Startup India: Small businesses that shine in summer
A nation of billions has at least a million new enterprising ideas to make hay while the sun shines. Well, literally. As the blistering Indian summer sets in, the country’s street vendors make for a riot of colourful possibilities, as their small set-ups do brisk businesses. Here are a few.
1/17
“Photo kya le rahe ho (Why are you just clicking pictures?) – come taste the kulfi, I make it with my own hands,” says Munendra Gupta. He often gets catering orders from customers during wedding season. At Rs 10 a stick, he sells 150 to 200 sticks a day.
2/17
Jamal Mohamed leaps at any car that slows down at the sight of his horse-drawn cart, thrusting a slice of totapuri, a variety of mango he sells. Jamal and the others in the four carts along this stretch of a busy intersection in East Delhi are all from Meerut. We are a quarrelsome band of brothers, he says, especially when the sacks of mangoes sent by his big brother from Andhra Pradesh arrive. Dilliwallas aren't enthusiastic about this variety, he says, but buy them since it is cheaper than other varieties at Rs 70 a kilo.
3/17
“Venus Icecream Company has been around since 1955, and myself since 1982,” says Gyan Chand proudly. He rattles off a couple of other brand names from then that have disappeared long since. ‘Why ask me how much i make’, he grins, "yeh toh accha timepass hai" (this is a good passtime). He let’s on that it’s around Rs 1500 a day, not as much as "those KwalityWalls walla" (KwalityWalls icecream sellers).
4/17
Sunil Kumar was working for Relaxo, the shoe company when he decided to quit out of ‘boredom’. Since six years, he diligently parks his Kwality Walls cart from 4 pm to midnight with an eye out for the swooping municipal authorities. Most days in the summer, he makes Rs 2500, enough to keep him at peace, he says
5/17
Thakurji parks his pushcart displaying muskmelons temporarily in the middle of the pedestrian-only road at the bustling Lajpat Nagar market and nobody has an issue with that. Everyone here knows me for long, he says. How long? ‘I’m 90 years old! He sticks to selling one kind of fruit at a time. He pauses for thought and then breaks into a tale: ‘Now, do you know the story of Satyavan and Savitri….’
6/17
‘College-log’ (College crowds) throng Ramkilavan’s cart for the sprightly green and orange chuski that sell for Rs 30 a piece. The fact that a lot of crushed ice goes into it is not a ‘secret’, he says, but the recipe for his khus flavour is.
7/17
Vijay walks about on foot around Rajpath once a week, selling candy floss at Rs 10 to tourists for most of the summer. He sells about fifty to sixty sticks. For the rest of the week, he works at a textile shop, selling fabrics with colours like ‘these candies’ to middle-class housewives
8/17
Regulars looking for Satpal’s Jaljeera can’t miss his wooden cart, and its garland of mint leaves around a large earthen pot. He takes a bus from his accommodation in Ghazipur to Sarojini Nagar and ladles out glasses of the tangy sap-green drink to thirsty Delhites
9/17
Lal Babu’s is a business on the move. He has no idea where these cotton frocks are manufactured, but they are perfect for the season. At Rs 50 a piece, these are a hit with the mothers in the know. He has sizes that fit a month old toddler to an early teen
10/17
Salim Mohamed charges Rs 10 for a glass of the sherbet and insists on not just the drink’s cooling properties, but its magical ones. A customer almost splutters on hearing this. Salim makes Rs 3000 to 4000 on a summer day
11/17
Pavan has a strange logic for why he dangles his umbrellas on a low hanging branch: most heroes that feature on them are adept at soaring past trees. And kids always spot them from afar, no matter what. Rs.350 a piece
12/17
Bhim Singh has finished a crate (24 bottles) of Marble Soda by late afternoon, making masala lime soda for the thirsty, charging Rs 20 for a tall glass . He estimates selling another half crate before evening
13/17
Irshad was 12-years-old when he left his village in Bharaich, came to Delhi and worked at a sugarcane stall. A year later, he began his own shop. He prefers sugarcane from UP. This summer he’s selling about 1000 glasses of the juice, pointing at the glasses – Rs 10 for small, Rs 20 for medium and Rs 30 for large. He’s never touched a mobile juice cart, he says, quietly
14/17
It’s a fruit that perplexes Munish Ahmed too. It makes its appearance for just two months – April and May - in its annual cycle. Regulars gulping it down throatily at 10 rupees a glass swear by its mediicinal properties. Munish makes enough to spend four months in a year tending to his family
15/17
Strange business this, but Mamu is a man of few words. He walks about confidently, poker faced, tapping his stick and every vendor in the vicinity shakes hands with him. Tourists on their summer vacation (or otherwise) pose with him and pay him whatever they like. He makes about Rs 500 in a couple of hours and disappears
16/17
Sunglasses
The song Kala Chashma may have extolled that black aviators look best on a ‘fairer’ face, but Mahendra Tyagi begs to differ. Most men who buy his sunglasses at Rs 60 a piece, look as good irrespective of their skin tones, he says
17/17
‘I’m from a desert (Rajasthan) so it must be my fate to sell this’ Prahlad says, grinning. These China-made ‘swimming pools’ start from Rs 250 and goes up to Rs 1100 for the largest one. He sells about three a day in a four-month summer cycle.
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