‘Special tandoori chah (tea) for just Rs 10’ read a signboard in front of a roadside stall at Lonikand, on the way from Karegaon to Pune. We are all familiar with tandoori chicken, tandoori rotis, tandoori paranthas , but tandoori tea certainly seemed an out-of-the-cup innovation.

Well, two young engineering students found their experiment with this ‘earthy beverage’ more interesting and profit-making than what they may have learnt at their laboratories in their colleges.

When inspiration struck

Vishal Pawale, one of the students, chanced upon the idea after he tasted a concoction in Bhopal, which the vendor called tandoori chai . When he came back to Maharashtra, he toyed with the idea of starting something similar and discussed it with his friend Durgesh Sakore. “I wanted to better the taste as well as the flavour, so we devised our own recipe and the mode of preparation.”

At the time Pawale was pursuing a diploma in electrical engineering, while Sakore was studying civil engineering. “We worked out the cost of setting up shop which came to around ₹1,75,000. We convinced our parents and borrowed the capital from them,” recalls Pawale.

The tandoori chai stall was a hit from day one. The recipe for the earthen flavoured tea was sweet and simple. It involved keeping over a dozen clay earthen kulhars (cups) inside a red-hot tandoor . Then with an iron tong each cup is pulled out and readymade tea is poured into it. Back in the tandoor it acquires the earthen flavour from where it is taken out and served steaming in another kulhar .

Money too poured in

“On an average we attracted 400 to 500 customers every day, earning between ₹3,000 and ₹4,000 daily,” says Pawale.

But profitable ventures are sometimes not meant to last. “We had earned much more than we had invested and as Sakore was still in the final year he could no longer devote time to the business,” says Pawale. The duo therefore handed over their venture on contract to a friend, 21-year-old Chanderkant Shingare, a B Com final year student. Pawale, who has since completed his studies, is now running a stationery shop with the money earned from the tea stall.

Shingare shifted the tandoori chai stall to Anandi, 15 km from Lonikand. “I am able to save around ₹15,000 after paying ₹5,000 each to Pawale and Sakore,” he says.

Sakore has also moved ahead. He says that the contacts he made with customers during his tea stall stint have helped him start a logistics business. He now transports goods even as he attends classes. “I saved money from the chai business and bought a vehicle on loan. I now receive ₹5,000 every month for running the chai business and earn around ₹18,000 from my transport business.”

What the three friends have in common is the knack of doing business and making their ventures a success. Meanwhile, earthen-flavoured tea is going strong in these semi-urban villages not far from Pune.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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