Suresh Ji’s Juice Corner

“Toh barsaat mein sab se zyaada kya bikta hai?”

“Barsaat mein toh hum hi bikh jaate hai, hahahaha”, says Suresh Parihar ji, the owner of a juice shop outside Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in Badgaon, Udaipur.

KVK is a beautiful complex of palm trees, vegetable farms, and sugarcane fields. As one exits the premise and starts walking towards their right, one would come across a juice shop owned by a Suresh ji.

His day starts at 8AM daily, when he opens his shop. Besides selling juice, which is one of his main sources of income, he also earns a 4% profit on Saras’ dairy products. Suresh ji’s academic background involves him having studied commerce as a subject. Throughout the year, his business depends on the sale of pineapple and sweet lime juice, and on the sale of his Saras milk. He sells other products such as lassi, buttermilk and ghee as well. For winters, he recommends people to have amla, carrot and beetroot juice from his shop. He sells his homemade dahi (curd) to people, too.

Why Is Suresh ji Passing His Time?

He has no fixed customers for milk, but some for ghee, which he is able to sell at Rs.350. One must have a license to sell products from a cooperative. Since Suresh ji was anyway looking for a way to “pass his time”, he applied for one, and was allotted Saras as part of a lottery system under the Government of Rajasthan.

But why did he wish to pass his time? Is he not financially dependent on his juice shop? That is correct. Why not?

Because his wife is a government employee in a general hospital, and he has a son who is a civil engineer. But that is not the only reason for him to consider his daily source of income a ‘timepass’. It is because Suresh ji has a visually challenged daughter. He ‘passes his time’ by sitting in his shop until he is to pick his daughter up from her school. While doctors claim that she has less than 10% vision in her eyes, Suresh ji is rather proud of his daughter who was able to exit her school premises post her exams, all by herself.

Who Are At His Juice Corner?

The customer base Suresh ji’s juice business caters to, the one client base he believes make up for the majority of them, are sick people. He laughs as he says that people do not wish to spend even a basic, minimal amount of money towards their health, but are ready to spend thousands on cigarettes and alcohol. But with so much milaawat (adulteration) in all that we consume in today’s day and age, one can never be certain that even the juice we’re drinking is actually beneficial for our body.

He believes that over the years, it is not just the quality of several products that have gone down, but also our general ways of being. Suresh ji recalls how copper utensils were used in earlier times, and compares it to the steel and aluminium used today. He also mentions that while growing up, he was used to seeing (rock) salt being stored in earthen pots, before the country switched to iodized salt. He is also not a fan of all the chemicals being used in the majority of our edible products, but he has developed his own alternate ways of dealing with such issues: from using copper to purify his water, to planting his own papaya and mango trees.

Suresh ji’s Non Trivial Views

Suresh ji is not a fan of the governance patterns associated with the environment either. He acknowledges how seasons have been disappearing because of trees being cut in and around the Aravalli range of Udaipur. Also disapproves the planting of Ashok trees that provide neither fruit, nor shade, which have been on the rise the past couple of years now. He firmly believes that for any government, five years are more than enough to attain the many goals of development. This includes in the farming sector, which has been shifting as an occupation, just like the seasons of Badgaon.

Amidst his personal and societal challenges, Suresh ji’s eyes still smile and sparkle. for he is one of the few shopkeepers on the side of the road who pay rent. He is certain that even if the road was to be expanded someday, Suresh ji, and his shop, would still exist. He calls two houses his home in Badgaon (one, his own; another, his brother’s), and has a parental house in Udaipur city. Suresh ji also disapproves of “half pants” and cigarettes. Suresh ji exclusively watches south Indian films. The largest sabzi mandi, closest to his house, is some 12 kilometers away, for which he uses his car. He will be celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi for ten days at his place soon. Suresh ji closes his shop around 8PM every day.

Sit With Contradictions

When I think of certain people, I tend to reduce them to a ‘single story’, one driven by my own biases and assumptions. I could never assume that this person could have a wife who is a government employee in a general hospital, a son who is a civil engineer, and a daughter who is visually challenged. I do not sit to ponder what the man selling this juice to me is like. What is his story?

There are several stories at play in the lives of all the people we encounter. But I tend to reduce their identities to a single aspect of their life, looking at them through a single lens to define their existence. Suresh ji’s existence is made up of many such stories. He does not feel supported by the government as a business owner. However, he appreciates the government for all its efforts that have made India attain the respect he thinks the country truly deserves. It is important for us to note the same, too. That we can look at the same entity and sit with the contradictions in it, fairly well.