BERHAMPUR: It might seem like any other eatery at Puintola Chhak on NH-16. But the small unnamed cart on the road where people can relish freshly made hot chicken pakodas or an omelette is a story of hope and determination of two differently-abled youths.
Two childhood friends in their early 20s - visually-challenged Nibasi Pradhan and Tunu Pradhan with locomotor disability - decided to open the fast food cart to eke out living and support their families. Hailing from Niladripur village under Ganjam block, they hope that the eatery will fetch them enough money to sustain their families.
Everyday, the two paddle Tunu’s tricycle with raw materials to reach Puintola Chhack, which is four km away from their village. While Tunu, who has experience in cooking, prepares various non-vegetarian snacks, Nibasi serves and packs the food. The eatery remains open for five hours in the evening.
Their parents are daily wagers. “Earlier, we used to be dependent on our parents for money and the disability pension of Rs 700 per month that the government provides. The money was never sufficient and we wanted to do something that would help us earn enough to take care of our basic requirements and look after our parents,” said Nibasi.
Two years back, they had opened a small eatery in their village but that hardly fetched them a profit of Rs 50 to Rs 60 every day. After running it for a few months, they had to close it down for Covid-19 pandemic. They had contributed Rs 500 each to open the eatery then.
“We were thinking of opening another eatery after the Covid curbs were lifted but nothing was working out till a fellow villager Prasant Kumar Chatoi who runs a tea stall at Puintola Chhak suggested that we open a fast food stall near his shop. We had saved some money and decided to spend Rs 2,000 each on the food cart. The expenses on raw materials is almost the same as the previous eatery but now we earn a profit of Rs 150 and sometimes more each day. The response has been good so far because we ensure that the raw materials used are good in quality,” said Tunu.
Both Tuna and Nibasi live with their parents while their siblings work as migrant labourers in Chennai. “Our parents looked after us for nearly two decades and it is now time for us to take care of them. Since there is no employment opportunity for us, we decided to spend the little savings that we had to open this fast food cart and earn money. As there is always demand for non-vegetarian snacks, we are hopeful that we would not have to close it down like the previous one,” said Nibasi.