The paan wallah: Part 1

Name: Govinda Chowrasia
Age: Anywhere in the range of 18-22 years
Address: Banaras, Uttar Pradesh
Occupation: Paan and Ciggarette ka thela outside Millennium City, Kolkata
Side Business: Masala Cold drink and Soda Shikhanji on additional thela

Probably one of the most enterprising young paan wallahs of the area, he boasts of a majority of the cigarette smoking population of Millennium city. He specializes in his meetha Benarasi paan, and abuses bengali paan wallahs for not knowing the art of making one.

Intelligent, sharp as a razor knife and always looking for different avenues to grow into, Govinda started a cold drink stall next to his thela, and decided to name it, (as he told me) 'CCD kaisa naam rahega?'.. "CCD?", I asked, "Wo toh wahan hai" and pointed out a Cafe Coffe Day to him. "Arre wo nahi bhaiya, Chowrasia Cold Drinks.. CCD hi hua na?".. Call that copyrighting....

He doesn't allow people to keep udhar, but definitely allows them to deposit extra money when he doesn't have change, so that they come back for more later. As he told me once, "Paise se hi paisa banta hai sir, aaj koi mujhe 2 rupaiye kam diya aur 2 din baad waapis diya toh uske liye toh theek hai, but mera sochiye, 2 din me mein 2 rupaiye ka 4 bana sakta hun, toh mera 2 rupaiye ka loss hi hua na?"
Call that shrewd business sense...

Well definitely a bit irresponsible, he often leaves one of his cigarette smoking clients in charge of his cart while he goes off to catch a byte to eat.

I once gave him the suggestion to start keeping mobile recharge vouchers, but according to him the margin isn't good enough. "Agar sim card bechte hain toh theek hain, thoda paisa ayega, but recharge voucher me margin bhi nahin aur chote chote kaagaz ka is thele pe dhyan kaun rakhega."

Now due to construction of the footpath in the area, Chowrasia ji has been pushed onto the brink of the road, which apparently will be widened. When I pointed it out to him, he told me " Sir, Government ka kaam hai na, toh koi problem nahi. Agar bol rahe hain ki 3 mahine me road ko bada karenge matlab araam se yahan 2 saal baith sakta hun."... Call that total faith in authorities.

Well chowrasia ji is definitely an aspiring entrepreneur and a shrewd one at that...