nagpur armed with some experiential learning skills and the idea of providing a healthier eatingout option to the citizens two young entrepreneurs are giving the humble khichadi a whole new twist a niche restaurant khichadiwala now serves the many variants of this dish once seen as a sick persons staple in a neverseen before avatar in a month of its existence their idea has garnered much interest and favour especially among the citys it professionals and students the idea of serving khichadi in various flavours at a food joint had emerged out of a training programme ceo10k organized by innovations firm lemon ideas the programme required participants to come up with a viable business idea and turning it into a profitmaking venture in a period of 21 days after the success of the pilot run of project khichd two of the participants sagar bhajani and manish khanchandani took the idea forward and set up the restaurant located just a stones throw away from the it park sagar is a former it professional who quit as he was bored of the monotony of his job manish is an mba student always keen on being an entrepreneur together they have come up with saoji khichadi italian khichadi and many other flavours of the modest foodstuff served alongside healthy accompaniments and drinks as our target was the healthconscious foodie of the city we ensured our menu had all healthy choices we do not serve or encourage aerated drinks as accompaniments informed manish sagar added the most popular item on the menu has been a wellness shot a mocktail it has been so popular that one person who tried it brought along ten of his friends the very next day for it even when the participants had come up with the idea i thought it was a really novel and unique venture to work on its business model was easier in the sense that the raw material was comparatively cheap and easily available this means it had the potential to reach the breakeven faster than most foodrelated ventures it had earned a profit even during pilot run said founder of lemon ideas deepak menaria the firm that aims at encouraging innovative ideas to be turned into profitmaking business ventures will be mentoring the youngsters for the first three months it professional avinash singh whose office is nearby said he has stopped bringing tiffins coming to khichadiwala everyday for lunch i have tasted everything on the menu he declared proudly his colleague vilas kesarwani said i am from uttar pradesh where khichadi is a common lunchtime item so whenever i feel like having a taste of home i ditch the mess food delivered to the office and come here instead several of the regulars have even celebrated their birthdays in the healthy restaurant while weekends see a lot of families walking in to eat homestyle food out of home the idea to provide healthy homestyle meals in a restaurant how the humble homely