Occupation: Roadside fruit juice vendor
Does it look cloudy to you? I hope it doesn’t rain in the evening. I will have to close shop early if it does. That is a problem we roadside vendors face – the weather; we are dependent on it. Oops, where are my manners? Would you like a glass of sherbet or a glass of sarsaparilla with a dash of lime in it? How about a glass of watermelon juice or a glass of plain lime juice?
Watermelon juice and sherbets are what sell like hot cakes. I prepare the sherbet mix at home. I clean and slice fruits such as oranges, grapes, apples, papayas and guavas and place them in a container. Poovan pazham is blended into a thick shake-like consistency and stored in another container. To make the sherbet, I mix the banana mixture with the mixed fruits. I add a dash of sarsaparilla syrup and khus khus to it. For those who want ice, I add ice to the glass too. A glass of sherbet costs Rs. 20.
For the watermelon juice, I scoop the flesh of ripe watermelons and add crushed ice and sugar to it. Most of my customers like this watermelon preparation as it is extremely refreshing. It’s rather filling too. A glass of watermelon juice costs Rs. 10. My customers are mostly those who travel on bikes. They stop to buy a glass to help beat the heat. I also have quite a few regulars who I know only by face as of now.
I am here daily from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. As I live at Vallakkadavu, setting up the cart by the Enchakkal bypass road made sense. I set up my corner when I come in the morning. I remove the tarpaulin that covers the leftover watermelons, which I sell by the weight, and the tables, which I use to place the containers and glasses for my juices.
I wasn’t always selling juices. I started this roadside stall two months ago. I come from a family of nine. My father was a woodcutter at Kuttichal. I studied until class three. I moved to Vallakkadavu after marriage. I started making ends meet by selling seasonal fruits near Bank of Baroda, Vallakkadavu. After selling fruits for 15 years, I moved to West Asia and worked there for a few years as a labourer. I returned to Kerala three years ago as I found life in West Asia, tough. I took up employment as a labourer upon my return to the city but as work was hard to come by, I decided to start this stall.
Sales are good when the weather is hot and Sundays are busy for me as those who go to the beach often stop by the stall to grab a drink. On a good day, I sell about 50 glasses of juice.
I have three children. My eldest son has just left for West Asia; he has got a job offer to work at a store. My daughter is married and lives with her family in my house. My youngest son has completed his class 12 examinations and is awaiting his results. I hope he gets good marks. I want to see him succeed in life. We live in a rented house. Although I would like a house of my own, that is a distant dream as the price of land is steep for people like me. If this business of selling juices isn’t profitable, I need to think of entering another business. My focus is to keep putting food on the table for my family.
As told to Liza George
(A weekly column on the men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
