Startup India: Small businesses that shine in summer

A nation of billions has at least a million new enterprising ideas to make hay while the sun shines. Well, literally. As the blistering Indian summer sets in, the country’s street vendors make for a r

Apr 22, 2017, 07:02 IST3 min

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Tharbooj (Musk Melon)Thakurji parks his pushcart displaying muskmelons temporarily in the middle of the pedestrian-only road at the bustling Lajpat Nagar market and nobody has an issue with that. Everyone here knows me for long, he says. How long? ‘I’m 90 years old! He sticks to selling one kind of fruit at a time. He pauses for thought and then breaks into a tale: ‘Now, do you know the

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Chuski‘College-log’ (College crowds) throng Ramkilavan’s cart for the sprightly green and orange chuski that sell for Rs 30 a piece. The fact that a lot of crushed ice goes into it is not a ‘secret’, he says, but the recipe for his khus flavour is.

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Candy flossVijay walks about on foot around Rajpath once a week, selling candy floss at Rs 10 to tourists for most of the summer. He sells about fifty to sixty sticks. For the rest of the week, he works at a textile shop, selling fabrics with colours like ‘these candies’ to middle-class housewives

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JaljeeraRegulars looking for Satpal’s Jaljeera can’t miss his wooden cart, and its garland of mint leaves around a large earthen pot. He takes a bus from his accommodation in Ghazipur to Sarojini Nagar and ladles out glasses of the tangy sap-green drink to thirsty Delhites

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FrockLal Babu’s is a business on the move. He has no idea where these cotton frocks are manufactured, but they are perfect for the season. At Rs 50 a piece, these are a hit with the mothers in the know. He has sizes that fit a month old toddler to an early teen

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Rooh AfzaSalim Mohamed charges Rs 10 for a glass of the sherbet and insists on not just the drink’s cooling properties, but its magical ones. A customer almost splutters on hearing this. Salim makes Rs 3000 to 4000 on a summer day

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UmbrellaPavan has a strange logic for why he dangles his umbrellas on a low hanging branch: most heroes that feature on them are adept at soaring past trees. And kids always spot them from afar, no matter what. Rs.350 a piece

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Goli SodaBhim Singh has finished a crate (24 bottles) of Marble Soda by late afternoon, making masala lime soda for the thirsty, charging Rs 20 for a tall glass . He estimates selling another half crate before evening

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SugarcaneIrshad was 12-years-old when he left his village in Bharaich, came to Delhi and worked at a sugarcane stall. A year later, he began his own shop. He prefers sugarcane from UP. This summer he’s selling about 1000 glasses of the juice, pointing at the glasses – Rs 10 for small, Rs 20 for medium and Rs 30 for large. He’s never touched a mobile juice cart, he says, quietly

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BaelIt’s a fruit that perplexes Munish Ahmed too. It makes its appearance for just two months – April and May - in its annual cycle. Regulars gulping it down throatily at 10 rupees a glass swear by its mediicinal properties. Munish makes enough to spend four months in a year tending to his family

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