Social Media impact: 'Baba Ka Dhaba' flooded with people

New Delhi : Despite coronavirus pandemic at its worst in the country, people of Delhi came together to support an elderly couple who runs 'Baba Ka Dhaba' but were struggling to earn livelihood due to no sale of their food.

Soon after a video went viral on social media, showing how they were depressed and struggling with the fact that their income was almost nothing from the three-decade old outlet, people started visiting in huge amount to buy food from them and support them.

According to owner Kanta Prasad, who has been running the small food joint since 1990, business almost came to a standstill during the lockdown phase. On days, he was not even able to cover the expenses.

His wife Badami Devi said at times they had to take the unsold food back home; while on days they didn't even have money to cook their own meals.

The moving story of the elderly couple, brought the community together in a humanitarian effort to rebuild their dhaba and hence lives.

All thanks to Gaurav Wasan who shared a video narrating their ordeals that went on to become viral in no time.

"It's all because of Gauravji, the customers have lined up today (Thursday); yesterday there was almost no sale. I feel that the whole country is with me today," Prasad said.

Wasan, a self-proclaimed foodie, said he had come across the elderly couple purely by chance and had been moved by their ordeals.

"I am very passionate about food, so I keep searching for good street food. Two days back I saw the couple facing difficulties in selling their food. I talked to them. It was around 1.30 pm and they said they had done business worth just Rs 70 till then and this brought tears to my eyes. They then told me that nowadays they were incurring a loss of around Rs 200-300 a day: selling food worth Rs 300-400 throughout a day, while the raw material cost was around Rs 600. So I made a video on the spot and shared it," he said.

The impact of social media was so great that the food delivery application Zomato also listed them on their app and now people will be able to place online orders for their food.