About Me
My Life Story
I’m Shridhar Yashwant Arbune (Patil), I have completed my Bachelors in Organic Chemistry and I have also done my Masters in Computer Application & Food Research Development from Shivaji University at Kolhapur.
I grew up in a very humble farmers family in a small town of Sangli district in the state of Maharashtra, India.
I lived there most of my life before moving to Pune the Cultural and Educational Capital of Maharashtra. I speak Marathi, Hindi and English. I love writing poems, reading philosophy, research on latest manufacturing technologies in food & beverage industry and I like streaming my poems on Facebook sometimes.
I’ve always wanted to improve my knowledge so that I can be of service to the people around me. My uncle was a renowned Shahir (Singing songs in praises of the King) and my dad was also a singer in the Bhajni Mandali (Devotional song Singer) of my village. Without any formal education in the fields of signing both my uncle and dad used write and sing songs, this is what I got in inheritance from my family. Naturally I was inclined towards literature and poetry because of our family tradition.I excelled in education and literature as I was blessed by the goddess of Knowledge Ma Saraswati.
I excelled in literature at school, college gatherings and even at the literature festivals that I have participated all along my life journey. I participated in most of the literature festivals held in Pune and across Maharashtra, I have received many prestigious awards in the Literature festivals held across the state Maharashtra.
When I was in the last year of my Masters in Computer Application, I got an opportunity to work in research project for six months at Pune University.
So I shifted to Pune. After working in the project, I landed up taking a job in a start-up based in Pune named Softnet Solutions.
I worked in that start-up for 8 months and after that I got a chance to work with a software company based in Malaysia. It was a big opportunity for me to work in Malaysia. As time passed, I felt like I should not invest my life working in the software company So, I took a bold decision to leave the software field and started working as an event manager in a company that arranges exhibition of Agricultural Processing Plants.
As I was a born in farmers family so I was naturally attracted to this sector related to agriculture. The IT sector was on the boom at that time and I had taken a very bold decision to switch to from the Software field into Events. At the events company we organised exhibition in 17 to 18 countries, I came across many companies working in the field of Agricultural processing Units. After extensively organising various expos in different countries, I noticed that there are no Equipment manufacturing companies for Jaggery manufacturing. The idea of designing and manufacturing equipment’s for Automated Jaggery manufacturing plants hit me and I started to pen down my research in the same. The concept of vacuum drying was not available in India so I started to build my ideas around it.
While I was working in the Event Management Company, I travelled extensively in almost 17 to 18 countries and this experience enhanced my skills to deal with people and new situations, I was practically experiencing all sorts of trainings. Unfortunately, I had to leave everything and I had to travel back to India because my father had got a paralysis stroke and this incident completely changed my life.
Ultimately when I came back to India the ideas in my head took over me and I started manifesting them. I got into sales and marketing for the Automatic Jaggery Manufacturing Unit. I was not able to sell any plant until 1.5 years later I gained trust of the Deputy Superintendent of Police who gave me an order of a Turney project wherein I had to build everything from scratch.
I started working on this new project and ideas which I scribbled on the paper started manifesting in reality, I made a promise to complete the work within 6 months but it took me 1.6 years to complete the project. The major challenge was the storage of jaggery in sealed containers, as the nature of jaggery which is hygroscopic due to the presence of invert sugars, mineral salts and it’ viscosity. Somehow, we had to make this a success so I started implementing different strategies to work, we were determined to succeed. And finally, we succeeded at it and this was the technology which brought a social revolution in the Jaggery packaging industry. We succeeded in the setup of a fully automatic Jaggery Production Unit which was a social revolution in itself. Once we put the sugarcane at the entry feeder, you’ll get the jaggery packaged in air tight containers at the end. I succeeded in building the 1st plant and eventually I landed up getting more orders, I have provided 22 such turkey projects in the past 10 to 12 years and still counting.
A few years back there was a news in the regional news channel of Maharashtra about a tea seller who makes around 2 lakhs (2500 USD) in profits every month, I started researching about it and I was shocked to realise that it was true. It was true that people in India like Chai (Tea) and its popular beverage in India. On an average every Indian at least consumes 2 to 3 cups of tea every day. But I realised that drinking tea everyday increases the blood sugar levels and almost 50 % of people in India above the age of 50 have diabetics, The main reason they have diabetics is because of consumption of tea containing refined sugars.
So started thinking about a better substitute for refined sugar in the tea which can eliminate the chances of causing diabetics.
I started researching about the alternatives to be used as a substitute for refined sugar, I had the answer in front of me jaggery. In India people majorly consume tea made out of milk and when we jaggery instead of refined sugar, the milk used to get spoilt and it tasted very bad. After trying different recipes for 2 years finally I discovered a way to use chemically free jaggery powder as a substitute to refined sugar. This was the first of its kind not only in India but around the globe wherein tea was made with the help of organically produced jaggery instead of refined sugars and you can keep the tea boiling for hours without Changning the taste of it and making it healthier.
After being successful in making tea from jaggery made out of naturally and organically produced sugarcanes, we started an outlet of Jaggery Tea in Pimpri Chinchwad area of Pune.
