In a time where most have to deal with Monday blues and a standard 9-5, founders of Thangaat Garba have set an example for those wanting to follow their passions but do not ‘find the time’. Back in 2019, Thangaat Garba was founded as both Parth Patel and Ankit Upadhyaya wanted to impart skills of Garba as well as have more and more people dance to the folk dance of Gujarat.
What started as a small-scale Garba institute is now a full-fledged school with hundreds of students participating and winning Garba competitions everywhere. Perhaps it was this exact passion that brought them to create “Thangaat Garba” despite having a cafe brand founded in 2014 that is now a franchise – Tea Pea Café.
“Garba has been our passion. Both Parth and I have been dancing together for years now. Our friendship is deeper like we’re almost brothers. And therefore, working together – be it make a café or a dance school – we wanted to follow our common love for both dancing and dining. We’ve had our sleepless nights and ups and downs. But it’s hard-work and a lot of faith that brought us here,” says Ankit Upadhyaya describing how Tea Pea Café was conceptualized to make an artistic yet stylish place for the youth to hang out together.
Both their ventures have numerous youths taking interest and actively visiting or participating in there. The founders of Thangaat have already prepped a plan in order to integrate Tea Pea Café and the Garba school, and await execution at the right time. They are planning to avail offers for members of Thangaat Garba when they visit Tea Pea, while customers at their café can avail some benefits by joining their Garba school.
“We want to grow a strong community of the youth and want to integrate both our brands. Therefore, we have planned something special that we shall soon be executing for our customers and students to former can become latter and vice-versa to grow together with us,” Ankit said.
Talking about the hustle initially, Parth said, “Yes, initially it was a hustle to manage both – our passion for dance and our brand Tea Pea Café. We did not know exactly how we were going to do both but it was just the both of us supporting each other, planning and strategizing throughout that led us to be able to handle both.”
“Tea Pea Café was founded in 2014, where we created a café brand that caters to the modern crowd that also love their dose of ‘chai’ each day. We curated the menu accordingly as well.”
“By 2022, we have 11 operational stores and 3 are under process in several cities – Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar and even Goa,” says Parth Patel while talking about how Thangaat too, in a similar manner was something brought out of pure love for dance and determination to do something for the culture of the state of Gujarat.
The internet presence of Thangaat gained prominence way back when in 2019, 2020 & 2021 – Thangaat introduced first ever online Garba courses on website www.thangaatgarba.com. With pre-shot garba tutorial videos, we planned a subscription model for students who can enroll and learn basic and advance garba. Got more than 500+ enrolments via website in two years. That being said, Tea Pea Café, their first venture together of making a brand into a franchise was also realized via their social media and word of mouth.
“I really love how people like hanging out at our cafes across Mumbai and other cities. The response has been so wonderful after the very first branch that we created more. And same applies to Thangaat as we’re present in not just Mumbai but Europe too!” said Ankit Upadhyaya.
While serving affordable and delicious meals at the quaint, charming place with a patio serving artisanal teas & coffees, plus European meals & snacks, the dancing duo has set a strong example of how once you begin to pursue your passion, it can become a brand – “pursue what your heart says and put your mind to it. Once you are driven by passion, success will follow wherever you go,” signs off Parth Patel.
