Journalism of Courage
The Irani tea stalls in Chennai have been serving piping hot ‘dum tea’ for over six decades. From the first one at Wall Tax Road in 1955, the chain has expanded to 13 locations across the city not compromising on its quality while keeping the rate affordable for the commoners.
At the ‘Sweet Corner’ shop, located next to the Irani tea stall at Conron Smith Road in Anna Salai, indianexpress.com caught up with Boman Irani, 70, who now runs the chain, along with his brother and his cousin.
“My father (Marazban Irani) set up the first Irani tea shop at Wall Tax Road in 1955. He later came up with the second one at Thambu Chetty Street near the high court and kept on expanding with one shop after the other in the following years. We also owned a hotel, ‘Café National, but my father closed it as he thought it was not functional to run such a large space. He then came up with the concept of setting up a small space – dividing into three parts like one for the preparation area, the serving counter and the front portion for the customers to have their tea and other snacks,” Boman said.
The sweet shop was Boman’s idea as he expanded the family business to bakery and pastries. He said they started a bakery on their own as they were not satisfied with the quality at other places. “We supply our bakery items only to our shops. From our central kitchen in Chintadripet, all the items go to the Iranis,” he added. The bakery items include bun butter jam, cakes, puffs and varieties of biscuits.
Commenting on the Iranian connection, Boman said his grandfather Behram Irani came from Iran by road through the Khyber Pass to India when he was a child in the early 1900s. “A plague had broken out in Iran. He reached Bombay and from there he travelled to Pune, where he started doing business.”
Marazban Irani, who was doing his engineering in Pune, gave up his education to help his father. “He worked in a restaurant and later started a restaurant in Pune which did not work out. After someone advised him, he shifted his base to Chennai. My father used to go around the city identifying potential areas where they could set up the tea stall at about 300 sq ft… Those days starting something was simpler as compared to today’s scenario,” Irani said.
When asked what’s been the unique selling point of the Irani tea stalls, Boman, who joined the business in the 1970s, said it is the quality of the tea, snacks and the price. “When I joined this business we were selling tea for four annas and samosa for five paise…. When I said I wanted to sell samosas for six paise, my father said no to it. Slowly, the prices increased and now we are selling a samosa for Rs 10.”
Boman said their ingredients have remained a trade secret all these years. “I cannot give you the ingredients list (he laughs)… We mix a certain quantity of X and Y tea dust to arrive at this taste. We have the decoction of the tea ready in a copper vessel, the milk is kept ready in another pot. The tea master takes the decoction in a glass and adds a little amount of milk to it. That is how our tea is made,” he said.
Boman added that they are happy with what they get and hence they never thought about expanding the space. He added that they don’t measure the footfall at the shop.
The workers at the Irani tea stall are old-timers; some of them working here for over 15 years like Valsaraj, 64, and tea master T Babu, 59.
“It has been 30 years since I moved from Kerala to Chennai. I have been managing this tea stall at Conron Smith Road for 15 years. In other tea stalls, there might be a few days where you won’t be having work and you would not get a proper salary but that is not the case here,” said Valsaraj.
Boman said they are struggling to find labourers in recent times as the next generation is in search of jobs that offer them more money and he won’t blame them either with everyone going through a rough patch after the pandemic.
“The pandemic was tough… Even now our business has not gone back to our pre-pandemic days. We are still 30 per cent down. I don’t know whether we will ever go back to the previous level. But, we decided not to increase the price of items in this period as I am not going to increase my sales by raising my prices,” Boman said.
When asked about the future roadmap for the tea shops, Boman said he had not figured it out. He wants to run these by himself as much as he can and hopes someone will take this forward.
“I am taking each day as it comes. I have not thought about the future. I will carry on as far as I can because I still don’t feel I am 70… I have done whatever I can. Maybe, my cousin might take over after my time,” he added.
