Occupation: Fruit juice vendor
This is the peak time for us. With the sun blazing in the sky, almost everyone would like a thirst quencher. Once the mercury comes down, demand also diminishes. See, I had brought enough water in the morning but it has got over by 11 a.m. As soon as I finish talking to you, I have to go and bring more. We use only clean mineral water for our juice and drinks.
We have a small office in Thycaud where we store the fruits and other materials we need. That is where we make the sherbet, clean the nongu… you know work like that.
During summer, the top seller is nongu (ice apple). Both the meat and the water have many takers since it is believed to have a cooling effect. We have nongu juice and also a mixture of fresh cut fruits and nongu juice, which we call Nongu sherbet. A mixture of nongu and pineapple has many takers. In addition, we sell spicy buttermilk and lime juice as well. We source the nongu from Tamil Nadu. Contacts there inform us when there is a truck load of nongu coming to the city. Nongu is rather expensive now.
Why did we select this place? Well, my partner Vinod and I began this business five years ago. Then there was no stall at this place, which is close to the Railway Divisional Office at Thycaud. We just propped up an umbrella and began selling fresh juice and nongu. However during the monsoon, we almost had to close down since there were hardly any customers. That is when we decided to get a licensed stall of Milma and started selling tea as well. Later, we included products of Kelpalm, run by the Government of Kerala. They have a factory in Kottamom, Neyyattinkara, which processes the products of the Palmyrah palm. We get the juice from there.
This is a good location and from morning 10 a.m, when I open the shop, to 6 p.m., when I down the shutters, we have a steady clientele. There are two women to attend to customers. Most customers are impatient and so we need enough staff. See how that youngster got annoyed when I was unable to give him what he wanted immediately. Most of the customers are people who enjoy the taste of nongu. Some of them come here regularly for they enjoy what we serve.
I used to work as a cashier in a hospital where my wife, Reshmi, now works as a nurse. Vinod was also working. But then we decided to work for ourselves. There is hardship and when we began this enterprise, we had to do everything, right from buying the fruits from Chala to cutting and making the juice and sherbets. At present, including both of us, there are six employees. We have a similar stall at Vellayambalam. I am 33 now and enjoy being my own master. We manage to make enough to get along. I stay at Thampanoor with my wife and daughter, Anamika.
(A weekly column on men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
