2 ms·

What is a dhandha? Like a way of life that is a business?

severnaya123 1y ago
The literal translation is "business". But the contextual meaning here is closer to "arrangement/understanding". In India the word sometimes refers to underhanded/corrupt practices (there's a bollywood song where the lyrics go "sab ganda hai par dhandha hai ye", which can roughly be translated as "it's shady work, but that's business") With that said, I don't really agree with the parent comment here, but I don't know enough about business practices in Dubai so I may be wrong.
SanjayMehta 1y ago
Literally it means “trade,” but in reality it means hustling. Real life example: a petty smuggler I knew had his younger brother run the shop, while he himself ran the “dhandha.” This was in the 80s when buying original CDs and Nike shoes needed you to know the right shop in South Delhi. The elder one knew all the Hong Kong and Singapore dealers, the right customs agents while the younger just sold the goods.
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roncesvalles 1y ago
My interpretation is that it's a very laid-back style of business. It's not the startup model of working 12 hours a day battling 5 competitors and trying to hyper-optimize every metric that's used to compute your margin or valuation or whatever else. Dhandha means I want to waddle in at 10am, have some chai/coffee meetings, make some phone calls, and then waddle out at 3pm (because a couple of "chokras" (boys) who come in at 7am and go home at 7pm run the show anyway). Almost like a niche monopoly where no one can intrude or undercut you because you have long-term relationship-based exclusive arrangements with all the upstream and downstream parties involved. A ton of little businesses that make small components in big things like cars, rockets, or foods/pharmaceuticals are run like this. In fact, I've seen multiple ultra-boutique software development companies (both in the US and India) run like this.
spwa4 1y ago
Well, if you're a manufacturer, or a government, hospital or ... manager. Let's say you need to acquire a part. Not something as obvious as a screw, but something very simple. A steady supply of syringes in 5 different sizes, say. A "dhandha" would be when you get a friend of yours produce that part (/software/...), and only buy from them. That friend would have zero expertise making that part, but he creates a business that hires 3 guys to make the part, and the owner has nothing to do with the business other than ... let's politely call it "relationship building". In other words, they spend their time in some hotel lobby with said manager, drinking. Very common.

The literal translation is "business". But the contextual meaning here is closer to "arrangement/understanding". In India the word sometimes refers to underhanded/corrupt practices (there's a bollywood song where the lyrics go "sab ganda hai par dhandha hai ye", which can roughly be translated as "it's shady work, but that's business") With that said, I don't really agree with the parent comment here, but I don't know enough about business practices in Dubai so I may be wrong.

SanjayMehta 1y ago

Literally it means “trade,” but in reality it means hustling. Real life example: a petty smuggler I knew had his younger brother run the shop, while he himself ran the “dhandha.” This was in the 80s when buying original CDs and Nike shoes needed you to know the right shop in South Delhi. The elder one knew all the Hong Kong and Singapore dealers, the right customs agents while the younger just sold the goods.

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roncesvalles 1y ago

My interpretation is that it's a very laid-back style of business. It's not the startup model of working 12 hours a day battling 5 competitors and trying to hyper-optimize every metric that's used to compute your margin or valuation or whatever else. Dhandha means I want to waddle in at 10am, have some chai/coffee meetings, make some phone calls, and then waddle out at 3pm (because a couple of "chokras" (boys) who come in at 7am and go home at 7pm run the show anyway). Almost like a niche monopoly where no one can intrude or undercut you because you have long-term relationship-based exclusive arrangements with all the upstream and downstream parties involved. A ton of little businesses that make small components in big things like cars, rockets, or foods/pharmaceuticals are run like this. In fact, I've seen multiple ultra-boutique software development companies (both in the US and India) run like this.

spwa4 1y ago

Well, if you're a manufacturer, or a government, hospital or ... manager. Let's say you need to acquire a part. Not something as obvious as a screw, but something very simple. A steady supply of syringes in 5 different sizes, say. A "dhandha" would be when you get a friend of yours produce that part (/software/...), and only buy from them. That friend would have zero expertise making that part, but he creates a business that hires 3 guys to make the part, and the owner has nothing to do with the business other than ... let's politely call it "relationship building". In other words, they spend their time in some hotel lobby with said manager, drinking. Very common.