Mamta Anant Mehta has always been a creative person who taught arts and craft as a hobby to children and adults in her home in Andheri East. While she did it for more than a decade, the Covid-19 pandemic made it difficult for people to come to her home to learn more. While one would have been a little dejected, Mamta chose to build on her other hobbies. The momentary pause made the Mumbaikar rediscover her love for cooking at a time when people didn’t have access to traditional home-cooked food.
She shares, “During the lockdown, we first started selling readymade khakra (crispy cracker-like delicacy). However, soon after that, my neighbour asked if I could make anything else for them to eat at home. That`s when I started making theplas.” Today, Mehta, who is from the city`s Gujarati community, makes different kinds of theplas (soft Indian spiced flatbread) that not only included plain and methi varieties but also other flavours like achaari (pickled), baajri (made from bajra) , dudhi (bottle gourd) and even garlic to introduce people to long-forgotten flavours. She started out with packets of 10 each and only grew from there. While it started with one neighbour, soon many neighbours wanted to taste her food with its growing popularity.
Building on this, 50-year-old Mamata soon started exploring her love for food by not only making regular delicacies but also seasonal specials. She further explains, “We are people from the Gujarati community and enjoy eating undhiyu (Gujarati mixed-vegetable dish) during the winter season. Since neighbours have the habit of sharing anything we make with each other, I started making that too.”
It did not stop there because Mamata went on to even make khandvi, which immediately became famous. While one may think how one can be passionate about cooking, a daily need, the Mumbaikar is not driven by making money but feeding people and keeping it as a hobby. “I do not make daily tiffin because I work alone and don`t have a helper. When there is a bulk order, I have a friend who comes over to help me. I do not do it daily because it is a hobby, and I enjoy doing it.” Today, Mamata`s unique Gujarati delicacies not only get delivered across Mumbai and India but also the world in Malaysia and US, and this is all through word of mouth.
With such success, over time she has converted this hobby for cooking Gujarati food into a full-fledged business called Ruhi Homemade, an extension of her arts and craft enterprise called ‘Ruhi Art World’. Without a daily menu or weekly menu, she focuses on delicacies. “Now, I have also started making pickles including the likes of chunda and more.”
Interestingly, she is not only pursuing her hobby of cooking beyond the home today, but is also willing to teach anybody who would want to learn arts and craft from her. After all, being one to try something new all the time, she had done a short-term certificate course to teach people and thoroughly loves every bit of the arts too. “I believe there is no age to learn anything. There used to be an aunty who was between 60-70 years used to learn fabric painting from me,” concludes the Mumbaikar, who reminds why there is no age to take on a new hobby.