The brand started getting popular amongst the people as it was healthy and it was a totally new concept and it was accepted widely in the masses. We created a hype in the market as we were the pioneer in this endeavour of ours.
I got a plan in my head to launch this concept at large and start giving out franchises, so I was in search for a brand ambassador for our product. I approached many film and television actors, actresses but they were happy to hear about our concept of a healthy tea but nobody was ready to promote it, their demand of payments were very high. After thinking about it I got an idea in my head “Why Can’t I make Jaggery itself the Brand Ambassador and promote it as healthy drink”. So, I branded the Franchise model as Jaggery tea and we succeeded in distributing 68 franchisees till now, In the first 4 months we distributed almost 22 outlets.
We gave out our franchises all over India in the national capital Delhi, in Haryana, in Maharashtra. We even gave out a Franchise overseas in Dubai. We were popular and our acceptance was increasing all over India. As we started growing, we started getting inquires for all over Maharashtra and other states as well, which attracted many copy cats in the market. Many of the tea franchising houses started to copy our concept of Jaggery tea, I was happy and sad at the same time, I was happy that people will now have access to healthy tea and unhappy at the same time because my brand was going to be hampered.
My next project was a to develop a unique recipe of tea that no one should be able to copy, so I started my research work again.
And after extensive research for about 2 years, I finally developed Khandsari Tea which a was very new and unique recipe. The ingredients used in the Khandsari tea are very expensive and tea is usually sold at 10 Rs in India so nobody dared to copy this idea of mine. We started franchising of Khandsari tea and up till now we have reached a mighty figure of 32 outlets.
I had almost completed a decade in the food and beverage industry I never thought that an IT engineer by qualification would ever end up in this field. My hobby of research led in me into this and I always had a curiosity to learn and develop new products. After working for almost a decade I invented a Ayurvedic beer which is completely free of Alcohol but it makes you high as if you have consumed alcohol.
It has no side effects on your health. While working on the concept of Ayurvedic beer I was constantly in touch with the officers from the narcotics department, they helped a lot in my research and gave me green signal to work on this concept. I am social entrepreneur and I wanted to serve the people with unique products that will change their life for good.
The biggest challenge for us was to maintain the taste and colour of the ayurvedic beer, we accepted the challenge and built a product that is compatible in the market and also a healthy solution.
Simultaneously I was working on developing ayurvedic whisky and Wine, we succeeded at developing Ayurvedic wine within years’ time and we even succeeded at making ayurvedic whisky last year in 2022.
I have invented many such unique products and I’m still working on developing more of such products which we will benefit the people at large. I always wanted to create products which transform people’s life for good and I’m proud of myself that I succeeded at it.
Along with business I worked for many social causes, we have arranged many seminars, workshops and programs for people to quit the use of drugs. We have run many social campaigns against drugs, we even built a wall of humanity wherein we encouraged people to donate clothes for the needy.
I started Yashwant Social Foundation and with the help of this foundation we have tried to help people by organising many events to enlighten people about positive thinking.
I had observed that whenever a person is travelling late at night by trains once he gets down at the station, he has to pay double fares in the night to reach home and this was loot practice that you observe at every railway station. At Yashwant Social Foundation we undertook an activity to help armed personals who are travelling by trains in the night. We arranged for a taxi service at the train station for the people of the armed forces for free from 12 in the night up to 6 in the morning. They are the ones because of whom we are able to live our lives in peace and harmony, so its our duty to give them back what they deserve.
After that I started working with NAAM Foundation which is run by Philanthropist Actor Nana Patekar and I almost worked for 3 to 4 years with NAAM Foundation.
On 15th August 2021 which is our Independence Day I along with my friend Raju Jagtap started an old age home named Sahara. I took the responsibility as the working president of the old age home. The old age home is located in a village named Kusawali which is located 50 kms from Pune. We are currently serving 14 people at our old age home and we haven’t accepted donations from any person or organisation. We run this foundation at our expenses and serve the elderly in the best possible way we can.
This is the small list of social work I’m involved in and the good lord is providing me with all the resources to continue doing this task. I was able to accomplish this success in business and at the social work I’m doing because of my back bone that is my wife Rupali.
She’s stood by my side in every situation with full faith in what I am doing. we’ve often heard this saying” Behind every successful man is a good woman”, that completely holds true for me, in fact I give all the credit of my success in business as well as in social work to my wife as she sacrificed her dreams in order to support me in my endeavours.
I would like to express my gratitude towards my wife and thank her for being my support system in everything I was able to accomplish. As I stated earlier that I have received many awards for Marathi Literature but I am happy to inform you that I have also received many awards for my research. In 2021 the Pimppri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and after that the Nashik Municipal Corporation gave me the title “Inventor of the Jaggery Tea” and felicitated me.
I received the Maharashtra Industrial award for the Development and Research of Quality Jaggery Manufacturing Units. I have even received the prestigious Maharashtra Rojgar Samiti award at Mumbai. “You get in Life what you have the courage to ask for”, this is my life story which includes everything about my failures and success in the social and business spheres. Thank you.
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Dr. Shridhar Arbune Patil ( Scientist ) – Founder of asia’s largest Jaggery Plant in pune and manufacturers of india’s first Natural Jaggery Tea brand ( Naisargik Gulacha Chaha ).