Bhopal street vendor offers free ‘pani-puri’ to celebrates daughter’s birth

“The birth of the baby girl is a dream come true for me. Since I got married, I always wanted a daughter, but I was first blessed with a son two years back,” the 30-year-old vendor said on Monday.

The man said God blessed him with the daughter on August 17 this year. Yesterday was my son’s second birthday and I decided to celebrate it by announcing the birth of my daughter by offering free pani-puri to the people of Bhopal and to give them the message that ‘beti hai, to kal hai’,” said the man, who is a Class 8 dropout.

The vendor said he served ‘pani puri’ worth Rs 35,000-40,000 free of cost on Sunday, but it did not matter to him as the joy of having a daughter was more than anything else.

A large number of people thronged the busy Kolar area from Sunday afternoon till evening to have the ‘pani puri’ at Gupta’s stall, and many of them congratulated him over the birth of his daughter and his decision to celebrate it with the gesture of offering the snack free of cost.

Some eyewitnesses said people did not even follow COVID-19 protocols, including the norm of maintaining social distance while enjoying the free snack.

Gupta, whose other two brothers are engineers while he is in the ‘pani puri’ business for nearly 20 years, said his wife is a graduate and he had planned to set up a stitching centre (for sewing and embroidery work) for her, but the birth of their daughter has now delayed the plan. “But, I will open a shop for her after some time so that she becomes (financially) independent,” he added.