It’s noon and a young man is seen furiously pedalling towards a remote village, not far from the Bangladesh border in West Bengal.

Arriving at his destination, he parks his bicycle and, almost immediately, the speaker on the handlebar blares out a tempting poem in the voice of a temptress:

It is sweet, tasty and cold

soft as cotton and nourishing too.

It’s a mix of milk powder, sandesh

and curds with a dash of almonds.

The new special Quality Ice Cream

for takas three, five and ten.

Drawn by the sound, children from the surrounding areas walk, skip and run towards this mobile ice-cream kiosk, which is nothing more than a simple icebox resting on the bicycle carrier.

Najir Mondol, who has churned out this unique ice-cream brand using his own special mix of ingredients, is an ideal village entrepreneur like no other.

His recipe is innovative, as is his way of calling out to customers, not through the usual ringing of bell but playing a song recording. “My verse is loud enough to be heard by everyone and also informs them about the ingredients in my product and its price,” says Mondol, who paid a tidy sum to record the singing voice. “My recording starts with greetings and ends with wishing everyone a good day,” he points out.

Native to West Bengal’s Baleni village, Mondol covers two to three villages in a day and earns around ₹300. “It is my own recipe and I get the ice from a nearby ice factory,” he informs proudly.

But the ice-cream business is not his mainstay. He runs an electrical shop at his village where he gives vent to his other passion — repairing table fans, motors and selling bulbs, switches and other small electrical gadgets.

Coming from a family with meagre means, he was forced to leave school after Class VII.

“I learned repair work in Kolkata, but one cannot earn much from repairing gadgets in a village as not many use them in any case.”

Apart from his parents and wife, Mondol has a school-going child to take care of. “I had to think of some way to earn an additional income, and since there is an ice factory near our village I thought why not make and sell ice cream.”

His entrepreneurial spirit is serving him well. “No matter what the circumstances, innovative ideas can help you make a decent living,” he says with a broad smile.

The writer is a senior journalist based in New Delhi

comment COMMENT NOW