Senior Entrepreneurship – Granny’s Inn

It was the desire to do something worthwhile that prompted senior citizens and cousins Asha and Aruna Singh to turn entrepreneurs with Granny’s Inn in their 60s. Reshmi Chakraborty hears their story.

Aruna (left) & Asha

When Aruna Singh, 64, inherited a mansion in Varanasi (Benares) from her father, she wanted to put it to use in a way that would keep her busy. Varanasi being a tourism hub, Aruna and her older cousin Asha, both senior citizens, decided to start a home stay, Granny’s Inn. It helped that Asha had already had some first hand experience in hospitality, courtesy her daughter and son-in-law. So the sisters, who say they have a “good understanding,” decided to join hands and convert the old mansion into one.

“My cousin wanted the house to be maintained well and we felt this was the best way to do it,” says Asha, who is 67. What gave her more confidence was the experience her children had in running Cinnamon, one of the top rated B&Bs in Gurgaon. “My son-in- law Manish came to Varanasi to repair what was required and furnish the house in a very creative way.” Both sisters also liked the idea of meeting and interacting with people. While staying at the Gurgaon B&B with her daughter Shilpi, Asha had started talking to the guests. She felt it would be good to do something that makes one meet and interact with people and stay occupied. “We (Aruna and me) are both social people. When people come to stay here, we don’t make them feel like guests. We treat them as our own,” says Asha.

A standard room in Granny’s Inn

One look at the Granny’s Inn reviews on Tripadvisor and other travel websites and you know that she isn’t far off the mark. Most travellers have spoken about the warmth with which ‘the grannies’ treat everyone, including coming up with Ayurvedic formulas to ward of a nasty cough, cold or other ailments. It’s a tip in hospitality that many big names could take a thing or two from.

Asha laughs when this is pointed out to her, adding that they try to help out in every way they can, including going with guests to buy the famous Benarasi saris. “Benares is crowded and to visit most of the good sari places, you need to either go by foot or take a rickshaw. But I don’t mind and go along as it also helps the guests. That is how we have grown up,” she adds simply.

The warmth is reciprocated by most people who stay with Asha and Aruna. “One of our guests came from Kolkata and stayed with us for seven days. They loved the food so much that they still call us up saying aaj humane aapki tarah khan banaya hai (today we’ve cooked like you),” Asha adds with a hearty laugh.

The food is famous at Granny’s Inn with their cook Kashi getting lots of compliments from the guests. “It’s very simple food,”say the sisters humbly, “Only dal, chapati, one sabji, salad, curd and a sweet. What makes it different is probably that it is cooked just like home. It’s also pure vegetarian.”

Dining Area: Home to those delicious meals

The sisters make great role models for senior entrepreneurs. They supervise every aspect of Granny’s Inn, making sure that the rooms are clean, the laundry done, small details taken care of and the food cooked to everyone’s satisfaction. “I never feel tired,” says Aruna, and Asha echoes the same. “I just rest a bit in the afternoon, apart from that there is no exhaustion and we enjoy looking after the place,” she adds.

Granny’s Inn is located at Gowdolia and is a short walking distance from the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple and Dashashwamedh Ghat. it has guests checking in from India and all over the world. For Asha and Aruna, it means not just maintaining a property that would have guests coming back but also being a people’s person in more ways than one. The grannies seem to be doing that with aplomb. As Manish, Asha’s son-in-law says, “we don’t need to advise them on how to run the place. They are doing a great job on their own, assisted by their helpers.”

Asha and Aruna on the verandah

From bringing a purpose to their lives to bringing them independence in no small measure, Granny’s Inn has also been a learning experience for the two ladies. “We are from a Hindi medium background. I speak English but not very fluently. I’ve been getting good practice after speaking to the guests who come from all over the world,” says Asha. In fact, she recently learnt how to Zumba courtesy an an elderly lady visiting from USA! 

“I love this,” says Aruna. “I love feeding the guests, improving upon what is not available and though there is a language problem sometimes, I manage. For me the learning is that we talk to the guests about so many different things. It opens up our minds.” 

Coming from a zamindar background in Bihar, where girls mostly lived a protected life, Asha and Aruna both admit that they would have never thought of running a home stay in their 60s. While it was their family’s expertise in hospitality that gave them the confidence, the effort required in running it successfully has been entirely their own, with support from their small team. For Asha, who was dealing with a personal crisis when she started the homestay, it has also brought about a happy change in her personality. Both women had lost their husbands and always wished to do something that would keep them mentally occupied and satisfied in the later years. With Granny’s Inn, they have achieved all that and more.

To visit the Granny’s Inn, go to their website http://www.grannysinn.in/

All photographs courtesy Granny’s Inn