She turned into an entrepreneur in her 90s. Meet Harbhajan Kaur

This 95-year-old started her venture in her 90s supported by her loving family who helped spread the word about it

If you are ever wondering if you have made the most of your life and whether there is still time to make a fresh start, all you need to do is to take a look at Harbhajan Kaur who turned into an entrepreneur in her 90s. 

Kaur is a 95-year-old woman who lives in Chandigarh. She’s been a homemaker all her life, dedicated to raising her family and looking after their needs. When her husband passed away some years ago, Kaur came to stay with her younger daughter Raveena Suri. During a chat with her daughter, Kaur revealed that she had one regret in life – she had never earned any money of her own. Her daughter listened and did what many children may not always have the empathy to do – she suggested that her mother make her famous besan barfis and sell them at an upcoming local exhibition. The barfis were a sellout, Kaur earned the first income in her life – a very special Rs 2000 and her brand, Harbhajan’s Made With Love was born.

Kaur had always been known for her food, her granddaughter in law Supriya tells us since Kaur has difficulty communicating on phone. “Her children say they always had a variety of things waiting for them at home when they came back from school.” Kaur loved to experiment with the Indian dishes she made and was encouraged by her late husband, though she may have never imagined starting a food startup in her 90s!

Kaur was 85 when she lost her husband. She felt a void in her life despite the love and care she was surrounded by because she saw everyone around busy at work. The success of her first stall and the demand for her barfis gave her a sense of confidence and empowerment she hadn’t experienced earlier and the courage to start a venture. 

Started in 2016, Kaur’s business gained popularity through word of mouth, and her family started helping her out to fulfil the orders. They gave her work an additional boost, coming together to help her achieve her dream. Today her grandson Manav Suri, a trained chef, helps her with improving recipe quality and quantity, her granddaughter Mallika helps with branding and design and her granddaughter in law Supriya helps with social media reach out and client feedback. 

“But she is the one who remains the main person. The recipes are all developed by her and she does the ingredient prep,” Supriya adds. And even if Kaur cannot physically stand for hours and stir ingredients due to physical limitations, she remains in charge of quality control. Not a single product goes out without her approval. 

Kaur had a bout of Covid-19 which slowed her down for a while. What remained constant though was her enthusiasm and drive. Even with the family helping out, Kaur is not one to sit back and relax. She is curious and excited to know about everything – from the design of a bottle label to where a video of her prep process would be used. 

Kaur’s is a story of how generations can come together to help a senior citizen achieve her dream, without age ever being a roadblock. But as Supriya points out to us, the family’s support is powered by Kaur’s own desire to achieve something with her skill. A recent Instagram video shows Kaur supervising the process of making homemade mango pickles, watching over the chopping and adding the spices. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CS81s9Up5_i/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

“She is enthusiastic and involved in supervising and developing every aspect of the process. Each of her products has a story. And the idea is to make people feel the taste of their childhood, the pickle that the grandma would have made the halwa that a mother would have fed her child. That’s why the tagline bachpan yaad aa jaye”.

For Kaur, becoming an entrepreneur, after spending years dedicating herself to her home and family life, has been completely life-altering. It has given her a feeling of independence and empowerment. "Earlier she was known as just a wife and mother to someone. But today she is Mrs Harbhajan Kaur - An entrepreneur. I think that itself has been more rewarding than just financial independence," Supriya adds. Today, Kaur feels she has a larger family, beyond the circle of her own home. “She has people who like her products, send feedback and get inspired by her. She feels her family has grown larger, and that is her biggest achievement,” Supriya says. 

What has also changed is her confidence. She's open to learning, even taking critical feedback if any as a chance to improve and adapt her recipes and never thinking that she is too old for it. Kaur may not have travelled much but wants to know the places her products, which now include pickles, jams, chutneys and Indian sweets, travel to, the curious child in her intact in her 90s.  

Kaur’s work even caught the eye of Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group, who often applauds interesting initiatives on Twitter. “When you hear the word startup, it brings to mind images of millennials in Silicon Valley or Bangalore, trying to build billion-dollar ‘unicorns’,” he wrote. “From now, let's also include a 94-year-old woman who doesn't think it's too late to do a startup.” 

Harbhajan Kaur’s story tells us that you are never too old to think of starting something new. That dreams and skills have no expiry date. Sometimes all it needs is to spell out your desire to work on your passion, and a loving family, to help propel the dream along. 

Image courtesy: https://www.instagram.com/harbhajansmadewithlove/