Sunita Pramod Agarwal urf aunty ji is a brash independent woman who claims to sell the ‘best chai‘ in the whole of Pune. She starts her day at 11:30 pm and goes on till 5 am, every night, without fail, on a street in the city’s SB Road area. Delve deeper and you realise that aunty ji‘s life is more than ordinary, and how she got here can be humbling for the most resilient of souls.
Almost 40 years ago, she married a man, who was (along with his wife) thrown out of the family home over a feud, and started selling breakfast at the same spot. To accentuate the income, she started selling tea on the side.
All through this time, even after having lost her husband, there are a few things about aunty ji that remain consistent:
The supreme quality of her slightly overpriced chai.
Her rapport with the cops.
And, her love for her ‘business’ and her diligence towards her customers.
She now owns over three flats around the city, has two educated daughters, and a beautiful two-year-old granddaughter. Ask her why she still chooses to make tea for six hours straight, every night? “If I were to die, I would like to die selling tea to these kids and those people who’ve made me aunty ji,” comes her reply.
Read her story here: