NEW DELHI: Kanta Prasad of ‘Baba Ka Dhaba’ fame is back to his old roadside eatery in Delhi after the closure of his restaurant. The octagenarian Prasad said the COVID-19 lockdown in Delhi has badly affected his income and he is again reduced to penury.
The man became famous overnight and lakh of rupees of donation poured in after a YouTuber Gaurav Wasan shared his plight on social media. Thousands of people flocked to this dhaba to have food and donate money as a show of support for the old man. Prasad’s nondescript roadside dhaba is located in Malviya Nagar locality of south Delhi. After Prasad received donations worth lakhs, he settled his old debts, bought phones for his children and started a brand new restaurant. But the life has turned full circle for the octagenarian and he is again back at his old dhaba, according to a report in Hindustan Times.
Prasad said the COVID lockdown has badly affected his sales at the dhaba. “The daily footfalls at our dhaba have declined due to ongoing COVID lockdown. Our daily sales have plummeted from Rs 3,500 before the lockdown to Rs 1,000 now. The income is not sufficient for our family of eight,” the report quoted Prasad as saying. Prasad said he has suffered big losses in his restaurant business that was opened with much fanfare in December 2020. Prasad said he had invested Rs 5 lakh in opening the restaurant-buying new furniture, rent, staff salary-but never recovered his investment. He said his monthly sales never crossed Rs 40,000 as against a monthly expenditure of Rs 1 lakh. “I feel we were wrongly advised to open a new restaurant,” Kanta Prasad complains. Prasad blames social worker Tushant Adlakha who encouraged the octagenarian to start the restaurant business.
“It was Adlakha and his team who supervised everything including investment and sales. Adlakha said he would make it a success, but he never gave enough time for the restaurant,” the report further quoted Prasad as saying. Meanwhile, Adlakha rejected Prasad’s allegations saying his two sons never stayed at the counter.
