Billing for your restaurant or tiffin shop in Chhattisgarh
Chila at seven, a thali at one and a regular's tab at night, all on one bill from your phone.
Plant towns and a power town: who eats out in Chhattisgarh
The people who eat out in Chhattisgarh work in very different places. Two districts show the range.
- Raigarh is home to Jindal Steel's flagship integrated steel complex, with 3.6 million tonnes a year of steelmaking capacity and its own coal mine.
- Korba is known as Urja Nagari, the power capital of Chhattisgarh, and some estimates say over 60 percent of its GDP comes from coal mining and related work.
Why the chila hour, the lunch plate and the evening steamer cannot share one slip
Seven in the morning: chila off the tawa, dhuska in the pan, and one pair of hands
The breakfast crowd arrives together. One man wants three chila with green chutney, a woman wants a dhuska with tomato chutney to take home in a steel box, and a boy wants only one chila and has only a coin. The cook is also the cashier, with batter on his fingers, so he keeps the money in his head and the pieces on his fingers. By eight he has sold a morning's worth and cannot say how much of it was cash.
The tiffin boy comes back from the factory gate with a promise instead of money
A steel carrier of thali, with rice, dal and a drumstick curry, goes to the gate every noon while the tables inside are full. The boy who takes it brings back cash on some days and a promise on others, and neither is written anywhere. By Saturday the gate's account is whatever you and its clerk each remember, and the two memories do not match.
A steamer of faraa at four, and no count of what was left at nine
Faraa is steamed in batches in the afternoon and sold by the plate until the evening is over. You know how many you put in, but no one counts the plates that went. The unsold ones are sold cheaper the next morning or given away, and without a number you cannot tell whether you made too much, or whether the evening was only slow.
From the first chila off the tawa to the last faraa of the evening
Chila by the piece in a few taps, while the next one is on the tawa
Keep chila, dhuska and tea as items with their own rates. The bill is the item and the number of pieces, nothing more, so a boy with a single coin and a man with a steel box wait no longer than a chila takes to turn on the tawa.
The factory gate sends its boy with cash one day and a promise the next
The boy comes at noon for the gate's tiffin boxes. Some days he pays on the spot, other days he says the clerk will settle. Only the days of a promise go on the gate's page. The cash days are plain sales. On Saturday the clerk says Wednesday had fewer boxes, and you show him the day.
The steamer's count, read from the phone at nine
At nine you look at the phone and know how many plates of faraa the steamer still holds. Those plates go out next morning at a cheaper rate, as their own item, so the morning's fresh steaming and last night's plates never share a price. After a week of nine o'clock counts you fill the steamer to what the evening takes.
Tools for a counter that serves chila, faraa and thali to the same regulars
Bills on your phone
Chila by the piece, dhuska by the plate and tea by the cup on one bill, typed between two turns of the tawa.
Credit book (khata)
On market days the shopkeeper across the road sends his boy for chila, and each lot goes on his page.
Low stock warnings
The urad dal for the morning's batter flagged when a kilo is left, while the shop is still open and a trip to the market is possible.
Daily reports
Chila at breakfast, thali at noon and faraa in the evening read apart as three trades on one day, so you see which of the three carries the shop.
Your own online shop
A page that lists chila, dhuska and the noon thali with their rates, ready to forward to the colony's WhatsApp group.
Questions Chhattisgarh restaurant owners ask
A man brings his steel box for a stack of chila and a boy wants only one. Can I bill both quickly?
Yes. Chila is an item by the piece. The man's box is one tap with the count, and the boy's one chila is one tap with one. The boy's coin is taken at once, and the box's bill is made while the next chila is on the tawa.
Some faraa is left from last night. Can I sell it in the morning as its own item?
Yes. Make faraa from last night an item of its own. Add the plates left to its count, and each sale takes one off. The day's list shows these plates on a line apart from the fresh batch.
A wedding party wants forty thali ready at the hour of the feast. Do I bill when I take the order or when the plates go out?
When the plates go out. Cook the thali to the hour the party sets, then make the bill with forty thali on it under the party's name. Write the party's money on its page when it comes.
Chila and faraa: the plates a Chhattisgarh counter is known for
Chila is a flat pancake of rice batter and urad dal eaten with green chutney, and it is a staple of the Chhattisgarhi breakfast. It is cooked on a tawa, one piece at a time, and is sold by the piece.
Faraa, steamed rice-dough dumplings seasoned with coriander, is a light snack that originates from Chhattisgarh and is described as a desi-style momo. It is steamed, not fried, so it comes out of the steamer a batch at a time.