“Baba ka Dhaba” – the small side of the road booth run by a poor, older couple in Delhi – had become the story of the year during the lockdown a couple of months ago. Their struggle touched hearts, donations poured in, and their eatery was flooded with customers. All this after a video shared by a food blogger Gaurav Wasan. But a month later, the owner of the dhaba – Kanta Prasad – filed a police case against the blogger for swindling the donations. The blogger denied the charges and defended himself with his bank statements.
Presently, the 80-year-old “Baba”, in another video shared by another food blogger on Saturday, is seen taking his words back. With folded hands, Mr Prasad says, “Gaurav Wasan was not a thief. We never called him a cheater.”
The “universe knows Gaurav Wasan was not a thief”, Mr Prasad says in Hindi and asks for forgiveness from people for the allegations that had given a dark twist to this rags-to-riches story.
“Baba” had then begun his own restaurant in a similar upscale region of Malviya Nagar where he ran his shop for a very long time.
He is once again at his food slow down now after his food business didn’t take off.
“The cost of running the restaurant was around ₹ 1 lakh and the income was ₹ 30,000 to ₹ 35,000. Daily, we would earn 1,000 or 700; it was not fixed,” Kanta Prasad says as he flips rotis on a tawa prepping a meal for the blogger who has come to his stall.
Kanta Prasad also says that he didn’t lose all his cash to the restaurant and has saved a total for what’s to come.
The video, shared on Instagram by blogger Karan Dua, has been widely shared with many coming out in support of Gaurav Wasan, the man who put Mr Prasad’s stall on the map.
In October last year, Mr Prasad separated while addressing Mr Gaurav Wasan talking about his financial obstacles during the lockdown that affected the livelihood of many. The video of the old man showing a few ₹ 10 notes as his day’s collection tugged hearts and the next day his stall was flooded by Delhiites.
A few superstars and a large number of peoples donated to the couple after the video gained momentum on social media.
The police case against Mr Wasan was filed almost a month after the video.
In the complaint, Mr. Kanta Prasad claimed Mr Wasan “intentionally and deliberately shared only his and his family/friends’ bank details and mobile numbers with the donors and collected a huge amount of donation… without providing any information to the complainant”.
