It all began in 2020 April. We have completed about a couple weeks into lockdown 1, Me and Parth completed our wallets. Our Jobs and incomes were at stake.If you din't know I am a lawyer and Parth is a software engineer at that moment, but also young lavish spenders that we were, All we had left was a couple grand. We were way too independent and working from a young age , we couldn’t think of turning for help to our family or friends.. after all pandemic was a first for everyone and everyone were struggling with a lot of confusion.
We had only one way, we have to earn to stay afloat. While we were a little stressed about it Parth suddenly said, “ I love the Chicken pickle that you make, should we sell that?”. And I was like the least is we can try as we got no more options left.
In that instance we agreed and we went and purchased the ingredients that next hour, before the curfew begins at 6 PM. We now are totally broke, we spent our last money in buying chicken, raw garlic, ginger, red chillies, etc., I cooked 5 kgs of Chicken Pickle, Parth and me watched a movie while grinding all the spices in a mortar and pestle, It Took us 8 hours to make this Pickle right from the scratch. I packed it Clean and Now, we were to sell it. What did we expect? This was a pandemic, No one were interested to buy anything from other people. They were afraid of getting infected. But we pushed through.
Here in Hyderabad, India. May is the Peak summer month and it gets real hot. Me and Parth went on a bike ride right around our colony everyday trying to hook our little jar of Home made Pickles in some shops. But we were constantly rejected. Somehow we sold a few packets here and there and made a few hundred bucks. We immediately went to a print shop which was closed at that moment we requested the owner to please do this favour and sweetly he agreed. We got our information printed on few papers and started distributing them.
Everyday We Cooked, Pasted pamphlets on the side of the road, Came home and packed all the orders carefully, and went for delivering those as well. It was a hell of a ride. Hot sun, Hungry days, painful shoulders from heavy labour made it hard for us. But, the real success was something else for us. It was actually the time we spent in Hand grinding the masalas at home, Healthy oils, Cleanliness etc., these made the recipe sooo soo tasty that everyone who tried our small sachets in Month 1 started coming back to us the next month with 1 kg and half KG orders.. The recipe became known and loved very quickly. It's always been the natural ingredients. All these reviews and compliments from people made us forget all the hardships and embrace every decision, Idea and Intuition we had chosen.
Thanks for reading through! If you enjoy our lil story stay tuned for my next blog.
- Chef Moneca
