As the sun makes its descent into the horizon, a buzz builds up around a nook on Sarjapur Road. Nestled between a bakery and a Hot Chips store, Rampyari Chaiwala Netaji Bhajiawala is where corporate employees, two-wheeled service providers and daily wage earners take a break before heading home for the day.
Rajdeep Gupta, who been running this stall for the past seven years, hails from Jharkhand where his family has been in the business of savouries and sweetmeats for over 100 years now.
“Our heritage shop based out of Calcutta is 108 years old and was inaugurated by Netaji Shubas Chandra Bose. It is called Laksmi Narayan Shaw and Sons, and was established by my great-great grandfather,” says Rajdeep, adding they uphold the same standards at Rampyari Chaiwala Netaji Bhajiawala.
Before setting up this shop in 2016, Rajdeep who came to Bengaluru in 2011 tried his hand at a couple of jobs, and when none of them panned out, he invested in bringing the specials from his hometown to the residents of this city.
“We have a breakfast slot from 8am to 12 noon where we serve sattu puri sabzi, aloo channa, samosas, dal kacchori, jalebi and poha,” he says, adding they do not serve chutney with their morning batch of samosas as it is prepared only in the afternoon. Sattu is a mixture of roasted ground pulses and cereals, used commonly in North and Eastern India.
After 2pm, their menu changes to include samosa, dal kachori, aloo bonda, Kashmiri bonda (made with potatoes, carrot, beans and beetroot, making it reddish in colour and slightly sweet), vegetable cutlets, onion vada, vada pav, samosa pav and cutlet pav. Another item on their list not seen in many places in the city is litti chokha, a popular delicacy in Bihar — balls of dough stuffed with powdered and mashed lentils, baked on an open grill and then dunked in ghee. They also serve pani puri and four types of tea — normal, ginger, cardamom and ginger-cardamom.
Rajdeep says their samosas are their bestseller and they churn out close to 2,000 pieces a day — a mere handful according to his father, who dishes out twice as much from their shop in Jharkhand on a daily basis.
With an emphasis to serve only freshly made food to customers, there are times when they discard close to 150-200 samosas at the end of the day as there is no place nearby they could donate to, says Rajdeep. He adds Republic and Independence Days are the busiest time of the year for them as their samosas and breakfast items are in huge demand from returning flag hoisters.
Despite its popularity, Rajdeep says there is actually nothing special about their samosa recipe. “We’ve just made it so it can be had everyday by the young and old without getting bored. Pett bhar jayy, mann nahin bharna chahiye (It’s alright for the tummy to be satisfied, but not one’s fondness). Our stuffing is light, simple and not too spicy — one can have dal-chawal everyday, not biryani.”
Despite the scale of operations, Rampyari Chaiwala Netaji Bhajiawala is on Swiggy and Zomato.
