Childhood marked by poverty
Prabhakar Prasad was born in Barh, a small town near the Ganga in Bihar, and the family lived with very limited means. “I was born in Barh, a small town near the Ganga. We were very poor. In winters, we slept under rice and dal sacks because we didn’t have blankets,” he said in the post.
Despite financial struggles, his parents always believed that education would eventually change things for the family. “Baba kept trying different businesses, often failing, but they never stopped believing that education would change our lives.”
He studied in a Hindi-medium school and did well academically. At the same time, he also enjoyed sports and other activities. “I was good in studies, loved cricket, singing, and even became the school ‘Senapati.’”
A sudden move and language struggle
A frightening incident changed the family’s life overnight. Someone tried to kidnap his brother after mistaking him for someone else. After that, the family left Bihar and shifted to Bhopal.Adjusting to the new environment was not easy, especially in school. “The shift was tough. From a Bihar board school to an English CBSE one, I didn’t even understand basic words. Kids laughed at my accent.” Still, he continued working hard and eventually managed to catch up with his classmates. His efforts paid off when he cleared the IIT screening exam.
After finishing four years of engineering, he started his first job in 2008.
Corporate job but a different passion
Even after landing a job, he realised that coding was not something he truly enjoyed. “But coding never excited me – the gym did. I started training seriously, spending more time there than at work.”
Bodybuilding slowly became his main interest, and that confidence pushed him to explore something completely different — modelling.
He shifted to Mumbai to pursue it, but the reality was far from glamorous. “Reality wasn’t glamorous – tiny flats in Andheri, long audition queues, and taking up whatever work came my way.”
Move to the US and new setbacks
After spending several years in India, he decided to move to the United States where his girlfriend was living. However, the journey was not smooth. “My visa got rejected twice, but the third time I finally landed in Texas around 2014 for my MBA.”
Even after completing his MBA and working in corporate roles, stability did not come easily. “I worked corporate jobs, got fired more than once, and went through a painful breakup.”
During that phase, things became even more difficult when his health also began to decline. “At one point, my health collapsed. There were many days when I had no idea where life was headed.”
When chai became the turning point
One night, he sat down and asked himself a simple question. “One night, I asked myself, ‘What’s the one thing that has always stayed constant?’”
The answer turned out to be something very ordinary — chai. “That’s when a friend suggested chai. No matter the city, heartbreak, or job, I always made my own tea. It reminded me of home. Jo bhi kaho, chai ki baat alag hi hai.”
According to details shared by Humans of Bombay, the idea of selling chai slowly began taking shape after he realised how often tea connected him to memories of home, even while living thousands of miles away in the United States.
What started as a small attempt to recreate that familiar taste gradually turned into a structured effort to introduce authentic Indian-style chai to people around him. In the beginning, the work involved long early mornings, figuring out paperwork and regulations, and learning the basics of running a small food business in a new country.
With very little money and no big business plan, he decided to try selling chai in California. “So with almost no money, I started selling chai in California. Waking up at 3 am, handling paperwork, learning from scratch.”
Looking back, he says the journey has been anything but predictable.
“From sleeping under rice sacks to selling chai in the US – I didn’t become a CEO, I became the Chai Guy and I finally feel settled.”
