Around the city: From driving celebrities to establishing a momo franchise, meet the man behind Suraj Lama Momos | Mumbai News

Suraj Lama Momos was buzzing with activity when we arrived at his branch in Versova around 6pm on a weekday. Lama was busy manning the cash register counter while a group of young people, most of whom were from his village, were busy packing Swiggy and Zomato orders and delivering steaming momos to customers waiting outside and those dining upstairs. The pace of work was so fast that it took a good half an hour before Lama left his seat to sit and chat with us.

Looking back

Suraj left his hometown of Mirik in Darjeeling at the age of 14 for Mumbai in search of better work, doing odd jobs before finding a career as a driver, a job he continued for nearly 25 years, ferrying actors like Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha around and working for production companies like Dharma.

“I was a dedicated worker and I treated the people I worked with like my family, but sometimes we weren't treated equally and that bothered me,” he said, recalling the incident that was the final nail in the coffin.

“I was driving an actor to the set, and a kid had been waiting a long time to get his picture taken with him. I wanted to help him, but when I told the actor what I wanted he said no. I didn't feel good about it.”

Rama quit his job and persuaded his wife Vijayata, who was then working as a cook for the late singer KK, to quit her job as well and suggested they do something on their own.

“In hindsight, it was a big risk. We each earned Rs 30,000, half of which was spent on household expenses and the rest was saved. The gamble paid off but we could have gone in a different direction,” he said, adding that he decided to enter the food industry because his wife was showing great talent in the field.

“I don't really tell her that, but she does,” he says, before laughing, and adding: “I thought I'd sell momos since they were easily available back home but were not common in Mumbai then.”

Interestingly, a few months earlier, he had treated actor Sonakshi Sinha and her family to some of his wife's momos and they too loved them.

Determined, Lama sold his own bicycle and bought a modified one to set up a mobile stall. Starting in March 2017, Vijayata prepared around 15 plates of momos – both vegetarian and non-vegetarian steamed momos – which Lama sold in and around the lanes of Lokhandwala, Versova and Seven Bungalows.

“Soon, people started queuing up and we started running out of goods, so two months later, I opened a roadside eatery there,” he says, pointing to the space opposite his current brick-and-mortar store in Versova. “In fact, when I first approached the owner of the current store to rent us the space, he said, 'aapke baski nahi hai (You won't be able to pay)'. Later, he himself contacted me,” he adds.

The rest, as the saying goes, is history. Today, Suraj Rama Momos has two of its own outlets in Versova and Malad, and nearly six franchise outlets in the city. It also receives requests from Pune, Nashik and Gujarat.

“It is not acceptable now. It is important to maintain quality. Currently, we have a central kitchen in Mumbai, fully managed by my wife, where 25 staff prepare around 16,000 momos of different varieties every day. These momos, which are around 90 per cent cooked, are shipped to individual outlets, whether they are run by us or franchises. We have no plans to expand until we are able to do this in other cities,” he said.

from now on

What's next for Suraj Lama Momos? “I'm going to open a shop in Kandivali,” he says. But what's his ultimate goal? “To go back to the village and live with my children. My wife and I had full-time jobs so my children have always lived with their grandparents. We visit them every three months but I would love to live with them one day,” he adds.