Jaykiran is not your regular MBBS student. He is an entrepreneur as well!
While pursuing an MBBS degree may seem like a daunting prospect for most of us, imagine owning and running a restaurant on top of that. This is exactly what Jaykiran PA has been doing since he opened Jack’s Resto Cafe.
The student of Sri Ramachandra College, Chennai, runs the eatery where fine dining meets laid-back hangout. A typical day for Jaykiran starts around 6 a.m.; he attends classes from around 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Usually, he rushes to the restaurant immediately after, while some days he has dance practice for inter-college fests.
End to end
Jaykiran oversees every aspect — kitchen, housekeeping, service, and inventory. In a pinch, he can make some items off the menu himself, too. For their ‘live dessert’ island, he took training on how to make ice cream rolls — a Thailand street-food speciality — and crepes and passed it on to his staff.
When he’s not at the restaurant, the manager and assistant manager are in-charge. However, he can keep an eye on things through an app on his phone that relays the feeds from the security cameras.
Jaykiran is no stranger to business. After his first year of college, he and a friend started an ice cream shop in the city. Though it couldn’t be pursued long-term, he is now putting the lessons learned from that experience to good use at Jack’s.
But how does one balance two full-time endeavours? “I have a passion for medicine and business, so I don’t get stressed out. Even though I have a full schedule, I enjoy what I do. I don’t feel like it's just another task I need to finish,” explains Jaykiran. He finds time to study in the interstices — for instance, at the restaurant office.
The passion that he describes is evident when you hear Jaykiran talk about Jack’s.
He was involved in every stage right from ideation, to interviewing, recruiting, menu design, concept, interior design, and inventory sourcing. The whole process before opening was completed in roughly three-and-a-half months, with his family providing the initial funding.
While he always wanted to become a doctor and help people, the interest in business came later when he realised he had some free time after classes.
Getting into the restaurant business was a natural progression for a foodie with a family background in the industry.
Surprisingly, he wants to continue pursuing both careers after he gets his degree. He plans to specialise in general surgery and run Jack’s. “Once you establish a system, things fall into a routine, so on the business side, after the first six months at least, things will get easier.”
