Vijay Haldiya had a eager curiosity in cooking since she was a baby. She would help her mom within the kitchen and learnt a number of recipes from her. After her training, she received married, and in her personal phrases, “wished to concentrate on elevating her household”.
Company at her home had been all the time impressed by Vijay’s cooking and requested her to put in writing a recipe guide. However her reply was all the time the identical — “I’ll do it as soon as my kids develop up.”
And the 63-year-old lived as much as her phrases.
In 2014, after her husband retired, she determined that it was her time to shine.
She first joined a Fb group the place she would share recipes day by day. To her shock, she was blocked from the group. At the moment, she was visiting her daughter Apeksha in the USA. It was then that Apeksha took issues into her personal fingers.
She says, “My mom was very upset at being blocked from the group. She requested me to achieve out to the admin and discover out the rationale for a similar, nevertheless it was of no use. I noticed the enjoyment that cooking a dish, clicking an image, and sharing the recipe by importing it to the group gave her.”
“So one high-quality night in September 2014, as I sat snacking on my mom’s sooji (semolina) fingers and chai, I made a decision to open a bunch on Fb. I named it ‘Zayka ka Tadka by Vijay Haldiya’. I advised my mom that nobody can oust you from this group as you’re the admin,” Apeksha Haldia tells The Higher India.
However the subsequent problem was getting followers. Vijay says that she was comfortable having her personal group, however whom would she share her recipes with?
What labored to her benefit was her daughter’s digital advertising and marketing abilities. An engineer with an MBA and Grasp’s in Sports activities Administration, Apeksha put her abilities to good use.
“I arrange a WordPress web site for my mom and helped her get some followers. In 4 months, the group had 30,000 followers,” says Apeksha.
What began as a weblog and Fb group for sharing vegetarian recipes moved to a stay video cooking platform. At this time, Zayka ka Tadka has over 9 million followers throughout its social media platforms.
Discovering her wings at 55
After the Fb group gained momentum, Apeksha moved to Ahmedabad together with her husband, who was pursuing an MBA from IIM there. Her dad and mom had been in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. She centered on her dream of working within the Indian Premier League (IPL). However an incident compelled the entrepreneur to stop her sports activities administration dream and be part of her mom for good.
“My mom received an invite from a newspaper to talk at an occasion. She spoke in entrance of 200 folks and received a standing ovation. I realised that having her personal group and sharing recipes gave her a lot confidence. She was lastly dwelling her life and fulfilling her dream. So, I considered serving to her much more,” provides Apeksha.
She stop her job in 2016 and established the corporate. Their USP is preserving it uncooked and actual. Apeksha visits totally different properties throughout the nation and showcases a mom on a stay video every single day.
Common viewers could be acquainted with her tagline in each video — ‘Jo dikhta hai wahi banta hai Zayka ka Tadka mein’ (What you see is what you get).
To date, they’ve showcased 600–800 moms on their platform, and their crew additionally contains 10–12 moms.
Vijay says, “Age is only a quantity. You need to have the braveness to go after your desires. My life has simply began post-60 and seeing so many moms on our channel and studying their feedback provides me a lot happiness. It boosts me to work on extra recipes. Don’t suppose that one of the best years are behind you. You’ll be able to obtain something as soon as you set your thoughts to it”
She single-handedly manages their Instagram web page, which has greater than 5 lakh followers. She even did a images course to learn to click on footage for the platform.
However the journey hasn’t been that straightforward. For the primary three years, they hardly had any followers.
Apeksha shares, “Since our platform is all about mom’s recipes, it’s distinctive. As it’s a novel idea, it took time to take off. I put in all my financial savings within the first three years. We had been caught on one lakh followers. However because of the assist of my household, we might maintain and at the moment it’s paid off.”
Empowering mothers
Apeksha says that getting moms to characteristic in a stay video was a problem initially, however as soon as they noticed the response to their movies, their happiness was infectious.
Their platform goals to offer confidence to moms and assist them achieve recognition. For instance, a 90-year-old grandmother cooked a recipe stay on the channel, supported by her walker.
What was wonderful was her husband’s response, who mentioned that he was pleased with her for the primary time!
Some moms like Shveta Seth, Archana Chakravarthy, and Shraddha Thakrar, are stars in their very own proper as their recipes are featured frequently on the platform.
“I can see an enormous transformation in myself. I used to be so hesitant and had a lot concern earlier than I used to be featured on this platform. Now, all my concern has disappeared. I really feel like I can do something by cooking. We typically really feel so underconfident, however I realised my very own power because of Zayka ka Tadka,” says Shveta Seth, one of many moms who options frequently.
“These tales and responses by moms hold us going. That dadi (grandmother) was so comfortable as she lastly felt recognised. As soon as they arrive in entrance of the digicam and get these phrases of encouragement from their household and our viewers, they realise that they can also do something. A lot of our moms have began small house cooking companies after they had been featured right here, and a few have used recipes from our platform,” says Apeksha.
Other than encouraging moms, in addition they need to be a treasure trove of recipes.
“Whereas our moms helped theirs within the kitchen, most of us by no means entered it whereas rising up. Cooking is a vital life talent which everybody, be it man or girl, ought to know. Our platform options 100-year-old recipes which are handed on by generations,” says Apeksha.
Recipes utilizing on a regular basis elements
One of many differentiators between different recipe movies and Zayka ka Tadka is the simplicity of the movies and elements. Every thing is made utilizing on a regular basis family elements. Additionally, because the video is streamed in real-time, the viewers would know the way a lot time it could take for them to prepare dinner the dish at house.
“Making ready three meals a day is an enormous problem, which all of us wrestle with. I’ve been following Zayka ka Tadka for a very long time and it’s actually made my life straightforward. Being a mother myself, my kids don’t like some greens like lauki (bottle gourd), padwal (snake gourd) and many others. However after watching some recipes like lauki idli and kofta on the web page, I cooked it for my kids in order that they eat these greens too,” says Rashmi, a viewer of the channel.
There are additionally many recipes that present what to make utilizing leftover rice and rotis. In addition they have timed recipes, displaying what you can also make in 10–quarter-hour on your workplace or kids’s dabba (lunch field).
“Each day after I get up, the very first thing I see is what’s getting outdated and can spoil quickly. I then make one thing utilizing that. That is what mothers do in every single place, and we’re simply serving to to showcase that. As our movies are stay, many instances the primary dosa or cheela won’t come properly, however we by no means edit that. This helps younger moms realise that it is a drawback confronted by everybody, they usually too get the arrogance to strive cooking new gadgets,” says Vijay.
Now, they plan to begin reveals on their platform to indicate recipes that may be cooked with only one or two elements.
Moreover, as Apeksha didn’t get to work within the IPL, she now runs her personal ‘Zayka Premier League’ that has groups from totally different cities competing with meals.
“We need to attain and uplift extra moms within the coming years. I strongly imagine that should you empower a mom, you empower your complete household. I used to be there to assist my mom’s desires and need to do the identical for others who don’t have familial assist,” says Apeksha.
Right here’s a easy onion sabzi recipe by Vijay Haldiya, while you don’t have any greens at house: