If you are someone who grew up in a south Indian state, especially Tamil Nadu, the very thought of goli soda must immediately bring back memories of hot summer afternoons, the pop of the marble (like the kind in English Solitaire), the syrupy sweet taste of rosewater and the delicate curves of the glass bottles. Goli soda, made out of carbon dioxide, water and added flavours, used to be the only available drink for people to quench their thirst with. But as other carbonated beverages such as Coke and Pepsi raided the markets, the beautiful blue and green bottles began doing the disappearing act. So, when S Mayilvel’s tiny goli soda factory, Vela & Co (which is actually more of a shack) was spotted in one of the tiny roads of Royapettah, we were more than delighted. Started six decades ago by his father Singaravel, the factory has custom-made machines that have helped the family master the art of making goli soda. Mayilvel shows us how the bottle is placed in one of the machines and swings the handle, but he is careful to not exert too much pressure so that the marble does not pop out of the bottle. The used bottles are usually scrubbed clean and reused as the prices of the glass bottles are high. Two decades ago, business was roaring for him and the two or three other goli soda manufacturers in the city. From the 10,000 bottles that they used to make per day back then, they are down to a mere 1,000 bottles a day, out of which only 700 get sold. “We keep the remaining bottles here and resell them the next day,” he explains. “But even today, there is one particular shop near the Kapaleeshwarar Temple that sells a minimum of 100 bottles of my soda a day,” he says. Mayilvel now runs the business with his brother Vadivel’s son Koteeswaran and has eight people working under him. Two of them have been working with Mayilvel since his father’s time. They sell each bottle for `3.50 to shopkeepers, who sell it to the public for `5 each. Mayilvel ends up making just `1 per bottle each day, with 50 paise being absorbed by the shopkeepers as commission. Surely, this is not enough to sustain and pay off his aides. “We decided to make flavoured juices and milk and buttermilk to bring in more money,” he says. Though this type of business does not receive any support from the government, he is happy with what he makes. “Our Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa tasted my soda in one of the party meetings and said it was very good,” he recollects with pride. For more details, call 9940258554.
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