Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Archana Doshi has used the web marvellously to create and popularise her brand of food blogging and consulting, making it the empire it is today.
A decade of married life, work-life balance, a few years of living abroad, missed festivities (owing to the dead relative whose face I struggle to recollect), the daily grind, pregnancy, the himalayan endeavor of raising a baby, sickness, celebration, gatherings, guests, vacations. This is my story. Guess what was part of my life throughout, no matter what? Apart from the inevitable husband, of course? Cooking!
From the days of being the Queen of the Kitchen (only), women have come a long way, yet they still hold the exclusive ownership (like it or not) of what a family eats in any household (barring a few exceptions). Family recipes along with the heirloom gadgets had been carefully passed down from one woman to another as word-of-mouth or through yellow-stained papers (mostly torn from the kids ‘rough’ notebook or the backside of a calendar sheet). More sophisticated ‘moms’ had a diary of their own with curated recipes, including those from TV Shows and Magazines that they yearn to try one day.
As nostalgic as these may sound, they are just that, these days – nostalgic. Social Media has drastically changed the way we consume information. Food is no exception. Add some technology (social media, in particular) to cooking and you have the perfect recipe for drooling over hundreds and thousands of recipes and cuisines that you have never even heard of.
Archana Doshi of Archana’s Kitchen has embraced this change wondrously. From the days of starting it as a blog to making it the personal brand that it is today, Archana shares with us how social media has helped her change her passion into a business.
In 2001, when the dot-com bubble burst, Archana lost her job and took up her Masters in IT to hone her skills. Luckily, she soon realised that this was not her calling. As renowned Author Ken Robinson says, we need to challenge what we take for granted about our abilities. And that’s what Archana did. In 2007, she started a blog to talk about Food and Recipes that soon converted into a website with close to 12 millions of viewers per month across various platforms. Google ran a nation-wide Ad featuring Archana. Archana Doshi is a living example of the advertisement’s message, ‘the web is what you make of it’.
Archana says she has always been an early adopter of social media platforms, be it YouTube or Twitter or Instagram. It has helped her reach out to millions of interested audiences. From being a one woman army, today Archana works with close to 500 contributors and a small dedicated team. She has been working with brands like Knorr, Britannia, Tetley, Saffola Fit Foodie, Nutri Foods (Govt of India), Vivatta, Philips Home Appliances, Mahindra Gusto-Food Trail, Fox Life India, KitchenAid India, Zansaar, Ritu Dalmia’s Book Giveaway, Vikas Khanna’s Book Promotion, FoodPanda, Tata Salt Lite and many more. And she has leveraged the power of social media to build this empire.
Our take away from Archana’s story is that Women Entrepreneurs should not shy away from Technology and should use it to leverage their business and to reach out to the right audience. After all, the expert in anything was once a beginner.
Watch this episode for the complete story of How Archana built her Business on Social Media.
Image source: YouTube
Entrepreneurship and entertainment have been the key themes in her work life. In a career spanning over 18 years, she has launched a film magazine, hosted a film-based radio talk show and co-founded read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
Please enter your email address