After the death of her husband, Ms. Rama Khatri decided to continue the business her late husband started to earn the living for her and her three daughters. She luckily had learned how to make noodles while working with her husband. This made it a little easier for her take over.

Khatri’s late husband had learned to make noodles working at a Chinese restaurant in India. She usually watched her husband produce the noodles on his own with the help of a small machine. Rama shared that during the initial days when her husband used to sell the noodles in the market, market response was not very good. Out of frustration her husband would drink and make her the victim of his violence.

When she took over the business, market response continued to be poor. Though she had the knowledge of noodle making she faced various other challenges. There was huge competition in the market, people did not believe in the ability of a single woman and rejected all her products. They also spread rumors that the noodles she made had chemicals that affected the eyesight and it was the noodles that killed her husband. She also had no idea about marketing and the financial aspects which her husband took care of before.

Nevertheless, she continued to struggle and kept trying new stuff such as eggless and pure vegetarian noodles which could be taken by the pujaris and pandits (priests) as well. She visited from shop to shop trying to promote the noodles. Slowly after people tasted the noodles and started visiting her place, they found the noodles clean and safe to eat. Gradually, people also started liking the taste and started buying it. There was no proper support from family members but the customers’ suggestions and feedback for improvement kept her going. When people started liking the noodles, then it had to the produced in proper packaging with colorful paper which again required huge investment. “I took one million rupees as loan from the woman entrepreneurship subsidized loan scheme through Rastra Banijya Bank and got subsidized machinery from cottage and small industry office,” she informed.

Today Khatri feels proud and happy to be an entrepreneur. Now, other people look up to her and she is cited as an example in various programs.

She got to know about the ENCOMPASS assessment and the trainings that followed from WEAN Rupandehi. Expecting that the virtual trainings would definitely be helpful she attended the training provided by FWEAN. “I learned about book keeping, dealing with the customer and marketing my products. I strongly believe that they will be very useful for my business,” Ms. Khatri stated. And she wished that other helpful sessions would continue for emerging and new entrepreneurs like herself.