Slice Of Life: ‘You can earn only if you invest’

I have been selling soup for eight years now. I hail from a village near Tindivanam. I didn’t study well and was roaming around in my village. Then, I fled my home and came to Chennai when I was 15 years old. I started working at a vegetable shop in Kothalsavadi for Rs 15 per month and then moved to Koyambedu. After some years, I tried to open a shop but it didn’t work out. I worked in a few other places before starting this soup shop. I learnt to make soup on my own and this is a recipe which evolved over a period of years.

Slowly, I started to prepare other dishes, too. Now I sell various types of mutton dishes like mutton bone soup, liver, blood fry, gizzards curry, brain fry, head curry, kaima and chicken curry apart from idly and idiyappam.  I start my day at 4 am. I go to the meat market and buy all the necessary items. The preparation takes place in my home at Arumbakkam and my wife helps me. From 5 pm, I start selling soup which goes on till 11 pm. I prepare as much as I feel like considering which day it is. Even if the sales are low, I should be able to manage. You can earn only if you invest. There is no standard income in this business. If it starts raining, then the business will be affected the entire day. I don’t do any other work on such days. I get enough money to run my family and for my kids’ educational expenses. I have a son in Class 8 and a daughter in Class 7.