Abhinaya Harigovind

Feb 21, Chennai: Residents of the Lala Gunda area in Old Washermenpet are no help in locating the treasure in their vicinity. A shrug and “they are everywhere” is the most you will get by way of direction. When their neighbours have been manufacturing butter biscuits for generations now, it hardly counts as treasure.

If you follow your nose, you can sniff your way through the maze of alleys to the butter biscuit factories of Lala Gunda in Old Washermanpet. The golden brown, sweet-salt biscuits that are a fixture at every tea shop in the city, are manufactured in thousands at each of these bakeries.

“We don’t keep count of how many biscuits we bake in a day,” says 33-year-old Jawahar Sathi who owns SP Bakery. “There are roughly 150 biscuits in each batch that goes into the oven, but we don’t keep count of the batches,” he says, removing trays of perfectly round baked cookies from a rack that has just been removed from the oven.

According to him, SP Bakery is one of the smallest in the area. The entire baking process is completed in a single room and the only machine they have is the oven. They supply biscuits to around 60 tea shops in Chennai.

While 44-year-old H Sardar cuts the dough with a circular mould, he says, “Biscuits are priced between Re 1 and Rs 5 with the smallest one being the
cheapest, though they all taste the same.” The top surface of each biscuit is emblazoned with the name of the bakery.

A little distance away, MS Bakery is bigger both in terms of the space, the machinery they use to bake and the number of tea stalls they supply. Thirty-seven-year-old Habibullah says that they supply around 500 tea stalls in Chennai and in nearby Pondicherry and Coimbatore.

He has recently bought a wire cutter to cut the dough into circles for Rs 8 lakhs. “We also bought a mixer last year to knead the dough. Earlier, men would knead and cut the dough. Bigger bakeries choose to use machines now,” he says. MS Bakery employs 30 workers, including women who work at the back of the room to pack the biscuits. Men work the machines.

The 25-year-old bakery has been moving from one street to another in Old Washermenpet for the last few years. “The bakeries here keep moving from building to building, but in the same area, depending on rent and how willing the owner is to let us rent the space for longer,” says Habibullah. His older brother has recently taken over the business from his father.

Both Habibullah and Jawahar concurred that the business has been steady for many years. “Apart from Chennai, we also sell biscuits to suppliers in Andhra Pradesh and nearby areas in Tamil Nadu. So the demand is consistent,” Habibullah says.

According to S Surendran, Secretary of the Chennai Metropolitan Tea Shop Owners’ Association, there are around 5000 licensed tea stalls in the city. “In 2014, the Corporation decided that they would issue trade licenses in a day. Now that people get the licenses easily, the number of unlicensed tea stalls has been falling over the years and more people are entering the business. The Corporation claims that 3000 new tea stalls have got their licenses since 2014,” he says.

The prices at these tea stalls cannot be raised beyond a point since people are counting on these places being cheap, he says. He attributes the consistency in demand to the prices. “But now that big companies like Britannia are making smaller, cheaper packets of biscuits, the demand for the butter biscuits has been falling in the city. Some of these bakeries would have shut down over the years because they cannot hike their prices too much,” he says.

“People buy these biscuits more out of habit than anything else. It becomes a routine to buy the butter biscuit with tea and this is what sustains the business,” he says.

Armugham, who works at a tea stall in Taramani, sells around 50 locally made biscuits in a day. He stocks different varieties of these biscuits in glass jars and does not sell any of the big brands that come in packets. “These are cheaper for me to stock than the branded packets of biscuits,” he says. He collects the butter biscuits from Old Washermanpet around once a week.

The smell of the biscuits lingers well past the bylanes of Lala Gunda and follows you out of Old Washermanpet.

Aishani Saha

Chennai: U Mumba volley registers their first win in the Rupay Pro Volleyball League as they beat Chennai Spartans 3-2 on Saturday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium.

