An Indian woman has spoken out about the trouble she gets from teenagers while trying to run a traditional British fish and chip shop in Leeds.
Bindi Kaur, 45, has been running T’Chippy in Gipton all by herself while her brother is away on holiday. She’s revealed how argumentative teens will try to make her life difficult by damaging the shop and stealing drinks from the cooler.
The chip shop is located in Coldcotes Circus and is popular in the area. The venue is Indian family run and they live with other Indian people above the chip shop.
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After work, they sometimes even make traditional 'Indian style fish and chips' and have meals together. But running the chip shop also presents its challenges.
While Bindi says she’s never experienced outright xenophobia or racism, there are some who cause a hostile environment, steal and cause damage to the shop. There’s a plastic transparent barrier across the counter which was installed since the pandemic which she says teenagers like to bang while she is frying.
The mother of two said: “Sometimes we get trouble, when there are older teenagers in the shop. They bang the barrier, the door and glass.”
Sanny Singh, 33, who also lives above the shop and describes Bindhi as “like a sister” described Bindi as a “hard headed woman” who doesn’t take any nonsense.
Bindi agrees and says: “I just ignore them and I don’t argue with them. I say ‘please wait outside’ until your food is ready, when it is ready I tell them to come in.”
The 45-year-old also had to stop stocking the cooler with drinks. Sanny said: “She removed the drinks from the fridge because they were stealing drinks from there.”
Bindi has said her biggest challenge as a foreigner running a shop is understanding the thick Yorkshire accents and all the different names we have for various types of food.
She said: “Sometimes, it’s hard for me to understand accents. When customers ask for fishcakes, buns and breadcakes, things like that.
“I have problems with the accent – even the Barnsley accent is different. Buns, breadcake, some say fishcake and some say scallop. There are too many different names.”
Bindi used to work in a fish shop in Barnsley shop and says that is wildly different from the Gipton accent.
When Bindi and her brother close up the shop for the day, they have been known to make ‘Indian Fish and Chips’. Bindi explains the fish is marinated in spices overnight and she admits she prefers it.
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