Tufts of yellow sponge peek out of the torn black seat of a classic green TVS 50 parked on Murugesan Complex Road, Greams Road. Mounted on it is a red plastic pot serving fresh buttermilk, every night between 9 pm and 4 am.
Rajan K is busy attending to constant phone calls: “Yes sir, two glasses of buttermilk, right? I’ll keep them reserved for you.” It is midnight, and fluorescent lights from a blue kiosk named Chetta Buttermilk, set at the dead end of the road, invite me for a glass of chilled mor (buttermilk). With bits of maanga , flavours of tangy mint chutney and a generous amount of boondi , it’s a gastronomical exercise that demands the full attention of my taste buds.
“We come here for the buttermilk. It’s Chetta’s specialty,” says Pradeep Jain from Sowcarpet, who has brought his family and some guests from Mumbai with him.
Chetta, as Rajan is lovingly called by his customers, means brother in Malayalam. Hailing from Palakkad district in Kerala, he came to Chennai chasing his love and now, wife, Shekila Rajan, a school teacher, in 1989. “I used to work at a tea shop before. I was paid ₹7 for an entire day,” says Rajan. With a desire to start something of his own, he decided to sell buttermilk: a summer cooler to beat the heat in 2001.
Eighteen years ago, he sold the buttermilk off his TVS 50 for ₹3. Today, the drink costs ₹30 and Chetta employs four people at his shop.“I expanded to a stall in 2017 when some of my customers suggested that I start selling food items such as puffs and rolls. By that time, the demand for the drink had increased,” he says.
He now sells tea, veg puffs, bun-butter-jam, samosas and veg rolls as well. Chetta also takes catering orders for wedding and parties.
My scooter and me Rajan also sells tea, veg puffs, bun-butter-jam, samosas and veg rolls along with buttermilk
“Our USP is that we function during the night”, says D Arvind who has been working at Chetta’s for 13 years. “Even at 2 am in the morning, there are customers flooding in. It is mostly IT workers who come at that hour. Our customers are mainly from Sowcarpet and Nungambakkam, but some come from Ambattur, Avadi, Poonamallee, ECR and Kovalam as well,” he says.
Rajan says that the curd for this buttermilk comes from a dairy farm in Walajabad, Kanchipuram district. “The curd arrives at 4 am and we make around 50 litres of buttermilk at 4 pm everyday.” In 2001, he says he found it difficult to sell even five litres. Now he has customers pre-booking their buttermilk.
With visibility on the Internet, location availability on Google Maps and open options of Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm for payments, Chetta Buttermilk is customer-friendly. “We hope to tie up with Zomato within a month’s time,” he says.
Not wishing to open several outlets, Rajan says he is satisfied with what the kiosk brings in. “People will come as they always have.”
Having shifted locations from Sundaram Avenue to the current spot, Rajan says his TVS 50 has always been a constant. Always in view, the motorcycle is a reminder of his humble beginning — a story for his customers to take back.
