When newly-wed Seema Sharma first travelled to the South-Indian city of Chennai, little did she know what the city had in store for her. Visiting the coastal city, where her husband, Heeralal Niure, had been living and working as a driver, sightseeing was the only thing on her mind at the time.

“Before coming here, I had no idea that a city called Chennai even existed. I came here to convince my husband to move back home,” recalls Seema, who is originally from Gaidakot, Nawalparasi, “Everything was so different and alien—the people, the language, the culture, the food—I was terribly homesick and couldn’t wait to get out.”

Yet two decades later, not only has Seema found a home away from home in Chennai, the once demure homemaker who never ventured out into the city by herself has become a successful entrepreneur, inspiring others like her to strike out on their own. Her venture, Seema Catering Service, runs canteens in two local schools—PS Senior Secondary School and GRT Mahalakshmi Matriculation Vidyalaya—where a combined 5,000 students study. Once the lunch-break bell rings, children run towards her establishments. Her delicious and hygienic food, a fusion menu of South Indian, North Indian and Nepali cuisine is a favourite among students and the staff alike. Outside of school, Seema also provides catering services to different customers and has had stints managing canteens at some big corporate houses, including Aircel Telecom, India’s fifth largest mobile service provider.

Seema’s business is booming, but she remains humble about her beginnings.

“I don’t know how this all happened. I had never thought I would be a good cook, let alone running a string of successful canteens,” she admits, as she shapes a picture-perfect samosa, “Plus, the food here in South India is so much different from that of Nepal, or the familiar North Indian cuisine. I had to start from scratch.”

Having failed to convince her husband to move back to Nepal and stuck in a city too expensive for his meagre income, Seema initially found work with a local Tamil family as a housemaid. It was here that she began to develop a taste for South Indian cuisine and the delicate craft of perfecting it. “At the time, I didn’t know how to make any local food items and learned it on the go when I began looking after the elderly Tamil family,” she recounts.

Soon, having gotten a taste for earning for herself, she expanded in a small way by delivering food to students and office goers in the same neighbourhood. Making INRs 15 for a lunch order of chappatis and vegetables, Seema soon became a favoured “lunch lady” in the area. “I would be so happy even getting a few orders a day,” she remembers, “Soon by word of mouth, a lot of people began ordering my lunches. This is also about the time that I made my first breakthrough.”

That breakthrough came in the form of a tender she put in to run the canteen at Padma Seshadari Bala Bhavan School—a reputed institution with a large student body. “It was really challenging and I was petrified putting in the tender,” she admits, “But I sensed that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I grabbed at it with both hands. There on, I ran that canteen for more than a decade.”

With the new venture, Seema not only stepped decisively in Chennai’s food service industry but also began generating income opportunities for others. According to some estimates, there are about 100,000 Nepalis living in Chennai, many of whom are housewives accompanying their spouses who are employed in the city. It is from this pool of willing workers that Seema began hiring help for her fledgling business—initially taking in 10 employees. With a team in place, business soon began to boom and Seema Catering Service became a familiar name in Chennai. Today, she rakes in up to INRS 7,000 from her canteens each day, while making just as much from her other catering services.

Seema attributes her steady rise in the industry to her uncompromising focus on hygiene and consistency. She claims that she is yet to receive a complaint about her food because she is so stringent about quality control. “When I was new in the field, I had to earn money. Still, I did not compromise on the quality. But now that I am well-known in the sector, I need to maintain my hard-earned reputation, so I have never compromised on the taste or the health aspect of the business,” she says. 

Guru Krishna Priya, Arts and Craft teacher at PS Senior Secondary School, agrees to Seema’s claim. “Her food is fresh and tasty and always hygienic. But the best thing about her is the hospitality, she genuinely cares about her customers and it shows,” says Priya.

For someone who began as a household help, Seema indeed has come a long way, that too in a sector largely dominated by men. “There was a time when I completely lived in my husband’s shadow, now the men in the food service industry are intimidated by my success. It has been quite a transformation,” she says, “We can succeed in anything if we decide to take that first step.”

Seema, who now speaks fluent Tamil, is no longer lost in the crowd; she stands out in it. Nor does she have any plans of moving back to Nepal, like she once desperately wanted. “I want to do more. There is always something more to be achieved. Having risen from selling a handful of chappatis a day, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store,” she says.