I spotted this at Lucknow Airport yesterday. A beautifully decorated 3-wheeler rickshaw…
selling Lindt, Ferrero Rocher and other premium chocolates.
Let that sink in.
Once upon a time, a rickshaw meant
paan, beedi and chewing gum.
Today, it’s a moving luxury confectionery showroom.
Some nations measure development through GDP numbers, policy documents and global rankings.
India measures it through where premium brands land up next.
From Swiss factories
to airport duty-free
to a rickshaw at Lucknow Airport.
That’s not inflation.
That’s aspiration.
This is what a billion dreams look like in real life –
where the street doesn’t get disrupted by startups,
the street becomes the startup.
This isn’t jugaad.
This is grassroots capitalism on three wheels.
And if you think this is just about chocolate, you’re missing the point.
This is about consumer confidence,
about purchasing power moving deeper into India,
about Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities quietly rewriting every market assumption we still debate in air-conditioned boardrooms.
While we keep discussing
“Is India ready for premium?”
India has already parked it near Belt Number 3.
If Lindt can sell from a rickshaw,
no founder should ever complain again about market access.
Because in this country,
opportunity doesn’t knock.
It honks… tring tring…