If you are from Bihar or thereabouts, what would fill your heart with joy at the end of an exhausting day? Quite obviously, some ‘litti chokha,’ that iconic ball of wheat and gram flour mixed with herbs, spices, chopped onions, green chili, and coriander, with a dash of mustard oil and baked over a coal fire. It’s nutritious, fulfilling, and it’s profoundly comforting. Ask any Bihari! And now it’s available in Viman Nagar. In the middle of the hustle and bustle of an unfamiliar city, there exists a litti chokha stall run by Sanjay Shah, a 30-year-old from Darbhanga in Bihar. Named Vaishnavi Litti Bhandar, the stall can be found near Ganpati Chowk. Shah named it after his daughter and considers it lucky. His struggles began when he lost his father at the age of 13 and had to support his family. He moved to Patna, where he studied and learned to ply the trade under his uncle. After setting up multiple stalls in the hot- spots of Patna, he failed to sustain his businesses due to restrictions by the local authorities. His financial situation deteriorated due to loans and expenses, which forced him to relocate to Pune and start working in a restaurant there. Soon he was spotted by a Viman Nagar restaurant owner who liked his cooking and helped him set up a stall in the locality. So, why did he decide to sell litti chokha? “When I came to Pune, I found people from Bihar, but I did not find anyone selling Bihari dishes,” said Shah. That was in 2016. For the first six months, his small litti chokha stall hardly had any takers until one day, two of his customers posted about his stall on social media. Today, his stall sees 200 customers a day, and not all of them are Biharis. His success has made him ambitious. Now he wants to open an outlet every 10 km! In fact, he already has two outlets – one in Viman Nagar and the other in Kharadi. A third was shut down to losses incurred during the lockdown. He is thankful to his landlord, his friends, and the people from his hometown in Pune who understood his vision and helped him succeed, he said in his native tongue Maithili.
25 Feb 2022
Abhishek Anand
