Ayesha Jadhav has travelled all the way from Mumbai to utilise the festival time in Puri for business.

The 22-year-old is breaking stereotypes, as a woman salesperson is a rarity among hundreds of hawkers on the Grand Road during the car festival.

She is winning hearts by her ardent business and marketing skills to woo customers.

Ayesha sells selfie sticks in various sizes and shapes and she can be seen moving about explaining people the utility of the product.

Apart from tourists and devotees, the administration has also shown admiration for her business skills.

Ayesha said her parents were unaware of her present job. "They would have been worried if I had told them the truth. I just said that I was going on a trip to Puri with my friends. They were reluctant at the first but finally allowed me to go. If they had known that I was coming here to earn money they would have never allowed me," said Ayesha who makes a business of around Rs 10,000 daily.

She arrived in Puri on June 10 and plans to stay here till July 10. Her friends had suggested her to come to Puri during the festival.

"They have been coming to rath yatra since the last few years to sell their products. They made good money as a lot of tourists come here at this time. So, I thought of taking advantage of the occasion too," said Ayesha, who works in a company in Mumbai.

Ayesha said things were not so easy for her initially as she was not encouraged for her work.

"A number of people looked down upon me and I was also scared because everything was unknown to me. But, gradually people started accepting me," she said.

The servitors of the Puri temple and other local businessmen of the area are all praises for the novel seller.

"When we saw her for the first time, we were surprised because we had hardly seen a woman salesperson here. Ayesha is very keen to learn about the rituals of the temple," said Abinash Suar, a servitor at the temple.