Vijay Haldiya had a eager curiosity in cooking since she was a toddler. She would help her mom within the kitchen and learnt a number of recipes from her. After her schooling, she obtained married, and in her personal phrases, “wished to concentrate on elevating her household”.
Visitors at her home had been at all times impressed by Vijay’s cooking and requested her to write down a recipe e-book. However her reply was at all times 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 every day. To her shock, she was blocked from the group. At the moment, she was visiting her daughter Apeksha in america. It was then that Apeksha took issues into her personal palms.
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 explanation for a similar, however 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 positive night in September 2014, as I sat snacking on my mom’s sooji (semolina) fingers and chai, I made a decision to open a gaggle 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 joyful 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 expertise. An engineer with an MBA and Grasp’s in Sports activities Administration, Apeksha put her expertise to good use.
“I arrange a WordPress website 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 dwell video cooking platform. At present, 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 mother and father had been in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. She targeted 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 obtained an invite from a newspaper to talk at an occasion. She spoke in entrance of 200 folks and obtained a standing ovation. I realised that having her personal group and sharing recipes gave her a lot confidence. She was lastly residing 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 holding it uncooked and actual. Apeksha visits completely different houses throughout the nation and showcases a mom on a dwell video each day.
Common viewers could be accustomed to 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 workforce 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 offers me a lot happiness. It boosts me to work on extra recipes. Don’t assume that the most effective 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 pictures course to discover ways to click on footage for the platform.
However the journey hasn’t been that simple. 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 may maintain and as we speak it’s paid off.”
Empowering mothers
Apeksha says that getting moms to characteristic in a dwell video was a problem initially, however as soon as they noticed the response to their movies, their happiness was infectious.
Their platform goals to provide confidence to moms and assist them achieve recognition. For instance, a 90-year-old grandmother cooked a recipe dwell on the channel, supported by her walker.
What was superb was her husband’s response, who mentioned that he was happy 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 repeatedly on the platform.
“I can see a giant 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 via cooking. We usually 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 repeatedly.
“These tales and responses by moms maintain us going. That dadi (grandmother) was so joyful 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. Lots of our moms have began small residence cooking companies after they had been featured right here, and a few have used recipes from our platform,” says Apeksha.
Aside from encouraging moms, in addition they wish 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 an important life ability which everybody, be it man or lady, ought to know. Our platform options 100-year-old recipes which might be handed on via generations,” says Apeksha.
Recipes utilizing on a regular basis substances
One of many differentiators between different recipe movies and Zayka ka Tadka is the simplicity of the movies and substances. Every thing is made utilizing on a regular basis family substances. Additionally, because the video is streamed in real-time, the viewers would know the way a lot time it will take for them to cook dinner the dish at residence.
“Making ready three meals a day is a giant problem, which all of us battle with. I’ve been following Zayka ka Tadka for a very long time and it’s actually made my life simple. Being a mother myself, my kids don’t like some greens like lauki (bottle gourd), padwal (snake gourd) and so on. 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. Additionally they have timed recipes, exhibiting what you may make in 10–quarter-hour to your workplace or kids’s dabba (lunch field).
“Day by day once 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 dwell, many occasions the primary dosa or cheela is not going to come properly, however we by no means edit that. This helps younger moms realise that this can be a downside confronted by everybody, and so they too get the boldness to strive cooking new gadgets,” says Vijay.
Now, they plan to start out reveals on their platform to indicate recipes that may be cooked with only one or two substances.
Moreover, as Apeksha didn’t get to work within the IPL, she now runs her personal ‘Zayka Premier League’ that has groups from completely different cities competing with meals.
“We wish to attain and uplift extra moms within the coming years. I strongly consider that when you empower a mom, you empower your entire household. I used to be there to assist my mom’s desires and wish 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 residence:
