Sit back and take a sip of your favorite toddy… Now, switch on your Wi-Fi and browse your smartphone to ferret out the secrets of 100-year-old beer casks hidden in an ancient cellar underneath a baron’s manor, that too for free. As bars have become a rarity in the region, the owner of a toddy shop in Velur-Chungam, Thrissur, has given his establishment a star hotel makeover - smart from top to bottom including free Wi-Fi – to increase business.

Apart from free Wi-Fi, the TS 58 toddy shop features LCD TV, stylishly clad suppliers serving Kerala's own alcoholic beverage and its delicious accompaniments, shappu curries. Thirty customers can use Wi-Fi at a time. Sandeep, the owner of the shop, said the Wi-Fi facility was arranged with the assistance of a private mobile phone company.

For the Wi-Fi connection alone, the shop shells out Rs5000 a month. When lack of connectivity became a common plight of his regulars, Sandeep decided to give free Wi-Fi.

A signboard, in Hindi, English and Malayalam, is hung in front of the shop, so that non-Malayali drinkers too don't miss the place.

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