Wanderers of Delhi, Aastha and Rishabh, a pair of friends dedicated to literally bringing some spice in your life. Hailing from the Food Capital of India- Delhi, this pair started their journey of exploring and discovering Delhi in their college days. Both of them had a knack and freshly sprouted intrigue to experience all the unseen and the unheard parts of Delhi.
A conference held in their college, of people from the then “unconventional” careers like influencer marketing, food blogging, photography, fashion blogging inspired them to go after what they loved. So in 2016, began their Instagram page which was initially known as Nomadic Wanderers of Delhi. Observing that their audience engaged more with the food stories, they decided to go ahead with food blogging being their niche.
With their college finals around the corner, they received a handful of doubts and worries from their parents. Ensuring to balance their way out of it, they now have a loyal following of 141K on Instagram.
While Aastha poses for the striking pictures and ideates for new content, Rishabh executes it and adds the descriptive captions.
Food blogging may not be as easy as it looks. They say, “We’ve burnt our hands, lost our phones to the heat of the Indian oven- Tandoor; all of it to get that perfect angle!”. They do ample research into finding places to eat which offer a distinguished blend of flavours. “You’ll get Pav Bhaji at a thousand stalls in Delhi, but we find that one which offers the same Pav Bhaji with a twist of flavours and presentation”.
Sometimes ending up at eateries which were hyped despite their ordinary taste. At such places, they resort to making recommendations to the cook and posting those pictures which their audience can “eat with their eyes” and tempts them.
They love to visit Chandni Chowk in Delhi, “Each time you visit, something is new, but nothing has inherently changed in the taste! It’s amusing that you’ll never run out of choices to eat even if you’re a vegetarian.” Even the eateries’ staff there is so accustomed to bloggers visiting them that they adjust their cooking and presentation skills for the bloggers!
Hitting a rough spot in 2019, with no increase in the number of followers, they faced crossroads. Yet, their zeal to strive and keep the page going was unwavering.
They kept trying, with a varied palette of content, from carousel posts, IGTV videos, to food challenges and posting consistently. Only to later gain in 2020 what they’d worked so hard for in the previous year.
Visits to restaurants being their primary source of content, with the lockdown, came another set of challenges. They adapted smoothly in no time, shifting their content strategy to sharing basic home-made recipes, to throwback posts and “Once the lockdown is over” series. They evolved their recipes further, from basic feasible ones like fried rice, chocolate puddings to complex ones like Momos, Dal Makhani, Butter Chicken and so on. They plan to explore cities all over India- Vrindavan, Chandigarh, Indore, Pune to name a few.
Having collaborated with brands like Samsung, Nokia, Tata Salt, they recommend budding bloggers to “Always know the worth of your content, don’t take yourself as seriously as you take your content. Trust your work!”
Rishabh feels forever indebted to his co-blogger Aastha, for having “a mind that never sleeps.” She’s constantly ideating, researching and curating differential content to have an edge! At the end of the day, the content game is not about what you offer, but what you offer differently.
Their unending love for food and exploration has gotten them to where they are, and that’s what they suggest people do. “Keep going on to keep going on. Be consistent with what you do, and in case things fall apart, chase your passion with a different approach.”
