People

An Abusive Marriage, Starvation And Struggle: This Dosai Aunty Sells Rs.10 Per Plate And Her Reason Would Make You Cry!

How heartwarming!

Sharda Chouragade resides in Nagpur, Maharashtra and her way of income is running a Dosa stall there. Despite all the struggles she has been through, Sharda is always positive in life. “I believe that everything will be fine no matter what,” says the fondly known as Dosa Ajji (Dosa Grandma).

Sharda has walked out of an abusive marriage, lost her mother at an unexpected time and has starved for several days but today she loves feeding her customers no matter what. Sharda started her dosa (and idli) stall in 2004 to sustain her family. However, to everyone’s surprise, she decided to sell the food for a really low price (Rs 2) when she started out.

 

 

“There have been days when my son and I couldn’t even afford a single meal and I know what starvation does to your mind and body. I didn’t have any support for the longest time, but once I was in a fairly better position I wanted to try and help others in the hope that it could make a difference. Besides, I started the stall to serve fresh and hot dosas to school children and labourers, and had to ensure that it was affordable for them,” adds Sharda to The Better India.

Her optimism and her kindness is what gets her frequent customers.

Over the years, as other stalls in the city raised their prices due to inflation, Sharda also followed suit but again, it was bare minimum. A couple of years ago, she started selling two dosas and four idlis at Rs 10. 

While she confesses that the dirt cheap prices take a toll on her monthly earnings, she is quick to state that she never compromises on the quality of the food.

“I get around 40 customers daily and I earn up to Rs 10,000 every month. Most of this income is spent on purchasing the ingredients for the stall and vegetables for the house. But it does not matter if I get profits or not. At the end of the day, seeing customers satiate their hunger happily at my stall is enough and that’s my reward,” she says. 

 

 

Although many people have told her to increase the rates, she refuses each time. 

“Sometimes we cannot understand her passion cum stubbornness to keep the prices low. But every time I visit her stall, the vibe is always so positive. So seeing that, I try not to convince her. She is really a lady with nerves of steel and a very kind heart,” Geeta, Sharda’s daughter-in-law tells The Better India.

Sharda excitedly recalls one of her most cherished memories at the stall when a frequent visitor surprised her with a banner for the stall. 

“She was a college student and would often hang out with her friends at my stall. One day out of nowhere, she got a huge banner for my stall and told me this would attract more customers. The banner did help people recognise my food stall. It is very rare to find kind people like her these days.” 

But, her past has not been kind to her. She was married to a man who would physically abuse her everyday.

“He would get drunk, hit me with wooden sticks and humiliate me for no fault of mine. I traded my self respect in return to save my marriage. For months I questioned myself and put myself through undeserved torture. For nearly seven months of my pregnancy, I had no medicine or hospital visits. My health was deteriorating but he did not stop hitting me. One day, I gathered courage for my unborn kid and me and walked out of the house. I came back to my parents’ house and started living on my own terms,” she recollects with a heavy voice.

 

 

She knew that being a single mother would be very hard. But for the sake of her 2-year-old toddler she had to keep herself financially independent. She started out as a domestic help and did other odd jobs to educate her son.

Eventually when she earned enough, she decided to open up her own stall. Today her son is married and has a child of his own.

“I hit rock bottom when I was in my early twenties, so somewhere I knew nothing could be more terrible than this. Ending my marriage was very liberating, and now I can face any challenge that comes my way. That’s the thing about being content in life… all you need is a moment of confidence and courage to turn around your life,” she concludes.