How 80-year-old Selvamma roasts corn with a solar-powered fan

The 80-year-old roasts corn with a solar powered fan, much to the amusement of people opposite Vidhana Soudha

While heated debates rage inside the Vidhana Soudha, sunny weather is surely something that Selvamma, who sells roasted corn, welcomes.

The octogenarian uses a solar-powered fan to grill corn kernel from her cart in front of Bengaluru’s State Legislative Assembly at Vidhana Veedhi. The road, that leads to multiple government offices, the High Court and Cubbon Park, has people frequenting her cart for years now, and customers are amused with the new device that grills their corn.

It was nine months ago that sustainable energy non-profit organisation SELCO Foundation, operating from JP Nagar, spotted Selvamma feverishly flapping a hand-held cane fan while grilling corn on a sunny afternoon.

Within a few days, she was presented with the Foundation’s solar-powered fan that has helped her to ply her trade, reducing her physical effort. Ask her if she feels comfortable using the fan and pat comes the reply, “I just switch it on and the fan works! But I hear it has to have sunshine to function properly, so I pray that the sun appears everyday!” she laughs.

Despite media attention she has grabbed over the last few months, the senior citizen continues to struggle for a livelihood. Selvamma left her home town Bhadravathi during an acute water shortage and settled in Bengaluru nearly 40 years ago. And it has been an uphill journey since then. “My husband is a cobbler. So we made arrangements for a make-shift stall to repair chappals. However, that venture was short-lived as a fire destroyed everything,” says Selvamma adding that her husband returned to Bhadravathi.

Selvamma had been roasting corn on the same road for two decades when the SELCO Fan, which works with a lithium ion battery, was offered to her. “I told the SELCO staff that I couldn’t afford it but they insisted that it was for free, and that they would come back for regular maintenance!” she beams adding “the device is said to cost ₹12,000.”

And how much has the tech-upgrade helped Selvamma? “The fan has helped me ease the pain in my arms. Each corn kernel now takes just five minutes to get grilled evenly, compared to manual fanning that took more than 15 minutes,” she says.

“My profit is just ₹5 on each corn kernel, as it still requires the traditional coal fire and green chilli masala to complete the roast,” she says adding that she sells about 30 ears of corn a day and makes a profit of ₹150.

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