Kanchhi Maiya Bhandari grew up in a small village in Dhading. Married at 15, her first child was born when she was only 16. That was what life was back then. “I did everything I could to please my family,” recalls Kanchhi Maiya. Every day she woke up earlier than everyone—as early as 3am in the morning—to feed the goats and cows. Then she sent her kids off to school. She catered to her husband and her in-laws. She cooked. She walked for hours to collect firewood from the nearby jungle. She made dinner. And when the night gave into dawn, Kanchhi Maiya did it all over again.

Even as she recalls her difficult life in the village, there is no anger. No remorse. Just acceptance. “My mother taught me, even as a child, to cook and clean well,” she says. “Kanchhi, you’ll get married and will have to live elsewhere. Make sure to work hard.” This is what she was taught. And Kanchhi Maiya played that role perfectly—for years and years.

It was when Covid hit that her world turned upside down. Within a few months, she lost her parents and her husband. This abrupt loss left a grave of emptiness in her heart, making it difficult for her to even get up in the mornings. “I lost people that brought happiness and love into my life. It was difficult to go on,” she says.

Kanchhi Maiya’s son, Prakash, couldn’t bear to see his always cheerful mother in such a state. He had to do something. “My mother has always been a great cook. I decided to draw her attention to what she enjoys the most,” says Prakash. He realised he needed to take his mother outside the house and near nature—the jungle or the river banks when they’d have a picnic, grill some fish or make some chicken curry. He filmed all of this with his second-hand iPhone 5.

Prakash decided to post one of the videos from their outings on YouTube. Uploaded on February 26, 2021, and titled ‘Tasty Chicken Curry Cooking in Riverside and eating with Friends’, it is the second video uploaded under the channel ‘KanchhiKitchen’. As of now, this video has over 1 million views.

As the name suggests, the channel is a ‘slice-of-life’ ambient cooking show or food vlog where Kanchhi Maiya cooks various dishes—from typical Nepali food like dhido and sel-roti to foreign classics like pizza and grilled chicken. Within a short span of time, the channel has accumulated over 300,000 subscribers and a total of 60 million views.

The conception

Before Covid, Prakash was a trekking guide. At one point, he also had a stint at Image Channel. But what he enjoyed most was filming whatever he was doing. “Whenever I went somewhere as a guide, I made short videos and posted them on social media,” he says. One day he got his hands on a second-hand camera—a Canon 7D—sold to him by a foreigner trying to lighten his suitcase before flying back.

But it was only after Covid that the camera found its purpose. That and his second-hand iPhone 5 are what filmed the initial videos for KanchhiKitchen. After encouragement from his friend Pradip Guragain, Prakash convinced his mother to let him shoot one cooking video a week.

But Prakash was realistic. The tricky thing about social media, and YouTube especially, is you never know when the channel will start kicking off—it could be days, months or never. He told his mother, “Please don’t expect much from the channel. We will try for a year. If it doesn’t work, I’ll find work in Saudi.”

Prakash’s idea was to re-introduce the public to the authenticity of village life. A typical firewood stove, dishes made out of wood and clay, baskets made out of bamboo—he paid extra attention to the details that added substance to a village kitchen. “There’s something different about our kitchens—it’s drawn from local and natural elements. I wanted to preserve that,” he says.

Kanchhi Maiya reveals that she was a little sceptical of her son’s idea at first. “The villagers used to look at us and say, ‘K gareko hola?’ It was difficult to make them understand,” says Kanchhi Maiya. In fact, Kanchhi Maiya is in no way the typical YouTuber—young, tech-savvy or even literate. A few years ago, she was just a homemaker in one of the houses in Nilkuntha, 12, Bhaduwar, Dhading, whose entire day was spent on unacknowledged household labour.

But now, Kanchhi Maiya is a celebrity. The villagers come up to her and appreciate what she’s doing. Some even try to emulate it. She was recently invited to an event in Hotel Yak and Yeti to talk about her YouTubing journey. She gives interviews. As evident from the comments left in her videos, she is beloved by Nepalis and even foreigners. Big and multiple heart emojis accompany all the comments, with people admiring her welcoming smile and grace. A comment on her video reads, “Though I’m currently in a foreign desert, the peaceful and organic scenes of your village make me feel like I’m there too.” Another says, “It is because of the hard work that you’ve reached here. Thank you.”

For Kanchhi Maiya, this level of recognition has been unimaginable. “My life has changed completely. I want to tell all the didi-bainis that we must keep working and trying new things even as we get old,” says Kanchhi Maiya, adding that the channel has given her a new-found confidence and a feeling of self-reliance.

Prakash says that in this digital age, there is a tendency for people to leave the aged behind, considering them too old-fashioned to use the internet or social media. “I want to show from our YouTube channel that our elders aren’t useless,” he says. “In fact, they’d be the happiest if we use the internet or social media to teach them something or just spend time with them.”

What next?

The positive reception of KanchhiKitchen has opened up new doors for both Kanchhi and Prakash. The kitchen has gotten a full re-vamp, and the camera has shifted to the much more powerful Sony A7iii. Prakash’s sister bought him a new laptop where he edits videos on Adobe’s Premiere Pro. The production quality of KanchhiKitchen is also what has drawn viewers to the channel. The videos are well-shot and edited—no jerks, seamless cuts and refreshing B-rolls that show snippets of the village; a flower in bloom, a close-up of the village dog or of leaves rustling in the wind. “In today’s chaotic world, I want our viewers to watch our videos and be at peace, at least for a few minutes,” says Prakash.

However, it’s not all rose petals. There are YouTube trolls. There is still a bit of scepticism. He admits there have been challenges, especially regarding retaining viewership and developing new ideas to attract audiences. This is why, in recent times, KanchhiKitchen has featured newer, non-traditional recipes. Fresher characters have also been added, and Prakash’s wife, Sonu Khadka Bhandari, also makes cameos in the cooking videos.

“We also want to open a homestay where people can stay, enjoy the village life and interact with Kanchhi Maiya and eat the food she cooks,” he says. There’s also another idea of taking KanchhiKitchen outside the set; a new program where Kanchhi Maiya will travel, experience new cuisines and draw influences from them. The talk of travelling makes Kanchhi Maiya’s face light up. “I would love to travel. Ghumna ta jhan ramailo lagcha,” she says.

The optimism, in the eyes of both Kanchhi Maiya and Prakash, for the future is grounded. The videos—the new one featuring something more delectable than the previous—are published three times a week. Clearly, the ambitions for the future of KanchhiKitchen are big. But how far will these plans go? Neither Kanchhi Maiya, Prakash, nor the viewers know. But amidst all this success, Prakash understands. “If one day my mother tells me she doesn’t want to make videos anymore, I’ll stop from that very moment,” he says.

Recommended KanchhiKitchen videos:

This easy yet delicious looking chatpate recipe featuring her daughter-in-law

A classic mutton gravy recipe

How to: Dhido and fish curry