Customers flock to elderly couple's food truck after their tearful plea goes viral

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By VT

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After heartbreaking footage of a struggling food truck owner breaking in tears went viral, large numbers of people flocked to the food stall to save it from going bust, NDTV reports.

The elderly couple from South Delhi never made huge amounts of revenue from the home-cooked meals they sold at their kiosk.

But the business, which they had been running for 30 years, had previously made enough money for them to survive on, according to the publication.

Unfortunately,  though, their business was hit hard by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it appears they had been struggling more than usual.

Last Wednesday, (October 7), a Twitter user, Vasundhara Tankha Sharma, posted a video of the couple, saying their story "completely broke my heart". In the tweet, she urged people in the area to "please, please go eat at Baba ka Dhaba in Malviya Nagar".

In the video which was filmed by Indian blogger Gaurav Vasan, a distressed-looking Kanta Prasad, 80, opened up about his financial troubles. He said that he and his wife Badami Devi typically begin cooking at 6:30AM and are usually ready to serve by 9:30AM.

Their dishes included Dal, curry, parathas, and rice which are placed in large dishes to be sold for around 30-50 rupees ($0.40-$0.70) a plate.

This is the moment a kind Waffle House waitress is surprised with a college scholarship:

Kanta Prasad, who is visibly upset, is seen running a ladle through what appears to be a matar-paneer dish.

He was asked how much he had earned which was when he broke down and presented the blogger with the 10 rupees ($0.14) he had made following hours of work.

While the business had never exactly been hugely profitable, the coronavirus pandemic has made it practically impossible for the couple to make ends meet.

Moreover, Kanta Prasad and Badami Devi, who have two sons and a daughter, run the business all on their own, with reportedly no help from their three children.

However, the day after the upsetting video was uploaded (October 8), the name of their business, Baba Ka Dhaba, became one of the top trending subjects on Twitter in India.

Shortly after the video drew attention to the elderly couple's story, suddenly huge numbers of customers turned up at the kiosk:

The video in the original tweet currently has 4.6 million views, 169.7 likes, and 58.4k retweets at the time of writing.

Per NDTV, some of the individuals who tweeted in response to the video include actor Sonam Kapoor, cricketer R Ashwin, IPL team Delhi Capitals, and food delivery app Zomato.

Kanta Prasad has spoken about his gratitude for the local support of his and his wife's business, per NDTV.