As the referee blew the whistle to commence the match, the crowd cheered. The opening set was mainly dominated by the host team Chennai Spartans as they got a lead of 10-8. Canadian star player Rudy Verhoff helped the Spartans to maintain a lead. Spartans take a lead of 13-8 as U Mumba, looking to catch up, called for a super point which meant that the team which wins gets two points.

Wanting to finish the game fast, Spartans called for a Super point but as U Mumba scored the point they were able to get back in the game 13-10. After which there was no looking back for U Mumba. Their captain, Deepesh Kumar Sinha with powerful serves was able to bring the score to 14-14. The visitors, keeping their nerve, were able to win the first set of the match.

U Mumba seemed to carry out the same temperament into the second set as they got a lead of 5-1. Canadian star Rudy tried to get the scores level, but the lead kept increasing as DNK Venkatesh, the libero (a player who specialises in defending and isn’t allowed to block or attack) of the U Mumba team dived almost near the free zone to get to the ball. 

With few technical errors from U Mumba, Chennai was almost closing in on the 7-11. But again minute error like smashing outside the court, or hitting the ball more than three times made it impossible for the Chennai Spartans to get into the game as they lost the second set 8-14.

Spartans had the third set to keep the match alive, so they needed to win this. The third set was fought to tooth and nail by both teams. With few smashes from Spartan’s Naveen Raja Jacob and Sorokins, they were almost able to level the score to 9-10. But then high end blocks from U Mumba captain Deepesh and Saqlain Tariq setting up the ball for the attackers to smash, U Mumba cruised to victory in the third set as well.

Chennai had lost the match, but there were two more sets to go so they had to play for their pride. On one hand, U Mumba took the fourth and the fifth set easy as they tried different combinations of players, by changing positions and substituting players. On the other hand, Spartans were full of energy.

As Chennai team captain Shelton Moses and V Hariharan blocked and set the ball, Rudy beautifully placed the ball onto the opponent’s court. The Spartans had won the last two sets.

Though Chennai won the last two sets, U Mumba had won the match as 3-2 was the score. By winning the last two sets they infused more energy into the Chennai supporters.

Mani, a teacher, who came to watch the match with his friends said, “It doesn’t matter they lost the match, they will come back stronger in the next match and will qualify for the playoffs.”

Cricket and Football are the sports that are mainly in the limelight in India. But after sports like Kabaddi, Badminton and now Volleyball is becoming popular through these leagues sponsored by corporates.

“This is the first time I am watching a volleyball match, I am surprised that people have come in such huge numbers to support the home team,” said S Sathish, a professional footballer.

Ajit Singh, a professional volleyball player who represents Jharkhand in state level tournaments said, “Due to the Rupay Pro Volleyball League, the popularity of volleyball will definitely increase.”

He further added, “In our country it’s either football or cricket, but leagues like this would give an opportunity to those who play these underrated sports like volleyball or throwball.”

K.C. Vijay Kumar, Sports Editor of The Hindu said, “Commercialisation of sports is a positive thing with necessary evils.”

“The money that the corporates pay goes to the grassroots, so, for example, somebody in a rural area might get placed because the talent scouts are sent there as the demands keep rising, ” said Kumar.

By: Ashmita Mukherjee

Chennai, Feb 15: Restaurant with robots as servers has opened its second outlet in Porur to meet the growing demand and interest of citizens.

Robot Theme Restaurant is India’s first restaurant running with robots assigned as servers. It’s a Pan Asian restaurant located at Chennai and Coimbatore. The brainchild of Venkatesh Rajendran, a restaurateur, and Karthik Kannan, an architect, its base branch is located in Semmencheri which began business in 2018. The branches in Porur and Coimbatore are franchise outlets.

Robots designed in all white with blue patterns resembling a dress, glide through the restaurant on wheels. Their structure is feminine with slender limbs. Customers order food through a tab and the kitchen team is informed of the order. The robots then fetch food from the kitchen before delivering to the right table.

