Baba ka Dhaba: Social Media's magic changed the life of this 80-year-old couple

The video of this elderly couple running a small food stall went viral on Wednesday-Thursday. Then, the internet community united to help Kanta Prasad. Several people started visiting the "Baba Ka Dhaba" for the delicious food. That was not it. Celebrities, too, reached out to help the elderly couple and asked their followers to support not just one Bada Ka Dhaba, but all local eateries.

The toothy-smile of Kanta Prasad worked his magic; and as Kanta Prasad recalls, his food stall had more customers than it had seen in 30 years of being in business. Since the video went viral, the eatery has had crowds of customers and media persons lined up outside. The food has been selling out even before noon. A person who merely made 4000-5000 a month, sold his biggest that day.

All thanks to the power of social media.

Gaurav Wasan, of Swad Official, shot the video and uploaded it with the motto of crowdfunding. Look at social media figures!

On YouTube, the video has 494k views, as I write this. On Twitter, it has 105k views; Instagram, 25 million views and not to mention the countless shares, retweets, and re-makes of the videos. So, we can, with proof say, that social media has the power to change lives. The food joint is now listed by Zomato for online food delivery.

Celebrities including actors Raveena Tandon, Sonam Kapoor and Nimrat Kaur, Suniel Shetty, cricketer R Ashwin, and Adv Somnath Bharti extended their support. Also, NRAI pledged to upgrade their infrastructure and equipment, to make them COVID-compliant so that they are able to continue with their legacy of serving others with a big smile.

And correctly, this is what Social Media should aspire to do. Social media is not the evil itself like we all are prone to believe now. Our use determines its result. It can be used to make the world a better place.

Baba, of Baba Ka Dhaba, now urges everyone to help their local food stalls.