There is no dearth of ideas, really; the real challenge is turning thoughts into action. I did just that and here I am now, with an ice-cream business, satiating people’s hunger for the sweet and savoury. And I can tell you, this is what dreams are made of.

In the year 2000, my younger daughter Saumyaa, then two years old, inadvertently set the family on this propitious path. A raging tantrum for a softie cup from a neighbouring ice-cream shop led me to start Icekreamskee, previously known as La Croix.

Sceptical of the synthetic nature of ice creams, I felt I was denying my daughter this delectable indulgence in order to keep her healthy. So I decided to experiment with frozen desserts at home. I have studied food and nutrition at Juhu’s SNDT College in Mumbai, so eating healthy was a priority at La Croix, a small ice-cream business I had started and where I sold only to friends and family. Later, I reinvented my business, rechristened it ‘Icekreamskee’ and went commercial. Besides, the need to innovate for a healthier lifestyle also needed some entrepreneurial experience that I have apparently inherited from my mother, as my elder daughter Sucheta often says, proudly. My mother loves setting up stalls at fairs and festivals, and it is that same inherent need to feed people with the most sumptuous flavours, and seeing their eyes light up, that now pushes our family further, to expand beyond friends and families.

You might think that making ice-cream at home is a tedious process; rather, it’s a patient game. Preparation takes about an hour, which is then followed by two rounds of freezing, about 14 hours each. Earlier, there wasn’t too much emphasis on flavours. As long as the ice crystals were absent, the ice-cream was considered good. Now, intense competition between brands has paved the way for innovation. Most of our flavours take a lot of trial and error, as it is our endeavour to keep them unique. Besides the juxtaposition of flavours, we also make customised ice-creams, which is our driving force at the moment. We cater to diabetics and other patients who may have restrictions on their intake. And we cater to them in the healthiest manner.

We never thought of it as a business until just a year back. I had been making ice-cream since 2000 for my doting daughter but it was only last year that Sucheta suggested that I open my doors to a wider base of customers. As she has a background in the marketing industry, she had some marketing tricks up her sleeve that have helped us on this journey.

I don’t measure the success of my business in monetary terms; rather, I am driven by passion and sentiment. The look in my customers’ eyes tells me they appreciate my work. I am not sure what the future holds for Icekreamskee but I hope I can continue to see the smile on many more faces for years to come.

—Asha Thakur, Mumbai

Photo: Haresh Patel
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
December 2017