Serampore: It is like an ordinary tea stall where a person is brewing the stimulating drink. Customers may think him the owner but that's not what it looks like. He is also a customer. Isn't that a little awkward? But that's how a tea stall operates in the Kalibabur crematorium in Serampore of Hooghly district in West Bengal.
But anyone will ponder over why a customer would make tea. ETV Bharat also dropped by the stall to find it out and learnt that as there is no owner, locals take turns to prepare tea and customers serve themselves. Even, people who come with the deceased person to the crematorium are also served by the locals. What is quite surprising is that, two cups of tea cost just Rs five!
Whoever is in charge of the stall, opens and closes it in the morning and afternoon and the proceeds of sales are kept in the locker. The money is used to run the shop and the profit-loss concept doesn't apply here. Day by day, the locals voluntarily work here and it the the non-stop gossiping that keeps them attached to the stall.
However, the shop didn't start as a tea stall nor was it asyphelous. Locals say the 250-year-old set-up in the Chartra market area used to sell utensils. With time, the business winded up and none of the owner's family took up the profession. After remaining shut for years, one Narersh Som started selling tea from the shop.
Initially, potato curry and potato-pea curry used to be sold here but later that changed to only tea and biscuit. After the demise of Som, locals took up his role and have been carrying the traditions for nearly a century. Mostly retirees drink tea, do gossip here while running the shop.
Ashish Bandopadhyay is one such person who has been running the shop for a long time. He used to work in a private agency and took up the role post-retirement.
"I come at 9 am and close it in noon. It is reopened at 3 pm. If not every day, I prefer to stay here for the majority of the week. After my departure, another person chips into my role. Everyone is a pension holder here," Bandyopadhyay said.
"All septuagenarians and sexagenarians in the area throng the shop for tea and gossip. All visitors to the nearby crematorium and locals are customers of this shop which sells 300 cups per day. There is no dedicated worker here and everyone comes in at the designated time to manage his responsibility," he added.
Biswanatha Dey, who also runs the stall, said," A total of 10-12 persons run the stall and don't refuse to attend to any customer. Whoever gets some time to spare, come to the stall to manage it. The stall is open from 4 am to 10 pm and if it has to attend to the visitors to the crematorium, it remains open till midnight. But none of us get annoyed for it and the trust factor between us keeps getting the stall going. Even the next generation has come forward to clean utensils and buy ingredients for making tea."
Ashok Chakrabarty, another member, said, "I also have shouldered some responsibilities of running the stall. The total amount of the sale is kept in a locker which is used as operational expenditure. As I still do a job, I can stay here always. I stay till 8 am and return in the evening."
"Different people run the shop at different times but the quality of the tea is never compromised. Forur-five persons can have tea by shelling out just Rs 5. Every customer comes, serves tea to himself and leaves the amount at a designated place," Balaram Chakrabarty, who has been a customer for eight years, said.
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