Braving the adverse circumstances, some individuals manage to overcome them. Take for example the case of Kolkata’s Tuktuki Das. Facing unemployment, despite being a postgraduate in English, she decided to eke out an honest living by starting a tea shop.

What indeed is interesting is the name of Das’ tea stall, “MA English Chaiwali”.

Her story starts many years back when her parents taught and advised her to study hard to become an achiever. Wanting her to become a teacher, they encouraged her. Her hard work bore fruits and she did well in her examinations, doing MA in English.

Then started her travails as she could not get a job despite having attempted several exams. She left no stone unturned yet was not able to succeed.

While any other person would have given up but not Das as she decided to open a tea shop and sell one of the favourite beverages of common people. She started a tea shop in Habra station in North 24 Parganas. The banner of her shop at the station reads, “MA English Chaiwali”.

While Das’ father is a driver, her mother manages a grocery shop. Initially they were unhappy when she started the tea shop, later they were impressed as Tuktuki instead of being bogged down by failure to get a job, turned her energies to make the shop a success.

Talking to news18,com, she disclosed that in beginning this venture she was inspired by the story of “MBA Chaiwala” about whom she had read on the Internet. “I thought no work is small and therefore I, like the ‘MBA chaiwala’, started working on my own tea shop. Initially, it was difficult to get space but I managed to find it later on. Now I am selling tea and snacks. Because I have an MA degree, I named the shop this way."

Unmoved about what people think or say, Das stressed that no work is small or big as she was determined to make her tea venture a success story.

Prashanto Das, her father, talking about her said: “Initially I was not happy with her decision, as we educated her with the hope that she would become a teacher and she ended up wanting to sell tea. I reconsidered and thought that if this is her decision so as to become self-reliant, then that’s good."

Many of the customers who come to her shop are intrigued by its name while several praise her determination to eke out an honest living and becoming self-reliant. They feel, her example can be inspirational for several young men and women, who despite their qualifications are unable to get a job.

In the past too, there have been examples of people making it big despite their initial setbacks. Praful Billore, who is the son of a farmer from Madhya Pradesh’s Labravda village after being unable to clear Common Admission Test for MBA, started a tea stall and today has more than 22 outlets in the country with an international outlet too.

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