Chennai: Dabba Chetty Kadai, a cure all shop

Ordinarily, the Kutchery road, just off Luz crossroads at Mylapore, is busy with two way traffic on a narrow single road. Shops and other establishments add to the general chaos. But business continues. Honking is incessant and the noise with the sweat factor is an irritant for the outsider but the denizens of Chennai carry on.

And here on Kutchery road, amidst a number of other small establishments is Dabba Chetty Kadai (shop) established by Krishnaswamy Chetty way back in 1885. Then the shop sold paints and kirana and herbs too, but over a period of time the two brothers split the shop and separated paints and kirana and kept the herbal drugs as a separate entity and thus was born the Dabba Chatti Kadai, where people in the know throng here for ‘natu marundu’ (or natural drugs) for every single ailment. 

Koonala Badrinath, the current owner of the shop, sits there, cool, unfazed, handing over medicines with ease and comfort. People too come with regular requests, for ‘pana kalkandu’ (palm candy) or ‘natu chakkarai’ (palm sugar) or other regular medicines which are now packaged and ready to sell over the counter. 

So, the transaction does not last long, but there are some who come there and sit on a stone ledge, kept for these purposes, catch their breath and have a chat with Badrinath or his wife Shobana, who has also been coming to the shop for a long time now. Then they discuss their ailments and as Badrinath says “depending on the time you have and the time we have, we give suggestions for the kind of medicines to be taken for a certain ailment.” Just then in that crowd a huge car stops, a gentleman rushes up and asks for something. Badrinath turns and says proper use is necessary or else it is poison’ but as he completes the sentence the second person comes out of the car and Badrinath smiles.

Meanwhile, the crescendo of honks increases exponentially, till the purchase is made and the car moves away. Kutchery road in those days must have been a quiet street and so was chosen by Krishnaswamy Chetty. It also happened to be close to Arundale Street, where he lived. The name of the shop came by when people who saw all the neat tin containers and started calling it ‘Dabba Chetty Kadai’. Krishnaswamy later officially named it so. There are close to 200 to 300 items in these steel tins and Badrinath says he and his wife and girls would know about every product in every tin. That probably speaks of the 40 years of experience behind the counter. 

“I completed my commerce degree and would come and help my father. I would sit there and watch ardently what Appa was doing and then one day I was sitting on the other side of the counter. My father had grown old and then he would sit on the ledge and watch me and never complained,” says Badrinath. He has two sons and while they do come to lend a hand once in a while, Badri and his wife have given them the option of doing what they want.

In those days they would sell raw materials for the medicines and then as times changed and the race for time became obvious, “we started preparing the medicines and kept it over the counter making it easy for people to buy. Basically it was at people’s request that we have started making readymade 'marundu’, (medicine).”

Soon after Krishnaswamy Chetty passed away, his son K. Rajamannar Chetty took over the shop. With the Venkataramana Ayurvedic college being next doors helped. The hospital opened its own dispensary in 1905 and soon this shop became an automatic prop to the Ayurvedic college. 
Also the beginner’s luck helped this shop since they were the first around in that area. 

They source their raw material from various places including Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and other places and this specific trouble is taken because Dabba Chetty is looking for quality.

 In 1905, when the Venkataramana Ayurvedic Dispensery began, the shop’s popularity grew and R. Kannaiah Chetty, Badrinath’s father took over and Badrinath joined his father at the shop after 1975. Of course in the period that Badrinath has spent here, he has seen a number of changes and not all of them happy.
According to him, noise pollution has increased as has the need for immediate cure, which belies the Ayurvedic philosophy of slow cure. 

The shop is very popular for its Deepavali ‘marundu’, or a delicious ‘legiyam’ a mixture of herbs, to be taken in small quantities after all the indulgences during the festival time. It acts as a digestive, getting you ready for yet another day of indulgence. They are also famous for their post-natal medicine. “We get customers wanting the post-delivery medicine that we sell,” says Badrinath and shocks one by saying that their Deepavali legiyam though popular is sold only for about 15-20 days around the festival. 

The post natal legiyam is also extremely popular, with a number of boxes flying off the counter regularly. Along with the box of legiyam is a small plastic Dabba which contains a ‘vasambhu’ bangle, Kajal Dabba, Pottu powder with different patterns, amulets and anklets. No doubt it is popular.

“For about ten to 15 years business had really slowed down, but now things are beginning to change,” says Badrinath with a smile and that he attributes to people’s attitude towards ‘Natu marundu’. “People are beginning to believe that we use raw materials which are used in our daily diet and hence can only be good. Herbal or natural medicine is just food that cures,” he says. 

 While Kutchery road is equated with Dabba Chetty Kadai, Badrinath also has no intentions of moving from here. “Maybe I will add a glass door to cut the noise factor and so the customer has to come in and we can discuss problems if they want any suggestions,” he says with a smile. “I have also shifted to an electronic scale,” he smiles, “Whereas they used a 'taras’ earlier. Earlier they would hand over the medicine in paper packets but now we put them in 
plastic bags. We have brought in enough changes,” he says.

Currently, the parents have also given a choice to their two sons, telling them to prioritise on their education and then decide on the path they want to take. 
There is a slight regret that everything till now has been lost or forgotten or gotten hazy thanks to the oral tradition. “The older generation knows more, probably because they paid attention to what was happening in their kitchen and what their mother was doing,” says Badrinath, when discussing the lack of young people using these medicines. But he says with confidence that the return to roots is imminent and Shobana also says “I have been coming here for 20 years now and I see a slight change when younger people come for natural medicine.”

“This work is tough and strenuous,” says Badrinath. “It is labour intensive.” There are peak hours for the shop too, when employees going to and from work stop for a breath and buy what they want and these are crowded times. Now there is no question of demand and supply, things are always there at the shop.

“I also suggest to the customers who come with an ailment that if they are in a rush and are looking for immediate cure, then they should go to allopathy, because ours is slow in showing effect, but it definitely helps,” he adds. Having said all this, the products here are also affordable and so it is easy to chat with Badrinath and keep adding to your basket.