From Rejection to Rasam: The Zen Journey of Babu

“The Boy Who Began Again”

(A Ponmanipudi Story of Shoshin and Zen)

For months, Babu, the MA Economics gold-medalist of Ponmanipudi, woke up each morning with the same sentence echoing in his mind:

“What’s wrong with me? Why only me?"

Despite his distinction, no job came.

No interviews.

No callbacks.

Only the sound of rejection slipping through his fingers. No one was interested in him..

The village had begun whispering:

“A bright boy… but unlucky. paapa”

“So much education… still sitting at home.”

Babu heard everything.

And one morning, unable to take the weight anymore, he burst into the tea stall shouting,

“I studied so much! For what? To sit at home like a crow cawing on the electric pole?”

Appuswamy wiped a steel tumbler calmly.

“Da Babu… electricity and destiny both shock only when you don’t know how to handle them.”

Babu groaned.

“Uncle, this is not philosophy time!”

Even Dr. Chari, who was sipping his suddi coffee, smiled faintly.

“Maybe it is, Babu.”

That irritated him more.

He stormed out. Angry, desperate and wanting to run, away from life....

For days, Babu read aimlessly — anything to escape his own thoughts.

Then one day, he stumbled upon a concept that quietly rearranged his life:

Shoshin — the Zen Beginner’s Mind.

A line struck him like lightning:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.”

He whispered to himself,

“So… maybe I am not failing.

Maybe I’m just starting wrong.”

That night, Babu sat with his grandmother in the kitchen.

Paati cut vegetables with the precision of a surgeon and the grace of a temple dancer.

He watched fascinated. He loved food and Paati cooking....simple, delicious and wholesome...

An Idea flashed in Babu's mind like a star...

“Paati,” he said, “teach me how to cook. Properly. Like you.”

She blinked twice.

“You failed economics so badly you want to burn my kitchen?”

“No paati,” he smiled weakly.

“I want to begin again. From zero.”

Her expression softened.

“Zero is the mother of infinity, Babu. Kanna come, waada....”

And just like that, a new world opened.

He learnt why sambar tastes different in every house.

He learnt the sound of onions when they’re truly ready.

He learnt how turmeric behaves like light.

He learnt patience from waiting for dosa batter to rise —

and humility from cleaning the vessels afterward.

Babu's body hurt, but his mind loved it. Because he had a idea...a mission, a star to fill the sky....

Every lesson was a meditation.

Every mistake was a blessing.

The beginner’s mind was shaping a Master, slowly and silently. He learnt from everybody....from physical to virtual...He trawled the world to learn....

One day, Babu told Appuswamy,

“I’m thinking of starting a YouTube channel.”

“About economics?”

“No,” Babu said. “About Ponmanipudi cooking.

Food with heart. Food with history.

Food people forgot to feel.”

Appuswamy stared at him.

“ Wah! So finally you’re doing something useful,” he said, sipping tea. " Put my bonda and the mixed soup/rasam. World will love it."

Babu laughed — for the first time in months.

The channel began with 23 views.

Then 112.

Then 400.

Then a thousand.

People loved how he explained: why tamarind must rest,

why coriander must be torn,

why food must be made with “shuddha manasu” — a clean heart.

Within a year, his channel exploded.

1 million subscribers.

Comments from Japan.

Messages from New York. Women started falling in love with him....Men followed his unique style....

Families cooking his rasam during winters in London.

Grandmothers in Kerala blessing him.

His joy was not the numbers.

It was the miracle of beginning again.

One evening, Dr. Chari walked into his filming kitchen.

“Chari sir!” Babu rushed and hugged him. “1 million! Can you believe it?”

Dr. Chari smiled gently.

“Of course I can.”

“You knew?” Babu asked.

Chari placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Babu… when you lost your job, you didn’t lose your life.

You lost your old mind.

And you found a new one.”

He picked up a ladle and stirred the sambar thoughtfully.

“This,” he said, “is Shoshin with heart.

Beginning again.

Curiosity.

Humility.

Possibility.”

He looked at Babu with affection.

“You didn’t become successful despite failure.

You became successful because you allowed yourself to begin.”

Babu felt tears rising.

“So… my unemployment was my destiny?”

“No,” Chari smiled.

“Your beginner’s mind was your destiny.”

That night, as Babu uploaded a new video titled “Cooking With Dr Chari and Shoshin”, a quiet truth settled inside him:

He wasn’t the boy who failed.

He was the man who started again.

And Ponmanipudi, that little village with a big heart,

became the place where the world came to learn holistic wholesome cooking,

wellness,

and a little Zen…

one ladle of love at a time.