Malkangiri: Stories about how life took turns and twists on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic continue to come out with regularity. One such story about two engineer friends presents a positive takeaway.
The two youths, Prittam Bebarta and Sumit Samal of the district, had gone for their BTech course outside Odisha. While Prittam pursued Mechanical Engineering, Sumit was in Civil Engineering.
After successfully completing the courses last year, they applied for jobs and were waiting for the offers to come when the pandemic struck. Without jobs and little money left with them, they had to return home.
Though qualified as engineers, they could not get the opportunities to apply their skills nor prove their talent as COVID-19 spread at alarming pace all around bringing the entire world to a paralysing stop for six months.
But the two friends did not lose heart and applied their skill in a different domain as the situation eased. They hammered on the idea of starting a food cart but with a difference.
They did not have money with themselves to invest and did not want to burden their families which had already spent large amount towards their education from their modest resources.
So, they got an unused broken hand cart which was thrown near their house. They repaired it, remodelled it and decorated it like tribal people’s house. They also decorated the cart with attractive arts and colourful lights.
The two young engineers named their food cart ‘Engineer’s Thela’ and placed it on the roadside near Malkangiri collector’s office.
On the very first day, they made a good business. In fact, the name of the food cart did the trick, said Pritam.
“The name ‘engineer’ made the people curious. Some of them even thought that we are selling some innovative engineering products. But when they came to the cart, they were overwhelmed by the aroma of our special Chicken Biriyani, Mutton Biriyani and Chicken Tikka,” said Sumit.
A plate of Dum Biryani comes for Rs 100 and Chicken Tikka Rs 50 at the Engineer’s Thela. The people, who cannot afford going to restaurant for high cost, are coming to the Engineers’ Thela, said the beaming friends.
Now they plan to brand their food and start a chain in the state. That will be a start indeed!
