Kanta Prasad, of Delhi’s now-famous ‘Baba ka Dhaba’ was one of the biggest social media success stories of 2020. A YouTuber captured baba’s travails on camera, while he narrated his struggle to make ends meet. This triggered a wave of monetary help and in no time octogenarian Prasad was the owner of a restaurant. But his is not a hapily-ever-after story.

In less than a year, footfall at the restaurant dropped and income dried up and baba is back to his old dhaba, located in the city’s Malviya Nagar, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Baba’s meteoric rise

Last year, Prasad was caught on camera in tears, narrating his struggles to make ends meet as business ran dry. The video made by city YouTuber Gaurav Wasan went viral on social media, following which help and support for Prasad and his wife Badaami Devi poured in.

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Thousands thronged his eatery for food, selfies and make donations. 

Soon after, reports emerged that Prasad had opened a restaurant.

His stint as a restaurateur

With the amount he made out of his social media glory, Prasad opened a restaurant, added another level to his house and bought smartphones for himself and his children.

At his dhaba, he and his wife toiled through cooking, serving and taking care of the money. But at the restaurant, he and his family sat behind the counter to collect payments as his two employees cooked and another one served tables.

But life came full circle for baba as he is back to his old restaurant.

What led to his current state?

Prasad told the media outlet that he had invested Rs 5 lakh in the restaurant. Out of the monthly expenditure of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 35,000 was for rent, Rs 36,000 to pay the salaries of his three employees and Rs 15,000 for electricity, water and to buy food supplies.

However, he could just make Rs 40,000 in a month. The losses got piled up, forcing him to shut down his restaurant.

Out of Rs 5 lakh invested, Prasad could recover only Rs 36,000 from the sale of chairs, utensils and cooking machines.

“In hindsight, I feel we were wrongly advised to open a new restaurant,” he told the media house.

The blame game

Prasad blames social worker Tushant Adlakha, who, he says, encouraged and helped him to open the restaurant. He said that initially, it was Adlakha and his team who managed and supervised everything, which includes investment and sales.

“He said he would make it a success, but he never gave enough time for the restaurant,” Prasad told the Hindustan Times. 

Adlakha, however, shifted the blame on Kumar and his two sons. He said that they did everything from “setting up the restaurant to bringing customers and orders for home delivery of food.”

“What else could we do?” he said, adding that Prasad’s two sons had taken charge of the eatery, but they hardly stayed at the counter and that they were enough orders but they failed to deliver them. 

In November, following his social media success, Prasad had filed a cheating complaint against Wasan, the YouTuber who had initially shot his video. He alleged that the YouTuber collected a huge amount of money from good samaritans, but gave him a small part of it.

Wasan, however, denied that allegation, saying that he gave the man Rs 4.20 lakh that he had received.

What about baba’s old dhaba?

Things aren’t rosy at his old eatery, which, he said, had to be closed for 17 days when Delhi was hit by the fourth COVID wave. The coronavirus-induced lockdown, he said, had affected sales that came down from Rs 3,500 before the lockdown to Rs 1,000.

“The income is not sufficient for our family of eight,” he said.

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Meanwhile, social media, which makes and breaks people in a matter of days, is busy debating over PM Narendra Modi’s recent speech, discussing actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s case and Apple’s latest announcement.