This week’s episode focuses on the story of a Taxi Driver turned Pizza Shop owner – Maninder Singh.
Maninder Singh came to Melbourne, Australia from Jalandhar, India at the age of 17 to pursue Hospitality Management from Box Hill Institute.
As a student, he struggled his way to find a job, eventually taking up a job as a kitchen hand, and later moving to work as a taxi driver.
Ten years later, he finally found his calling (and utilizing his hospitality management skills) opened his own restaurant - Urban Dough Gourmet Pizza Bar.
Maninder Singh comes from an affluent family, his father is a retired deputy commissioner of C.R.P.F, Punjab, his mother is a home maker and younger brother, a security officer in Australia at Seymour council.
Source: SBS
Maninder chose to study in Australia, as he felt there were better opportunities here… and it was better to be in an English speaking country.
While studying, Maninder started looking for a job. With limited means, it was difficult survive in Australia as a student. He took on a job as a waiter in an Indian restaurant, which underpaid him and he had to work long late night hours.
Soon after, he moved to Pizza Hut as a kitchen hand.
Maninder worked hard and slowly started moving higher up in the management of the store.
Maninder proudly says, "I worked in Pizza hut for 7 years. Starting from Kitchen-hand, I went on to become duty manager, shift supervisor and then Store Manager. I was also awarded best Store Manager four times consecutively in Victoria."
Around 2012, a friend of his suggested that he should try his hand at driving a taxi. He said, ‘it’s a different profession and you will also get a break from what you are doing.’
Maninder heeded his advice and took up a taxi driving training course, which enabled him to become a taxi driver.
Maninder worked very hard with full devotion as a taxi driver, driving almost 15-17 hours a day.
Maninder says that he planned his savings from his earning quite well, and the result is today, he has everything that a regular 29-year-old man doesn’t have.
Source: SBS
Maninder exults, “I bought houses, my business and in a way set up my life well. I had fun and did everything. I went on a Europe trip. And all this, I have been able to achieve because of taxi driving.”
Maninder also had to face problems due to the choice of his profession.
Many families turned down his marriage proposal; as his job as a taxi driver is considered somewhat menial in India.
Source: SBS
Maninder’s explanation about how different the life of taxi drivers in Australia was, went unheard.
Mostly, he and his family would get very cold response thereafter. But nevertheless, Maninder never lost heart and continued with his work tireless. He says, “whenever I stumbled, I always took it positively rather than feeling pushed back.”
He later found his soul mate in Harman Kaur, who is very supportive of all he does and helps with his work as well.
Maninder decided to move away from taxi driving and get back to skilled profession. He decided to plunge into hospitality industry. After all he was qualified in Hotel Management and he also had work experience of having worked in managing restaurant - Pizza Hut.
Maninder opened his own restaurant in Essendon called – Pizza Dough Gourment Pizza Bar.
He successfully runs and maintains the shop, which is doing very well and Maninder is proud of the way he has managed to make the restaurant a success story.
Maninder attributes his success to both the cultures – India and Australia, “As an Indian, I had the will power and enthusiasm to work. After coming to Australia, I found a way, a place and a platform to work and Australia made that platform easy for me.”
Source: SBS
Maninder’s advice to the aspiring Indian students is that, they should find the right course and do all their home work before coming to Australia – such as, finding the right accommodation, understanding and knowing about the kind of job opportunities available here, should be ready to do multi-tasking, should learn how to say thank you, please and sorry, it really comes in handy.
"One should learn how to save money. All these will help to lead a smooth life here in Australia," he says.
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