Happy Feet, currently operating out of two locations in Bangalore, is the brainchild of Sharath Keshava and Johnny, who met while working for a cloud computing company in Boston. After getting off a 20-hour flight from Heathrow to San Francisco, Sharath remembers getting a foot massage from an elderly Chinese man on the pavement. “It was a fantastic experience. I went straight to office with no tiredness or jetlag. And I worked an entire day totally energised. I was determined to learn more about reflexology.”

That meant quitting a job that fetched the duo big money. “We were travelling 20 days a month, with no home life, no time for family. So we decided to quit, return to Bangalore and start Happy Feet.”

The funding came from friends and family. “We decided to offer therapy, not recreational massage. We’ve been in business six months now. From the second month we began to break even with consistent revenues of Rs 4.5-5 lakh a month,” he says. There are plans to spread to other cities too.

They recruited nine therapists from the Aizawl College in Mizoram. Mizos are reputed to be experts in massage. “It’s normal, part of everyday life there. No one would pay for it. So we brought a team here. They are pleasant, hardworking and scrupulously honest.” Promising personalised, professional care, they soon hit upon the idea of offering foot massage at the customer’s home, to save them the trouble of driving in stressful traffic. The therapists drive over, instead, in a cheerful yellow van.

My two sisters-in-law and I arrived late for our session and had to wait a bit. To make up for it, Sharath threw in a free pedicure and a freebie for the fourth person joining our group — my brother-in-law. Obviously, everyone went home happy and determined to soon retrace our steps back there.

Thot, the young Manipuri expert, got to work immediately on my legs troubled by poor circulation. He put pressure on the soles of my feet... it was excruciating! Then the absolute tips of my toes. I cried out involuntarily, with tears in my eyes.

The hour went by, and I thought ‘let’s just get it over with’. That night after a bath, I discovered that the discolouration around my ankles had disappeared for the first time in years. So had the puffiness.

My feet still felt sore, but it was obvious even to my cynical husband that this was not just any foot massage. It had worked beyond my wildest expectations.

The Web site gives details of treatments offered for conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

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