The restaurant chain is already working on the blueprint for a branch in Bangalore this year. According to Kailash Sundarrajan, the general manager of Porur branch,

“It takes 45 days to import robots because of customs. There are specific codes for import of robots which were an initial hassle for the owners. So we need about 90 days to start a branch in Bangalore. The restaurant chain also plans to open shop in six more cities in the near future.”

Restaurant staffs have been trained by the robot manufacturing company’s personnel on how to operate the machines and implement them effectively.

According to the general manager, there are six robots working as servers and one robot working as a receptionist. The serving robots stand at a height of 5.5 feet whereas the receptionist robot is only five feet but is a more advanced model. Every robot has sensors on its hands and at its base. The robots can detect movement or any presence near them. They speak English and can ask people to move aside from their pathway and announce arrival of food at designated booths. The robots run along a magnetic strip under the vinyl cover on the floor to stay on route while serving.

The general manager added,

“The receptionist robot is equipped with image mapping that helps it to navigate its way avoiding obstructions in its path. It has facial recognition software that helps it to remember the face and name of a customer and greet the customer when they revisit. The receptionist robot can also escort guests to booths, bathroom and the selfie point for taking pictures with it. The robots have no sharp edge so are safe around children. Children visiting the restaurant often in excitement push a robot off its magnetic strip path but the robot is able to recourse its trail.”

The robots run on android software manufactured in China. The robots do not need any large part replacements for any malfunction. Only the motherboard that runs the robot requires tweaking or replacement. The robots can be in use for a day’s worth of work before they need to be plugged in at the charging station like any other batter operated machine. Robots and their parts are all imported from China.

Featured image credits: The Hindu

Abhinaya Harigovind

Chennai, Feb 14: Two months after Altaf Ahmad began distributing food to the needy in Triplicane, he has realised that battling hunger, even in a single area, is a tall order.

What began as an informal arrangement to distribute breakfast occasionally to the poor in the locality has now become Triplicane’s Food Bank. Altaf and his team of ten volunteers collect, pack and distribute the food.

“Most of the food comes from wedding halls and celebrations like birthdays,” said Altaf, who is a retired real estate agent. “We have asked the halls nearby to let us know if they have food left over. Almost always there is a lot of food left from every wedding.” A few weeks ago, they received 25 kg of biryani left over from a wedding.

Food Bank volunteers are spread across the city and sometimes collect food from wedding halls in Pallavaram and Tambaram as well. “We get calls at around 12 a.m. informing us that there is food left over from a celebration. But ten people across the city is hardly enough. We end up going from one end of the city to another to pick up food since we don’t have volunteers in every area,” Altaf said.

They usually prepare breakfast at their office in Triplicane out of the donations they get. Lunch and dinner are distributed out of the food they collect. Their office is equipped with a fridge. “People who know about us in the area come to leave and take food from the fridge,” Altaf said. “Sometimes, children come asking for food for their entire family.”

When they began, Altaf and his volunteers would distribute food to the homeless on pavements and outside temples and the Triplicane railway station. Now, apart from the homeless, they have also identified other needy families in the area.

“We did a survey last month where we identified around 37 families in Triplicane and adjoining Royapettah. The people we found to be most in need were widows, differently-abled people, the old and the sick, and famlies in which the adults have not been able to find and keep regular jobs,” he said. They take packed food to the houses they have identified at least once every day. Sometimes, they distribute rations like rice and sugar that they receive through donors.

Altaf hopes to extend the Food Bank to more areas. “When we started the project, we didn’t realise how many families go to bed hungry. There are so many that we are unable to serve now because we don’t have enough volunteers or funds,” he said. 

Last night, the Food Bank received a call at 11 p.m. requesting that extra food be picked up from a wedding hall in the area. Altaf has just finished packing and distributing what they had collected. “There is a little bit left over in the fridge to distribute for dinner. Once you know that so many of your neighbours do not have enough to eat, it is difficult to stop this work, or even stop thinking about it,” he said.