The life of Gujju Ben, aka Urmila Asher, is a lesson in tenacity and resiliency. This matriarch of a Mumbai-Gujarati family, who was married at the age of 18 and had three children by the time she was 23, certainly never anticipated she would one day become a prosperous businesswoman and a TEDx speaker.
Urmila has experienced two catastrophes in quick succession, but the worst hit her when Harsh, her lone grandchild, suffered an accident in 2019 and lost his bottom lip. This led to the loss of family's financial security was also lost. But Urmila got back things together and started Gujju Ben Na Nasta, a Gujarati snack company at the age of 75 to help support her and her grandson.
At 77 what was your inspiration to start this business?
Age is just a number when it comes to your willingness to do things. I consider my self fortunate enough to have had healthy food during my young age and that is the secret of my energy. I also think that your body should be ready when things like pandemic affect your life to take on anything.
Tell us something about the the journey of the idea?
During the first lockdown, just like everyone we were also figuring how to go about things. How to keep the family’s morale high. Thus came the idea of selling pickles since there was a trend of homemade food that was picking up. I was always passionate about cooking and my 60+ years of experience allowed to think of now doing things commercially. Thus came the idea of selling pickles
What was the first day sale that you had?
My grandson drafter a text msg and circulated amongst friends, family, watsapp group and social media. Within no time we started getting orders for home-made pickles. Within 25 days we sold more then 450 kg pickles.
The biggest challenge you faced in the early days of business?
While operating in pandemic resources were a big problem, especially the manpower. As we started to scale the business we were also upgrading ourselves we to how a cloud kitchen works. How to increase the shelf life of the product, how to do bulk manufacturing how to train the team.
What are some of your USP dishes that sell?
Currently I have taken a break from my business but still my pickles were the best seller during the season, later my nasta like Chakli, Gathia, Wafers, Thepla became quite popular
How many varieties of snack does your brand has?
After the pickle season got over, we started selling snacks and meals. This gave us the opportunity to start our own retail store and cloud kitchen by the name Gujju Ben na Nasta
While you were in the business of making nasta and acchars, did you do everything single handed or you had a team?
I continued to run my business with a staff strength of 9 people with a running retail store and cloud kitchen. My grandson Harsh used to handle the business side of things. I used to train people and look after the kitchen.
We continued to run our business for 2 years and then we took a call to wrap it up as things became normal. When it comes to business or start-up it goes through a lot or turmoil and hardships and the we also require investments to scale up. Harsh realised that my recipes and story is unique and that should be celebrated and thought. Thus start the journey of Youtube channel where I now upload new recipes and connect with people around the world. I have crossed more 245,000 subscribers in just a year and I am loving my new role as a influencer. This is what I wish to do it as I grow old. Motivate people with my story and teach them new and age old recipes.
As you left the Masterchef Kitchen, what was your biggest learning?
MasterChef was a dream come true. I never thought that I would make it to the TOP16. My age old recipes were appreciated by the judges. My biggest learning at MasterChef were learning about International cuisines, learning to cook in modern kitchen and equipments.
What is that one dish cooked by your mother that you miss the most?
Khandvi
What three tips you would share to make a perfect Thepla?
- Form a soft dough, replace the oil in the dough with yogurt. Just use the oil to knead the dough in the end, let it rest for 15 minutes before rolling them
- Roll them even and thin disc shape
- Pile them up. I always struggled with an electric or induction cooktop where the extra heat would burn them and sometimes it is hard to manage 2 things at the same time so I find it easier to roll 10-15 together and before cooking them
- The stove should be turned on medium to high heat as you don’t want to cook them for long
Currently you are an influencer and as one how easy how or difficult is it for you to understand the social media world?
Everything related to social media is handled by my grandson and I do what I am good at i.e. cooking. During the initiate phase it was difficult to face the camera as the shooting gets bit tiring, but when the audience reciprocate and learn that is the best feeling in the world.
What is your favorite social platform?
I love posting video on Youtube.
