SEREMBAN: It’s 4pm on a Tuesday evening, with the overcast skies casting a shadow over the city of Seremban.
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Even as a slight drizzle begins, a crowd still hangs around the Church of the Visitation along Jalan Yam Tuan.
The gates are closed, however, and there is no sermon going on at the time, so what is it that draws people to brave the rain?
As it turns out, the line of people that begins to form is unified by one purpose – to acquire a piping hot cup of masala tea.
And at the very front of the line is a woman in an eye-catching saree, tending to her customers with her faithful canister of hot tea mounted on the back of her bicycle.
According to the locals of Seremban, she is Miss Seremban Masala Tea, while a few people online have referred to her as Tea Mami.
Kalaasari, as she is known to those close to her, has been a relatively recent sight on the streets of Seremban, having started her little tea business just this year.
With regular and new customers coming up to her every few minutes, this tea lady has very little time to idle.
But funnily enough, before she decided to sell tea on the streets, she served as an administrative staff in a local law firm for some 20 years.
According to Kalaasari, in addition to the financial issues brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, she had already been planning to run her own business for the longest time.
“I thought it was the right time to start this business,” she says during FMT’s visit, adding that her business is an entirely personal endeavour. “It was my own decision, preparation, initiative and idea.”
But why tea?
She answers this by saying, “I’m a tea lover, so I wanted to do something with tea.”
Kalaasari then explains how masala tea differs from regular tea, as it incorporates Indian herbs and fresh cow’s milk.
Plus, she doesn’t use white sugar in her tea, and instead adds jaggery, a traditional Indian palm sugar.
What makes people keep coming back to this tea lady? Well, for one, each hot cup of tea costs only RM1.
Price aside, the hot masala tea Kalaasari brews is astoundingly delicious, with a strong and rich taste that has a lovable hint of spiciness to it.
Kalaasari adds that masala tea has some health benefits, and is an effective remedy for excess wind, flu and fever.
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On an average day of business, she can sell up to a hundred cups of tea to passersby from all walks of life.
She has also recently begun selling vadai for 50 sen each, which goes perfectly with her tea. These sell like hotcakes as well, as her entire stock of 40 pieces would be gone by 4pm.
Every day is a busy day for Kalaasari, as she has to wake up at the ungodly hour of 4am to start making preparations for the day.
“It takes two hours to boil the tea,” she says, explaining that the lengthy time is needed to bring out the tea’s flavours.
She then begins selling her tea outside Pasar Besar Seremban, starting from 7am until 10am. Afterwards, she returns home to fix herself a simple lunch and brew more tea, as it takes just about an hour to completely empty out one.
She laughs at the suggestion that she goes home to rest, as she simply does not have the time for such a luxury.
Lunch taken and more tea brewed, Kalaasari then heads off to her spot outside the Church of the Visitation, where she will hawk from 4pm to 6.30pm.
Thankfully, her efforts thus far have paid off handsomely. Her business is booming, as more people come to know of her and some even enquire as to whether she caters.
Never seen in any other outfit except for the saree, Kalaasari reveals that she chooses to don the traditional clothing simply because she likes it – having worn it throughout her office life. Now, she plans on continuing the habit even as a tea lady.
From a purely practical point, her saree does tend to draw attention, making it easier for curious customers to locate her that way.
Most people ask why Kalaasari chooses to sell her tea on a bicycle instead of at a brick-and-mortar shop. She is pragmatic about the matter, saying that it’s more convenient for the public to buy from her.
According to her reasoning, if she operates out of a shop, customers would have to spend more time looking for parking and placing orders. A bicycle, on the other hand, allows her to remain mobile and sell her tea at a brisk pace.
Plus, despite the amount of time she has to spend under the sweltering sun or stormy clouds, Kalaasari genuinely enjoys what she does.
The ability to meet new people is certainly a change of pace, as her office job relegated her to seeing the same faces and doing the same work for years.
“I like to meet people,” she admits. “In one day, I can meet all kinds of people. I like to mingle around and I enjoy what I’m doing.”
She doesn’t see herself stopping any time soon, and she encourages people to venture out of their comfort zones to explore just how far they can go when fuelled by passion.
“Be brave,” she advises. “Don’t be shy about anything.” -FMT