Mom Starts Chhola Kulcha Stand in Gurugram to Save Family

We all know that moms are awesome. And we really don’t want to make any distinction between mothers and their levels of awesomeness, but this particular lady really is kick-ass: she started her own chhola kulcha stand in Gurugram to bail her family out of financial problems.
First, we have one thing to clarify: what is “chhola kulcha?” Well, for those of you who haven’t tasted this amazing vegetarian street food dish (yet), we can only give a description about this delicious meal. It is quite easy to make actually, so it’s not a huge surprise that it’s a favoured street food favourite… So, kulcha is flatbread, with the similar texture and taste of naan bread (also YUM,) but here, they use baking powder and baking soda instead of yeast for leavening. Kulcha can be cooked in a clay tandoor, but it is also customary to simply bake it over the stove. The result is a tasty, wonderful piece of heaven that can be munched even on-the-go.

Urvashi Yadav, the mother of two decided to embark on her own venture of selling kulcha due to an accident her husband had a couple of months ago. It turns out that he needs hip surgery, and because he was the main breadwinner of the family, the couple and the children started to face financial problems. Although Urvashi worked as a nurse, thus adding to the family’s financials, the money she was bringing in was simply not enough. With her children attending great (but costly) schools, she came to decision to open up her own thela (stand.)

As she told Vagabomb: “My husband’s accident really shook me up. I tried to imagine our family without his income and the future looked grim. That’s when I decided to take matters into my own hands. I am good at cooking and I decided to use that skill to my advantage. The more acceptable option, according to our family and the society, would have been to open a restaurant or a catering business. But I didn’t have the funds for that. I was thinking about all of this one day when I was in the market to buy medicines for my husband, and I saw a roadside thela.”
It was then that she sat down to do the maths. After talking to a thela owner nearby, she worked out that her salary would be enough to start her very own chhola kulcha stand next to a market in her neighbourhood. According to Urvashi, the first day was the hardest with the scorching heat and hard work that had to be done, but she quickly became accustomed to it.

Her story really blew up when somebody posted on Facebook about her amazing strength and refusal to give up. Since then, customers have been overrunning the stand. Maybe next time you’re in India for the Rickshaw Challenge, you could drop by Gurugram and find the stall next to the Sector 14 market – we hear the kulcha is absolutely scrumptious!