KOCHI: Fifty nine-year-old Antony Manickam arrives at the Sub-Registrar’s office in Edapally on a red M80 moped. In a smooth movement, he takes out a tray and places paper cups on it. Hereafter, through a tap in the steel container tied at the back of the moped, he fills the cups with milk and adds coffee or tea powder. Then he enters the office and places these cups on different tables. The employees give him a smile, some with relief, because they were yearning for their first refreshment of the morning. Then Manickam steps out and goes to some other shops. This includes a tailoring shop, a photocopying centre and a workshop.Thereafter, he goes to the Edapally branch of the HDFC Bank near Changampuzha Park. Again, he goes through the same actions and serves coffee to the 15 employees inside. “They like my coffee because I use Bru Instant,” he says with a smile. Incidentally, he charges Rs 5 for both tea and coffee. Every morning, Manickam provides the beverages in several offices, stationary, and ration shops, workshops, and markets. “I serve 250 cups a day,” he says. “When I was younger, I would make a thousand cups, but now I have slowed down.” Manickam has been doing this job for the past 33 years and has regular customers. One of them is Georfin Pettah, the owner of several supermarkets under the name of ‘Jose Pettah and Sons’. “Manickam has been serving tea to us for the past three decades,” says Georfin. “There are many reasons for his success. He is dressed very well and he serves the tea on a tray, which is very hygienic. The best thing is that his tea and coffee are always fresh.” There is a reason behind the good quality. “I don’t make the tea or coffee beforehand because it will have a stale taste after one hour,” he says. Since there are some places where he reaches almost two hours after he sets out from his home, he makes it fresh each time he has to serve. On weekends, Manickham gets orders to provide refreshments for functions, baptisms, weddings and funerals. “He is very reliable,” says Georfin. “You just have to give the order and forget about it.”Manickam, who is originally from Coimbatore, entered into this business through misfortune. He had been working in the Sealord Hotel as a waiter. But a year-long strike in the hotel in 1978 forced him to leave. He started a wayside hotel but it failed. He was in a penurious condition. “I was finding it difficult to pay the rent and to buy the milk for my two-year-old daughter,” he says. In desperation, he began selling tea at night on the streets. Thanks to Georfin’s cousin Jose, he got his first assignment to give tea to the students of the Teacher’s Training Course at Edapally Government High School. In 1982, he bought five cents of land in Edapally and built a house. “I got a loan of Rs 1 lakh from the Edapally branch of the State Bank of Travancore, and repaid it by giving tea,” he says. He bought cement, sand, and other building materials in a similar manner. “The only time I had to pay money was to the labourers,” he says. “Can you believe that I was also able to marry off my daughters Mary and Maggie, apart from giving them a good education, just by selling tea and coffee?”Asked how long he would continue, Manickam says, “As long as my health permits. I love this job and enjoy the look of expectation that appears on people’s faces when they see me.”
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