Sweet success

Born in a generation when job-hopping was a sin, Harish Chander, 74, has switched careers twice. A trained electrical engineer, Chander's first employer was the Hindustan Electric Company. In 1972, he quit the company as operations manager and went back to his 100-acre family farm in Nainital. He had just turned 40 and lost his wife in a road accident. He thought the change would do him good. Within two decades, Chander had earned the reputation of "a wealthy farmer". In 1992, a local terrorist outfit kidnapped him for ransom, beat him mercilessly and left him to die on the road.

He survived. And, a decade later in 2002, he sprung another surprise. He opened a tiny chocolate boutique in Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi. His son-in-law Sanjiv Obhrai shut his loss-making garment export business to join him. "Everyday, my grandchildren mobbed me for chocolates. So I decided to open a chocolate factory for them. Well, actually, it was a business option that needed investment, about Rs 3 lakh," he recalls, adding how it also worked as a 'rehabilitation centre' for him.

He called the boutique Chocolatiers. The shop rolled open after a 15-day training session with a Spanish confectionery house by the same name, which included developing the right attitude and gift-wrapping products in cartons that looked like heirlooms. Chander created his first wave of publicity by sending a free sample with flowers to people in the neighbourhood. He also coaxed curious passers-by to come into the shop and try some chocolate without paying for it. "I borrowed the idea from Joanne Harris' book Chocolat," confesses Chander.

Initially, people thought it was crazy to open a chocolate boutique in a middle-class area that houses some of the city's best Bengali sweet shops. But Chander, who has learnt to talk chocolates for hours, proved them wrong. "We wanted to cater to middle-level professionals who aspire to live in style, bringing home chocolates and liqueur from foreign holidays," he says. "These people want to gift Jamaican rum truffles to friends, not rosogulla." As its popularity soared, Chocolatiers' range of flavours shot up from five to 200. While dark and bitter chocolates remain its specialty, Chander's boutique is also famous for desi paan-supari chocolate and tamarind chocolate. His loyal clients include companies like Pricewater House, Cheil Communication and Airtel, along with about 5,000 families in South Delhi. Now he is looking for a formula for a Sambuca-chocolate (coffee bean liqueur and chocolate) cocktail.

- Teena Baruah