The Curry O's

My name is Megz, im the Eldest son of Roy and Ranjini Naidoo. Mum served the community for just over two decades. August is Women's month, I would like this message to go out to as many people as possible hoping that it may stop them from quitting and motivate them to keep trying in every aspect of life.


From housewife to Business owner.................Having three kids, times where tough. Mum always tried to do something from home, selling pegs, brasso, feather dolls, sewing, making pillows, amway, clientele, pickles, wedding beetlenut, roti, cape cookies, plants.........and my list can go on.

Around mid 90s my Mums father, who owned a Tuckshop, gave her a packet of cigarettes and told her to start selling from home, the same day she went house to house asking the neighbours if they would like to order bread and milk from her and that's how Theos Tuckshop started. Theo is the name of our youngest brother who was born in 1991 her good luck child :-). Mum ran the tuckshop for about 10 years and she also looked after Friends kids at the same time.

In 2006 she bought a food trailer and put it at the Unit 3 Bangladesh Market behind Moodleys Florist, this is where Mum really served the community, for one year she traded from the parking lot. The owners (Ma and Dad) of Moodleys florist, Pioneers in Chatsworth, noticed Mum was very hardworking, they often joke Mums face was all messed up from black pots on gas stoves and heat in the metal food trailer, they agreed to let her convert their small Security room which was adjacent to the food trailer, into Theos Takeaway. At the Banglesh market Mum served the Poorest of poor people from car guards, beggars, addicts, homeless and the locals, she is a Mother to many even until this day, when i go there the boys always ask how she is. Every Thursday she did a feeding scheme with the help of Vishnu from telkom. Mum served the community with cheap meals, she never took a salary for around 9 years being there, often cooking at home, carrying pots up stairs to driveway, loading the car, going to shop offloading, trade for the day and then reloading car, driving home carrying pots back down in the evenings. It really made her happy, providing daily meals for the less fortunate and taking food home for our family.

I remember very clearly, there was no proper drainage at shop, so under the sink once the buckets filled up, she had to carry to the back of the building to be properly disposed. Mum really had to fight and cry to keep this shop as it was 25cm short for licencing and health regulations which made it difficult to trade. There where many times where Mum had to go to court to pay for fines for trading without licence. The Metro Police was even called to close her down, not even the local municipal parties could help her. People constantly reported her as they where either jealous or they where not happy seeing the under privileged gathering for a decent meal at the building.

In 2012 seeing what my Mum did i decided to duplicate, i said let me find a place to run the food trailer as it was parked off for many years. I placed an add on Gumtree, then a Lady by the name of Michelle sent me a message to come try out our trailer at their hardware store Elcarbo in Moseley. Once we where set up, Mum cooked food for her shop and ours, Myself and Sylvia (currently our longest serving staff 8years) served from the trailer. I pleaded with Mum to leave Bangladesh and come join us at food trailer she refused she said she will never leave her customers in unit 3 as they depended on her. I frequently told her Mum there's about 14 takeaways around the market and none near the food trailer she said no is no. As time went on Sylvia had to go to the Farm as someone needed care and I was alone. Around this time i sold the food trailer and put a big wendy house along the roadside. Mum had no choice but to help her son, so she left her staff to run the Unit 3 shop and she came to Theos Takeaway Moseley. Once Sylvia returned I went of in search of better opportunities.

Mum worked in the Wendy house for around 4 years, serving the local community, people where skeptical to buy food from a Wendy house although once the food was tasted, the word began to spread, she was serving people who walked by and established business people. Customers use to order and eat in their cars. Mum created a good name at the Wendy house and in 2015 she was approached by someone she never met in her life, Klaus was the owner of a Pizza shop about 1km down the road, he asked Mum to take over his shop as he heard her Wendy house food was good. Mum told him I want it, I want it, although due to overheads being 12 times more than what she currently had to deal with, she turned down offer several times. Eventually the owner told Mum he is giving her the shop as a gift a donation. There after, Mum asked us to come have a meeting at the Pizza Shop which had been closed for a while........once we walked in, there was no turning back looking into your Mothers eyes knowing her entire life she has given to us, now its our time to give a little back. Mum hugged us all with tears in her eyes and said she wants it, she wants it, she wants it. Thanks to my Sister Trish she put all Faith in Mums Vision and arranged the finance for the new venture. We are grateful to Trish, she took a big risk and the idea was for me to cover up with my salary should we not make rent, although ideas started racing through my Mind with motivation from my Dad i resigned to help fuel Mums vision.

We thought of many names although Mum said she will never be happy if we change name from Theos Takeaway. We said Mum how about we remove the takeaway part and make it something new and exciting....she agreed...so now we left with ''Theos'' Nothing was sounding right Theos Curries/ Cuisine/ Hot foods....so I said Mum why don't we take ''Theos'' and put Curry in the centre and thats how we got ''The Curry Os''. This is how The Curry Os was born.

Sadly early in 2016 even though the shop at Bangladesh was running at a loss, with heavy hearts we where forced by numerous calls from a female official, who came to investigate people dumping on roadside at the Market area, ignored the real issues and asked us to close the shop at Bangladesh because it was 25cm too small. We still go to the Bangladesh market in front of our old store and donate food to whoever is in the area. ''She may have closed our store, although she will never close our hearts.''

Special thanks to my Gran who really motivated us to get a proper business, her secret recipe which was passed on to Mum and to our generation plus the love for what we do is attracting celebrities and awesome customers from far and wide. Mum always had a Passion for giving her Customers the best and this is what is our entire team has learned. Dad does the cashing, ordering and accounts and telephone orders. My younger brother Theo helps with improving our serving systems with his Pc knowledge. I do the advertising, deliveries and Dreaming :-) just kidding ok maybe a little Dreaming, it is on The Curry Os, vision board to create more Branches in as many areas as possible so that we can create employment and help people improve their lives and their staffs lives and everyone they deal with, like how The Curry Os is helping our Team.

As Mum says ''Nothing beats the Power of Prayer'' we still have all our staff from the Bangladesh Market, to the Food Trailer, to the Wendy house. The Engine room of The Curry Os is made up of Strong females of which 5 are Single Mums. Mum considers all our staff as her Children .......nobody will LOVE their staff more than Mum does. Longest serving is Sylvia 8 years service Mother of two, Fortunate 4 years service single mum, Pumla 4 years service single mum, Noluvo 2 years service single mum, Noluvoto 1.5 years service single mum and Nokubonga less than a year service single mum. Cindy, Ziyanda, Nomvelo, Nonkanyiso less than a year and Narisha who joined to expand business in another area is recovering from an operation, not forgetting our all rounder Sumaysha who helps us after her normal working hours and during weekends to do buying, serving or transporting us home :-)

Mum has broken all barriers, and amazingly from 300 stores, shortlisted to 70 then 20 and now top10 finalists in Durban for this years Coca Cola Bunny Chow Barometer Competition which will be held on the 4th Sept at Blue Lagoon.

This Story should be motivation for any female out there, or any person out there who has a Dream or needs to overcome temporary defeat or obstacles

Mums message to all at Bangladesh Market, who work in the Sun and Rain in Toil and Everyone else out there- ''Do not give up, God has Bigger Plans''