[1] In 1945, she married Laxmishanker Pathak, who in 1938 had emigrated from Gujarat in British India to Mombasa, Kenya, where his eldest brother had a small business making sweets and samosas for the city's burgeoning Indian population.

[2] Unhappy about her husband's job cleaning the drains for St Pancras Council, Pathak decided the family should start a similar business to that they had in Kenya, running a kitchen from their Queen's Crescent flat in Kentish Town.

[3] Progress was slow, and it was several years until they had enough money to buy a small shop close to Euston Station, followed by another in 1961, in Bayswater.

[3] In 1962, their neighbours complained about the noise and smell, and the Council gave them three months to find alternative premises.

[1] Her husband died in 1997, but his will was unclear; prolonged family disputes and various acrimonious court cases followed his death.