‘Fakiraa Burger Wala’

Hard work is an essential thing we all need in life. It is impossible to achieve greatness without working hard. In other words, an idle person cannot gain anything if they wish to sit and wait for something else. On the other hand, one who keeps working hard constantly will definitely gain success in life and this is exactly how things worked for Parthiv Thakkar (47), fondly known as Fakiraa Burger Wala.

Armed with a three-decade-old Maruti 800 Parthiv Thakkar started his food business in May 2020.

Born and brought up in Ahmedabad, he moved to the United Kingdom when he turned 21, and went on to spend over ten years in the country. While Parthiv is a professional drummer and singer who has worked at places across the UK & US, he had to return to India in 2020 when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.

As a performer, COVID-19 hit Parthiv really hard as there was a ban on social gatherings. There were no shows happening, which in turn meant no income for a long while. This, coupled with him being in India and the mounting medical expenses.

He finally decided to start a business and started to do his own research of the food stalls in the area and found that no one was selling burgers.

He also found paratha and chaat stalls in plenty, so rather than doing something that others were already doing, he chose Mexican and American fast food. It was also a novelty and something that isn’t easily available in the area.

After finalizing the plan he decided to get the car they had serviced and use that to ferry all the things to and fro. This saved a lot of money that would have had to pay as rent for a space. He spent close to Rs 18,000 to get the car refurbished and ready to double as a moving kitchen.

He had all the seats except one removed, and with that he was set to begin. However, for close to three months after launching the business, Parthiv says that he saw no profit and hardly any footfall.

Parthiv can be found outside the IIM-A campus (old gate) every day from 9 am to 10 pm, and one can order a Mexican burrito, tacos, tortilla, sandwiches and burgers.

The cost of a vegetable burger begins at Rs 60 and a jumbo burger is priced up to Rs 250.

Parthiv attributes a lot of the success that he has achieved to social media and says that a number of his customers would make videos of his stall and upload them on their individual pages and that gave him a lot of visibility. Soon, people started having conversations with him and trying to find out more about why he was doing this.

He gets 100 burger buns each day and on most days, is able to sell them all.