From IT Cloud to Cloud Kitchen

From being a marathon runner on a corporate juggernaut wheel to a marathon runner fulfilling guest's taste buds. My journey towards a completely different life and lifestyle.

Gone are the days for me now when I could slouch on the couch with laptop on my coffee table and constantly going through office whatsapp groups as I was working for a reputed IT company.

I had my reasons to move out of this comfort zone.

Journey was tough, as I had never entered any Kitchen in 40 years of my human life for cooking and those who knew me are still in shock of why and how I came to this decision. Ram's was an idea in concept brewing in me while I was in Dubai and me along with a friend started exploring it with various options. But then pandemic hit, we had to stall the plan and I returned to India to be with my ageing parents. My friend Biju went on to open his cafe and is employing all the ideal scenarios in his cafe Stopover, Barsha, Dubai.

I continued IT life even after arriving in India and as soon as we arrived, I had a life-changing experience - my entire family of 4 got COVID-19 infected and I was the only one who was left to take care of them, their food, medicines, etc.

Back then, there were no vaccines developed yet and medicines were used as trial-and-error methods. Mainly everyone relied on good food, desi kadha and citrus fruits coupled with vapour-steaming. I could arrange fruits and vapour steam but food and kadha was a challenge for the one with two left feet (when it comes to cooking)

Situation was no less than Section 144 as no one were allowed to enter our house and neither were there restaurants delivering due to lockdown. I do not blame my society or municipality or community or any political groups for ostracizing us as the situation was very unpredictable and scary for all.

Shops used to be open for a limited time and would be queued with people. Instant Noodles, biscuits or chips were not an option for my ailing family.

One person offered to assist delivering food. I salute his bravery and compassion but the food quality was substandard and did not fetch the required nutrition for recovery. But as they say beggars cannot be choosers - we ate what we could buy. Eventually they recovered except for my father who succumbed to his ailments.

This incident taught me 3 things:

a) Money cannot buy everything

b) Every single soul deserves good food - it is basic human right

c) Be there with your parents when they are old as they were with you when you were young

Hence I stepped out of my secured sanctuary, declined couple of good offers from other companies and have started a small initiative Ram's (where life unplugs) - this is a start to getting quality living at affordable price and in a way trying to mitigate some or most of the issues I encountered as a customer. I planned my move from Dubai to Mumbai and within a year from Mumbai to Pune, moved out of my job, started venturing out locating farms, markets, where I could get fresh stuff. Learnt cooking from my mother and wife and rolled out Ram's on 16th January 2022 - with a soft launch to some of our esteemed residents in neighbourhood.

The taste went well and was often fed-back with comments like - "either you are mad or very rich to give so rich quality food at so low prices". I was happy at this comment as it meant that people still recognize what quality meant. Last week 23rd we rolled out our Cloud Kitchen offering delicacies to be sold commercially and it was well received.

Influencers have been many - Mr Mustafa (iD), Mr Shetty (Vaishali Restaurant), my neighbour Mr Nandakishore, Jay (GBM), etc but pillars to this idea have been my family who were okay for me to move away from a consistently paying job to a daily pay-impacting initiative because this meant close to my heart and whatever my friends - Biju and Rabie discussed on our countless after SP Jain class coffee-chats.

Here's wishing only the best to the intent and dream for Ram's and its helpers contributing to health for the guest it serves.

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