On a bustling street in Howrah, a modest sweet shop named Ghosal & Daughter quietly challenges traditional expectations by being founded and run by women—a mother who opened it with no inherited recipe or connections, and her daughter poised to carry the business forward.
- Mother Sutapa founded the shop in 2018 without a family recipe or network
- Her daughter Momoiro inspired the venture and is the intended successor
- The shop challenges India’s typical 'family business' gender norms
What happened
Ghosal & Daughter opened its doors in 2018 on Netaji Subhash Road in Howrah, not as a typical inherited sweet shop but one founded by Sutapa Ghosal, a former newsreader with a PhD who shifted to food processing before embarking on this venture. Without the usual family recipes or a network of skilled sweet makers to rely on, Sutapa faced the daunting task of building her business from scratch in a male-dominated industry.
Despite these challenges, her shop quickly gained a loyal clientele with its traditional Indian sweets like kalakand and milk cake. What makes the story unique is the mother-daughter connection: the business is meant to pass from Sutapa to her daughter, Momoiro Mukherjee, who initially encouraged her mother to start this journey. The shop’s name itself proudly reflects this female partnership, defying conventional Indian business naming trends that favor sons.
Why it feels good
This sweet shop story offers a warm counter-narrative to entrenched gender roles within Indian family businesses, which often assume sons as heirs and daughters as peripheral figures. Sutapa’s journey highlights the resilience required to break through societal expectations and patriarchal norms, reflecting how women continue to quietly but powerfully reshape their communities and industries.
What to enjoy or watch next
Visitors to Howrah can personally experience the fruits of this unique legacy by tasting Ghosal & Daughter’s kalakand and milk cake, sweets that carry more than just flavor—they symbolize a shift in how family businesses can be imagined and run. Each bite tells the story of hard work, determination, and a mother’s hope for her daughter’s future.
Looking ahead, the continuing success of Ghosal & Daughter invites us to watch how more women entrepreneurs in India and beyond might transform traditional business narratives. Their stories serve as gentle reminders that change often starts with small local ventures, quietly redefining community norms and inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.