Although election season has concluded, the hubbub over pakoda is far from over. The reason this time, however, is a very different one.
Sagar Shah a young engineering graduate from Uttarakhand who managed to clear the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) with flying colours prefers to work in his pakoda shop along the Badrinath highway in Pipalkoti.
Shah’s pakoda shop has become a hit among locals and pilgrims visiting Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib. With pilgrimage season on in full swing, these fried delights are flying off the racks.
Located in a remote location of Chamoli district, Pipalkoti has seen a mass migration of locals for jobs and education. But Sagar’s case is a different and interesting one.
After completing his secondary level education from a local school, Sagar did a degree in engineering from a college in Chamoli. He also has a polytechnic diploma.
Sagar managed to achieve this feat while working at the pakoda shop alongside his father and uncle.
The young engineering graduate serves tea to the customers, deep fries pakodas and does every odd job like cleaning utensils.
Unlike many of his peers, he didn’t seek additional coaching from anywhere.
“I always had a knack for technical education, I understand how difficult it was for my family to support me financially. After completing engineering I took the GATE as a challenge, prepared a lot and cleared the exam” Sagar told News18.
Of the tens of thousands of people who appear for the GATE exam, Sagar secured a rank of around 8000. This is sufficient for him to get admission into any good National Institute of Technology (NIT). However, he has no plans of joining an M.Tech course.
“Doing M.Tech means wasting another two years and I don’t want to do that,” he said and added that he is instead keen on taking up a job and earning some money to support his family business.
“Running a pakoda shop is itself challenging. We hardly get labourers and cooks these days. I don’t feel about my father and uncle serving (food) at the shop and cleaning tables,” he reasoned.
The young achiever eventually intends to develop technology that will help several other pakoda sellers like him.
After all, in the end, it all comes back to pakodas.