“I have been earning since the age of ten due to the financial situations at home. Looking back, I cannot blame my parents for that. I come from a small agricultural family. We were 4 siblings and my father, who’s a farmer, was not able to provide for all of us.

I got married when I was a teenager to a person whom I loved and that was the best decision ever. He was extremely supportive and never said no to my choices to date. Even though we didn’t have stable jobs, we always supported each other. He used to work as security in an apartment and I, as domestic help.

However, things went down south when he suffered from a major health issue and stopped working.

But I never lost trust in him because he’s my soulmate. I had asked him to take a break from work and spend some time in the village which he agreed. But destiny had other plans. He passed away 19 years ago and ever since I had to struggle on my own. Yes, life is hard at times to handle but there is no point wallowing in the past. One has to move on and live life in harmony.

That’s when I decided to step up to share the family responsibilities along with my husband. I was naturally good with cooking so I thought of starting a small roadside food stall on my own. I saved up a small amount and went ahead with my idea. It’s been more than 12 years since I started this affordable pucca Telangana home-cooked food stall here at Banjara Hills 3 and there’s no looking back ever since.

Customers from all backgrounds such as software employees, auto drivers, daily wagers, working women and also families come to taste my food. I serve both veg and non-veg meals and one can relish the food until they feel full.

People like my Dal rice, Gobi curry, Boti Curry, Chicken curry a lot alongside other veg curries and sambar. I wake up at 4 am, complete the household chores, and start cooking at 7 am. It takes at least three and a half hours to cook all the dishes. I reach here by 11:30 am and serve my customers till 5 pm.

My older son and daughter in law also help me with the cooking process and they have their own roadside food stall at the highway road.”