HEARTH & HOSPITALITY, HER WAY

How women-led self-help groups are reviving regional cuisines & serving success stories, one eatery at a time

- SUGANDHA MUKHERJEE

AN UNHURRIED evening in Aurangabad's New Osmanpura area, the clatter of steel thalis spills onto the street outside Pratham Swayampak Ghar, a modest eatery tucked between a pharmacy and an electrical shop.

Inside, the air thickens with the scent of frying thalipeeth, slow-cooked aloo sabzi and the unmistakable intimacy of a home kitchen. Saree-clad women move briskly between stoves and tawas, but without the dramatics of restaurant showmanship. Their pace is practised, the unspoken choreography of those who have cooked for a lifetime.

"People can’t eat hotel food every day,” says Nandini Chapalgaonkar, the 80-something matriarch who co-founded the enterprise. “Home-cooked meals bring a different calm.”

She recounts a story that begins in 2002 when she and her friend Jyoti Kawar first began the venture, unsure whether anyone would be willing to pay for domestic-style meals. “I wondered if people would even like it,” she says. Her husband, then a sitting judge of the high court, surprised her. “He congratulated me and gave me full permission.”

The early days were bleak. “For six months, not a single person came,” she recalls. She and her partner would buy “ten rotis and a little sabzi” to start the day. The breakthrough came when a friend, faced with guests at home and a sick wife, asked them to prepare food for six. “After that, we never looked back,” she says.

Today, Pratham Swayampak Ghar employs around 30 women, many of whom rely on the income to support schooling for their children or to supplement erratic agricultural earnings. “A woman cannot truly be confident until she earns her own money,” Nandini insists. Last Dev Deepawali, three women bought scooters. “Their joy is my joy,” she says. “They feel proud. They feel seen.”