Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri campus, saw the first edition of amFOSS Open Talks, an invited talk series organized by Amrita’s amFOSS on February 15, 2020. For the first edition, Mr. Vijayan and Mrs. Mohana, popularly known as the “Tea Selling Couple” were invited to give a talk at the campus.

amFOSS Open Talks is an initiative taken by the students from Amrita’s amFOSS, a student community focused on contributing to open-source software. This series of invited talks aims to invite people who have lived a lifestyle out of the ordinary and have set an example of how to live life.

“The Tea Selling Couple” has been selling tea for the last 40 years to travel around the world. Mr. Vijayan and Mrs. Mohana has been to over 25 countries like the USA, Argentina, Switzerland and Israel, etc. The couple’s main source of income is from running a tea shop in Ernakulam, Kochi.

The event commenced with the light lamping ceremony by Dr. S.N. Jyothi (Principal of School of Engineering, Amritapuri, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham) and Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar (Associate Dean of School of Engineering, Amritapuri campus, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham). Mr. Vijayan then took to the podium to share their story. Mr. Vijayan described how he, from his childhood, had a passion to explore and discover new places around him.  He shared that his wife hadn’t been outside of Ernakulam until they got married. From then on, the couple started to tour different places in India such as Kashi, Haridwar, Kanyakumari, Madras, Banglore and Delhi.  Travelling has been Vijayan’s passion since his childhood. He shared that his grandfather sold tea and his father sold tea.  Vijayan takes pride in what he does every day and it has never stopped him from following his dreams.

Vijayan then shared the different experiences he had in the different countries he had visited, including Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia. Questions were then entertained from the crowd. All in all, the session was energetic and inspiring. Concluding the event, Mrs. Jyothi and Mr. Balakrishnan honored the guests with a token of gratitude.