Thane man turns mother’s benne dosa recipe into Rs 12 lakh a month business
Ganesh Sathe spreads the batter into a thin circle, lets it crisp at the edges and then adds a generous spoonful of butter. For Ganesh, this dosa is much more than food. It is the recipe he grew up eating — his mother’s recipe — and the recipe that changed his life.
Today, nearly 400 people visit his shop in Thane every day, and the business makes close to Rs 40,000 a day. But Ganesh’s journey to this point was not smooth.
Like many Indian parents, Ganesh’s family had a straightforward dream for him: become a chartered accountant. Ganesh began preparing for his CA exams, but found himself thinking more and more about his mother’s benne dosa.
He took a chance. Ganesh left his CA preparation midway, borrowed Rs 50,000 and bought an old cart. Soon, he and his sister Sapna were standing behind a tiny dosa stall in Thane.
Surrounded by flashy food trucks selling momos and pizza rolls, their humble dosa cart struggled to get noticed. Some days, they made just Rs 200. The losses kept piling up and the cart was close to being shut for good.
Before giving up, they decided to give themselves one final chance. They turned to social media, rebuilt the cart and worked on making their dosas better. At home, their mother and Sapna prepared fresh batter every morning. At the cart, Ganesh made the dosas himself.
Followers turned into customers. Customers brought more customers. Before long, the dosa that had struggled to find takers was selling out within an hour. Today, that old cart has become a permanent shop serving around 400 customers daily, earning nearly Rs 12 lakh a month.
Ganesh may have stepped away from the career everyone expected him to choose, but in doing so, he built a business on family, faith and a recipe that already had a place at home.
