Occupation: Sells fresh greens
You think this one bunch of pudina (mint) is too lean for Rs.10? Then sir, please don’t buy it!
What the customers don’t realise is that the pudina that I have in stock has been painstakingly pruned clean of all the dead leaves. For every one kg of pudina I get, almost half is lost when pruned. I make the effort to prune it because I am determined to sell only value-for-money greens to my customers.
Apart from pudina , I also sell fresh kariveppila (curry leaves), pachakothamalli (coriander leaves) and remba (pandan) leaves, plus a few packets of pappadam that is made at home by my wife, Girija. The pudina comes daily from Ootty and the pachakothamalli from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. I grow remba leaves in a few pots in my home. The leaves are used to give an extra flavour to biriyanis. Meanwhile, kariveppila comes from both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It’s easy to identify the origin of kariveppila . Those grown in Tamil Nadu tend to have huge, uniformly dark-green leaves and have a shine to them. The ones from Kerala are much smaller, not uniform and more greyish than green. The remba leaves costs Rs. 20 a bunch, while all others costs Rs. 10.
It was my mother, Rajamma, 70, who started selling greens out of a wicker basket here in Palayam vegetable market, when she was a teenager. I have been helping her since my childhood. I am 47 years old now and joined the business when I couldn’t find other employment. We now have this store inside the market and even though it would be more viable to sell vegetables too, we’ve stuck to selling fresh greens. Business is not as robust as before, though. The huge grocery stores that have come up across the city have put a serious dent on business here. Maybe it’s because the items are pricier than what’s available in super stores. Another reason why customers stay away is probably because of the very hassle of shopping here – the crowds, the smells… It’s a pity because Palayam market – and Peroorkada and Pangode markets too – has always been the place to go to get local produce; vegetables that are home-grown in nearby places such as Nedumangad, Kattakada, Vithura, Palode and so on, some of which is still brought and sold to shop owners by individuals.
I get mostly individual customers. My business picks up during festival season, especially Christmas and Bakrid, when there is a demand for biriyanis. I make enough for my family of four, comprising my wife, and my sons, Vivek, an A/C mechanic, and Vishakh, a plus two student. I dream of a good future for them.
(A column on the men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
