Spicing It Up In Business

Home cook Camelia Manjumder started Bhojan Tripti after an encounter with a Facebook group inquiry about homely food. After all, who doesn’t miss the freshly served home-cooked meals when they move away from home! Keeping in mind the necessity for not only an entirely nutritional meal but also the aroma of home’s kitchenettes, she believes that a person’s way to their heart is through their stomach.

“For many days, I thought about what if I provide them homely food which they crave to get. So as I thought I started the business of providing homely food”.

She started her business from Bangalore, as a tiffin service. It gained reputation amidst office goers and graduates who were either fed up with the greasy and oily food of restaurants or missed the way their Mom’s chapatis used to taste. After that, there was no turning back. She kept on receiving orders so much so that she had to move onto a larger commercial space to be able to work. She was a solo entrepreneur, which made the pressure a bit over-bearing, but that is no reason to stop having people to cherish your culinary skills.

She thinks about how, after youngsters or a tad bit older, men move away from home, they can get their accommodation, but there is no replacement for the food that reminds them of home.
Her inspiration and support has been her husband, who helped her flourish in a nurturing environment, and helped her build a successful career.
However, this does not mean there weren’t any struggles. To begin with, she comes from a middle-class Bengali family, which made breaking bonds with tradition a tad bit difficult. Promoting a business lifestyle while adhering to maintaining a household has sure taught her a lot, and she continues to gain more for self-development.

“I truly enjoy excelling and pushing myself. I look forward to tasks where I can learn and grow”.

According to Camelia Manjumder, there are three major challenges that hinder the process of development – the primary being timely delivery. When it comes to food, we all get a little cranky at untimely delivery. So, in order to keep the clientele happy, it is perfunctory and unnegotiable to tamper with their scheduled meals.

“And another problem that I face is funding as I’m from a middle-class family I didn’t have enough funds to expand my business.”

Apart from that, retention of clients and for corporate clients, maintaining the operative cost for the period of 45 days, is quite a hassle. But with the right kind of approach, it is feasible and well formulated.
Every attractive and achievable business opportunity requires determination and strength. One can only get this determination in the right kind of environment while wallowing in the vicious cycle of inabilities in the other. For Camelia Manjumder, she possessed the approaches and integrity required to become a business leader in a world that challenges the very fundamentality of being a woman, and that in business – or any field for that matter – is progress.