Prasaad Bhosekar
A prominent marker of a society on the brink of power is the innovative spirit of its people. A time comes in the history of all societies when it stops flinching from the world around itself and goes out boldly to meet it. When it is prepared to leave the straight and narrow paths and chalk out new ones. The society not only dreams, but strives to turn those dreams into reality.
The stories of men and women who have gone from rags to riches abound. And one can quote half a dozen out of hand, Dhirubhai Ambani, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet…
But there are those who are not as famous as the ones mentioned above. But whose stories are just as remarkable. One such story is that of C Vijayakumari from the city of Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh. The lady left her secure bank job to pursue her passion, making great food.
As she herself puts it she left her bank job because “I used to be fond of making delicacies and all liked them.” And because she “wanted to preserve the traditional way of making it which we learned from our grandmothers was slowly fading away as life was becoming fast...I just started with an intention of giving grandmothers` flavour of our rich delicacies.``
Her home food venture took wings with a few a thousand bucks and a few family members. few She named it “Swagruhu Foods.” The company now employs 150 workers and has an annual turnover of more than 2 crore rupees.
The delicacies make their way to most of the Indian cities, is exported around the world and needless to say is popular all over Andhra Pradesh. The journey has been long and eventful. True to the saying there is a man behind every successful women, her hubby has been a pillar of support throughout.
One thing more: to give it the authentic homemade flavour the items are mostly cooked by hand, rather than by machines. So that the taste, we are told, is always the same...typically home-made.
