BABA KA DHABA - THE TURNING POINT IN A STREET VENDOR’S LIFE.

Social media has the potential and reach to do wonders. It is a great platform to reach out to a large audience within seconds, and has the ability to provide someone who has nothing, to have everything.

This is one such story of getting everything.

October 7, 2020: A video was doing rounds on social media and soon was all over the internet. The video featured Kanta Prasad & his wife, owner of ‘Baba ka Dhaba’, a street food stall. It was shot and uploaded by Youtuber Gaurav Wasan, near Hanuman Mandir, Malviya Nagar, Delhi. It ended up having over 30 million views on Instagram and over 50 million on Facebook.

In the viral video, Prasad can be seen interacting with Wasan and elaborating their struggles which they were facing, and what has worsened owing to the Covid pandemic. He could be seen wiping his tears, very often, as he talked about the menu which featured wholesome home-cooked vegetarian meals.

Gaurav Wasan is a Delhi based YouTuber, who explores street food in the National capital and shares their story with the intention of helping them. He has 252K followers on Instagram and also has his own YouTube channel with the name ‘Swad Official’, having over 478k subscribers.
After Gaurav posted their story on his social media handles, love started pouring in. This, and a clip from the video was shared on twitter by Vasundhara Tankha Sharma, generated such support for Prasad and Baba Ka Dhaba that within a few days they were all over the place. Just a day later, the customer count reached over hundred. Everyone could be seen clicking selfies and urging others to visit the stall. Encouragement poured in for Kanta Prasad and his wife, Badami Devi, for their hard work and dedication to earn even in the 80s.

Local MLA, Aam Aadmi Party’s Somnath Bharti, reached the dhaba the very next day, while Bollywood stars Sonam Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra expressed their desire to help them out.

They not only got attention from celebrities but also started receiving sponsorship from Zomato, PepsiCo, PayTm, and so on.

Google Pay helped them to start with digital transactions. They scaled heights of success. They received donations from all over the country and some time later started a small restaurant by the name, ‘BABA KA DHABA’.

Badami Devi and Kanta Prasad’s struggle story is exactly like the people who come from small towns to big cities, to earn their livelihood. They came to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh in the 1960s, and first lived across the Yamuna river in Shahdara. Then Prasad shifted to Jagdamba Camp slum located in Malviya Nagar. Kanta Prasad used to be a fruit seller by profession and then got licence to run street cart, and started ‘Baba ka Dhaba’ in 1990. This food stall was the only way to earn bread and butter for Kanta Prasad and Badami Devi. They both are victims of child marriage. This small business allowed them to meet their basic expenses for over 30 years.

A small act of kindness served them a lifetime of happiness.

BABA KA DHABA - THE TURNING POINT IN A STREET VENDOR’S LIFE.

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