Bhopal Street vendor offers free 50,000 'pani-puri' to people following daughter's birth

Bhopal, Sep 13: Elated over being blessed with a daughter, a street vendor in Bhopal offered free 'pani-puri' to people to welcome his baby and send across a message to society to celebrate the birth of a girl child and not discriminate between boys and girls.

"Beti hai, to kal hai (future is possible with daughters)," Anchal Gupta, who runs a 'pani-puri' centre in Kolar area of the Madhya Pradesh capital, said in his message to people while offering them the spicy snack free of cost on Sunday.

"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 told PTI 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, who's other two brothers are engineers while he is into 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.