: Jwalant Shah, Pragalbh Garg and Rohit Agarwal knew
that something had to be done. Their minds ignited with the idea of opening
their own shop. Thus, La Fresco was born. The store was conceptualized with the
motto: “to serve, not for
profit”.

PaGaLGuY got in conversation with Jwalant, who graduated in
2014, to know more about La Fresco and the efforts behind it. He reminisces, “The
initial funding of Rs. 30,000 was from our own pockets, which we recovered
within just 4-5 months of operation. Meetings with the Director, the Wardens, getting the necessary approvals,
allocation of hostel space, purchase
orders, a/c settlements were
a regular part of our lives. We visited the Accounts, Purchase, and Admin
offices more often than attending lectures. The institute was very supportive,
they provided us with a room at the township, and a care-taker. Since it was
for the IITI community, we were also exempted from paying rent and even electricity
charges for that matter.” 

He further adds, “In case we got time to attend lectures, it was used to
decide whether the next order to be placed with Amul, Coke or Best Price. During
the initial period, stock was purchased from Best Price, but now all items are directly
procured from distributors. The institute believed that since the store is for
the IITI community, students should not lose anything in this investment. They
asked us to take our investment out and provided seed funding of the same
amount, which boosted our morale. We then bought a photo copy machine for the
store. It is till date the most appreciated item at La Fresco.”

Jwalant couldn’t emphasize more about the need of a photo copy
machine. Until La Fresco did not have its own photo-copier, students used to go
to Tejaji Nagar, 5 kms away from their campus, to get a photo copy. Sometimes during
exams, the machine would stop working and he’d give up his study time to fix
it. “On a daily basis, out of IITI’s 600 students, 200-250 students visit the
store. And it gets crazier during exam times, all of us are at the store, to
get study material photo-copied,” a current student of IITI said.

La Fresco is operated by the Students’ Gymkhana in co-ordination
with Institute authorities. The store is
open only for the IITI community and not for others who reside in the same township.
The store stocks items like stationery, cosmetics, toiletries, refreshments,
etc. One of the student representatives said, “We charge Rs. 7 for the Rs. 8 MRP
soft drink, whereas other general stores charge Rs. 10. We give a discount of
Rs. 20 – Rs. 30 on shampoos, juices, etc. We also take efforts to procure items
which individuals require but may not be available immediately.” He adds, “Practically,
I don’t live there, but I do visit the store at least twice a day.”

A group of students told PaGaLGuY that they get biscuits,
juices but not samosas at the store. They said, “For eatables we have to go to
the other general store in the township. He charges more than MRP and behaves
very rudely with us. We have asked the Gymkhana to keep eatables too.”  One of them said, “We don’t have a canteen but
La Fresco acts like one.” Another student mentions, “It is our evening meeting
spot. Everybody in the township knows where to look for students if they are
not in their room.”

“From the beginning it was never about the money,” says
Jwalant.  He continues, “I may have
already graduated but my juniors who run the store now, keep me updated. For
the 3 of us it was all about doing that ‘big thing’ and being the first ones at
it. It was about leaving a permanent footprint at IITI. Gaining experience of
running the store was the intention
and the prize was the phrase: “Co-Founder, La Fresco – the IITI student
facility centre” on our resume.”