AKASH CHOTAI
| Prakashbhai Chotai, owner of the Jalaram Chikki, which dominates the chikki market in the Saurashtra region, is yearning for more. Starting with a sales figure of Rs 50 per day in 1961, the annual turnover of Jalaram Chikki has hit the ceiling at Rs 36 lakh this year, with the annual production of different kind of chikkis reaching 50-60 thousand kg. |
| Prakashbhai wants to take his products to not only to different parts of Gujarat but also to the neighbouring states during the next two years. |
| Jalaram Chikki is the tradename under which it is marketed in Saurashtra and Gujarat through a network of 15-20 sales centres from Rajkot. |
| Prakashbhai Chotai of Jalaram Chikki says that his father Natvarlal Chotai started preparing chikkis on a small scale at home in 1961-62 and started selling these from a push cart. |
| At that time the varieties offered were sing chikki, til chikki, dalia chikki and rice sweet balls. On Makar Sankranti day (January 14), which is also the annual kite flying day, savouring chikkis is an annual ritual everybody indulges in unabashedly. |
| Chikki is made by mixing ground nuts, sesame seeds, baked grams, coconut scrapings and dry fruits with hot jaggery paste formed into delicious thin plates and is really a mouth watering proposition on a winter morning. |
| Chikki has its origin in Sindh of Pakistan. |
| In 1971, with the chikki business on the upswing, Natvarlal hired a small place near his house to scale up the operations. He actively believed to offer some thing new to the customers. |
| At the age of 13, Prakashbhai joined his father to assist him in the business, besides doing his studies. |
| He is now in the business since 25 years and follows his father |
