Gurugram-based Abhilasha Jain’s entrepreneurial journey started with a simple Facebook post in 2014.

Nestled in the peaceful Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, a small village is glowing with the promise of a better future.  And it’s all thanks to a Padma Shri awardee named Lama Thupten Phuntsok, who has been instrumental in setting up a school and an orphanage named Manjushree Vidyapeeth for the children there.

Around the early 90s, he had spent 12 years in Mysore studying Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language, ultimately earning his PhD in the subject.

But when he returned to his hometown in Tawang, where he had studied at a local monastery as a child, he found that his community faced severe issues. A lack of gynaecologists causing maternal deaths, frequent road accidents leaving children orphaned, poor village facilities, and widespread malnutrition, were some of the issues they were facing. This resulted in many orphans with nowhere to turn.

But that was just the beginning. One order led to another, and then several. Finally, the same year, to keep up with the massive demand, she opened a catering business named ‘Marwadi Khana’ to offer authentic homemade Marwari food.

He realised that the children staying with relatives often had to work as housemaids or caretakers.

The 48-year-old credits her success to being raised in a traditional household in Bhilwara, where preparing a meal was considered to be a combination of science and art.

“Initially, we faced difficulties in convincing them to send their orphaned children to us. However, these children were in a very poor condition suffering from malnutrition and neglect,” he says.

The 48-year-old credits her success to being raised in a traditional household in Bhilwara, where preparing a meal was considered to be a combination of science and art.

In a bid to address this dire situation, the school was started in 1998 in a small shed with 17 students. It has now grown to accommodate over 300 children with many of its former students becoming lawyers, engineers, and IAS officers.

The success in delivering the real taste of Rajasthan has also made her financially independent, and the venture generates a monthly revenue of up to Rs 10 lakh, she claims. Marwadi Khana has been operational for a decade.

“It was my hometown, and I felt responsible for helping the children there,” he says. He knew an orphanage and school were urgently needed. So, while working as a teacher in the area, he decided to start both.

He spent seven years saving up from his job at Tawang Public School to realise his dream. He bought land from locals and, with the help of the local army, levelled the ground and built small huts with mud, stone, and tin.

They began with eight rooms and three teachers, including himself. The school teaches all the subjects and is affiliated to CBSE up to class 10. It even has computer courses to help students with vocational training.

Abhilasha watched and learned, and soon began to master one dish after another.

"We taught daily, even covering subjects like Buddhist philosophy and the local language," he adds.

The constant encouragement from her friends and family members, especially from her father, only increased her confidence.

Awareness about the orphanage grew, leading more people to send their children to it. Without government support until 2015-16, it raised funds through foreign sponsors and his travels.

However, the thought of making a career out of it didn’t occur to her until much later. As per the family traditions, she got married after her graduation and was content as a homemaker and mother.

"By 2010, we had 57 children,” he says.

Even after the Facebook post, it took her a while to realise her true calling, “Praises poured in from all over. I was flooded with requests from my friends and even strangers," she says.

His hard work has paid off and the school now has separate dormitories for boys and girls, an academic block, and 37 staff members.

He also notes that the Dalai Lama visited twice and supported them by covering teachers’ salaries for five years

Every dish on the menu comes alive with rare practices and techniques that she inherited from her ancestral land.

The school accepts children from diverse backgrounds and age groups, often with no prior education. It offers them vocational training in tailoring, wood carving, plumbing, and hotel management to help them find jobs.

She explains this by saying, “For example, the Marwad region, where I grew up, has a harsh climate. So, the lack of vegetation pushed the locals to invent sabzi alternatives such as gatte, rabodi, pittod and mangodi, ker, sangri, and dried lentils.

Currently, the school supports children from 34 districts, such as Tawang, West Kameng, and East Kameng.

“To ensure that there is adequate nutrition, there is an inclination towards ingredients like beans, gram flour, millet, corn, bajra, barley bread and dairy products. I have kept these intact while cooking,” she explains.

“In recent years, the infrastructure in our remote area has improved significantly and we are better off from where we started,” he shares.