"Chaiwali" Priyanka Gupta runs a tea stall outside a Patna college
An Economics graduate who has set up a tea stall near a women's college in Bihar's Patna has received encouragement from many on social media. Priyanka Gupta, 24, gave competitive exams and also tried to land a job. But when they did not work out, she said she decided to go the "Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)" way.
"There are many chaiwallas. Why can't there be a chaiwali?" Ms Gupta told news agency ANI.
Her tea stall's menu has five items - masala, chocolate and paan chai for Rs 20 each, kulhad chai for Rs 15 and cookies for Rs 10. There is a small stove on which an aluminium kettle is placed. Students are seen milling around her, waiting for hot tea to be poured for them.
Ms Gupta is from Purnia district and has two younger brothers.
After the job and exam setbacks, she came to Patna where she opened her tea stall outside a women's college.
"I graduated in 2019, but was unable to get a job for the last two years. I took inspiration from Prafull Billore..." Ms Gupta said, referring to another young entrepreneur who started the "MBA Chaiwala" business in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, after he got his "heart broken from a CAT", short for Common Admission Test, which is needed for admissions to the sought-after Indian Institutes of Management, or IIMs.
A large poster at her tea stall has the words written on them: "An initiative towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat... Chaiwali welcomes you, be infused - tea, love and happiness."
Aatmanirbhar Bharat is a policy concept that is actively encouraged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who himself used to help his father sell tea when he was a child at a railway station in Gujarat's Vadnagar.
He visited his hometown, Vadnagar, for the first time in 2017 after he became Prime Minister in 2014. "Coming back to one's hometown and receiving such a warm welcome is special. Whatever I am today is due to the values I have learnt on this soil, among you all in Vadnagar," PM Modi had tweeted.