In sickness, Gurgaon chhole-kulchhe woman finds support in her father-in-law

[Miss Alone]

When Urvashi Yadav decided to open a roadside food cart in Gurgaon to supplement her family’s income, the biggest opposition came from her in-laws who thought the business did not match with their status.
But as Urvashi is recovering from a bout of viral fever, her father-in-law, a former Indian Air Force (IAF) official has come forward to lend her a helping hand.
Wing commander (retd) NK Yadav took over the stall last week after Urvashi fell ill. Since then, the 71-year-old is not only managing the state of affairs with the help of a cook, he is also leaving no stone unturned to ensure the sales do not dip due his daughter-in-law’s absence.
“The USP of this stall is my daughter-in-law who braved all odds to start the roadside stall. I didn’t want her illness to come in the way of her ambition. So I decided to sit here and help keep the business kicking,” he said.

While the cook serves the food on the cart, Yadav attends to the takeaway orders from 8am to 4pm every day so that no customer is left disappointed. Apart from that, he is also keeps busy replying to regulars’ queries about Urvashi’s whereabouts.
“People keep asking for her. Thankfully the popularity has not come down. We serve more than 100 customers a day,” he said.
Urvashi, a mother of two, set up the stall selling chhole-kulchhe and paratha in June after her husband Amit Yadav met with an accident in May this year— second in six years — and doctors advised a hip replacement for him. And there is a possibility that he may not be able to walk after the surgery scheduled in December.
Amit is an executive with a construction company and the family is well-off and owns a house worth Rs 3 crore and several SUVs. After the mishap, Urvashi feared a bleak future for her family and took it upon herself to support it financially.
“I do not want my children to change school due to a financial crunch,” the former school teacher told Hindustan Times in August.
Yadav retired from the IAF in 1998 but worked again for the force till 2003. After that, the IIT Madras graduate joined state-owned aerospace and defence company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and retired in 2006. Since then he has been living with his family in Gurgaon.
“I want her dream of opening a restaurant to come true. Whatever we earn during the day, I hand it over to her in the evening,” he said.