The price of social media stardom: Out of hospital, ‘Baba ka Dhaba’ reveals he 'slipped into depression'

New Delhi, June 26: Each one of us has, at one point or another, craved stardom and everything it entails. While a bunch of people fail to achieve that benchmark, many turn into overnight social media celebrities.

Going viral on social media and becoming a star overnight can happen in the most unpredictable manner.

Something similar happened with octogenarian who were confident that better days lay ahead.

The Kanta Prasad, 80, had shot to fame last year after a YouTuber Gaurav Wasan highlighted his financial condition in a video.

Social media spun its magic with a video of Kanta Prasad tearfully recounting the desperation of the months since the lockdown being shared widely across platforms and the eatery became an overnight success as people from across the country made generous donations.

Moved by his plight, Customers had made a beeline to eat his food as did camera crews, bloggers and journalists.

A post that made an elderly couple smile: Everything that has happened so far

• Kanta Prasad and his wife Badami Devi had opened Baba ka dhaba in 1990. They served fresh, homemade meals of parathas, a flaky buttered bread, with a side of gravy, rice, and dal, a thick soup of lentils. A meal usually costs less than 50 rupees. They were doing a decent business until the COVID-19 struck.
• As people stopped eating out, the couple struggled to make ends meet.
• In Oct 2020, Food vlogger Gaurav Wasan finds Kanta Prasad and his wife's food joint Baba Ka Dhaba in the Malviya Nagar area of New Delhi
• Gaurav Wasan posts the video online and requests people to save Baba Ka Dhaba by coming to the eatery and/or donating money.
• People started coming to Baba Ka Dhaba and the fate of the eatery changed overnight. Advertisers started putting banners outside the humble shop, and it became difficult to feed the long queue of people.
• However, in November 2020, Kanta Prasad and Gaurav Wasan had a tussle over money.
• Kanta Prasad had a complaint against Gaurav Wasan for alleged misappropriation of funds raised through donations.
• Kanta Prasad claimed Gaurav Wasan had collected large sums of donations, but handed him only a small part of it.
• Gaurav Wasan denied the allegations and claimed that he gave to Prasad all the donations - ₹4.20 lakh - he had received.
• In December 2020, Kanta Prasad opened a new restaurant after social media users helped pull them back from the utter destitution to which the COVID-19 lockdown had pushed them.
• Kanta Prasad said he invested ₹5 lakh in the restaurant and hired three workers. The monthly expenditure was around ₹1 lakh.
• But the business never took off and within three months, it was teetering on the edge of collapse.
• Life seems to have come full circle for the dhaba owners Kanta Prasad and wife Badaami Devi.
• In mid-February, Kanta Prasad closed that restaurant because of the losses.
• In May, he returned to his old food stall.
• Then, Kanta Prasad issued an apology to Gaurav Wasan in a viral video that has been circulating the internet and said, "Gaurav Wasan was not a thief. We never called him a thief".
• Gaurav accepted the apology and said, "All's well that ends well".
• On June 17, the police received information from the Safdarjung Hospital that Kanta Prasad had been admitted there.
• He had consumed alcohol and sleeping pills following which he was admitted to the hospital, police officials had said.
• Kanta Prasad felt depressed and took the extreme step, the senior police officer said, adding that no case has been registered in this matter so far.
• Kanta Prasad returned home after being discharged from the Safdarjung hospital, police said on Friday. He was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital on June 18.
• Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said Kanta Prasad returned home after being discharged from the hospital on Thursday and is currently taking rest at his home.
• "I was discharged on Thursday. I just want Wasan to stay happy and leave us on our own," Kanta Prasad said after coming back home.
• The statement of Prasad's son Karan was recorded. He said said in the statement that his father consumed alcohol along with sleeping pills.

Depression, one of the most common mental disorders, is up-surging worldwide amid the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, especially among the older population.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to millions of people losing their jobs, with some communities hit harder and low-income families disproportionately affected.

In India, financial inclusion infrastructures have proven to be a tool for revenue capture rather than distribution.

Financial inclusion is a method of offering banking and financial services to individuals. It aims to include everybody in society by giving them basic financial services regardless of their income or savings. It focuses on providing financial solutions to the economically underprivileged.

The term is broadly used to describe the provision of savings and loan services to the poor in an inexpensive and easy-to-use form. It aims to ensure that the poor and marginalised make the best use of their money and attain financial education. With advances in financial technology and digital transactions, more and more startups are now making financial inclusion simpler to achieve.

Why is financial inclusion important?

Financial inclusion strengthens the availability of economic resources and builds the concept of savings among the poor. Financial inclusion is a major step towards inclusive growth. It helps in the overall economic development of the underprivileged population. In India, effective financial inclusion is needed for the uplift of the poor and disadvantaged people by providing them with the modified financial products and services.