Tag: kandur

[Dec 14, 2012] Follow up on Help the local Kashmiri Bakery [Dec 5, 2012]

‘So you received no money.’
‘No.’
‘But, I know quite a few people are interested in helping.’
‘Yes, some people did call. Said they have collected money. Wanted to know if they should send cash or cheque. Then they wanted to know some bank number. I told them I don’t know all this.’
‘So still no money.’
‘No.’

Just then a late middle-aged Panditji, probably a regular customer who lives nearby, walked into the shop and exchanged Namaskars with the Baker. Then it was business as usual. He asked about the price for Wangan Hat’ch (dried Brinjal, which seemed to have freshly arrived from Kashmir or Jammu). Then he started to bargain for a discount worth ten rupees.

I continued.

‘How much did you lose in fire? It was an electric short-circuit?’
‘Yes. Lost some quintals of walnuts, pulses (Var’muth), masalas and stuff like that. All from Kashmir. We were preparing for Shivratri season. It was a good thing I hadn’t ordered for new Janthris. I was going to order 8000 of them. But I didn’t have money at that time to pay upfront. It was a good thing. We would have lost them too.’

Panditji interjected,’Fire? Was there a fire here? That is bad. Very sad.’

I talked some more to the baker and then started to leave. But the Baker stopped me and handed me a  some freshly baked warm biscuits packed in a sheet of newspaper. He refused to take money for it. It was free. Embarrassingly, I was still getting freebies from the bakery.

Again posting.

Name: Roshan Lal
Bank and Branch: J & K Bank. Sector 18, Noida. [IFSC Code: JAKA0GHAZIA]
Account No: 0319040100093092
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Back in 2009 I had written about Kashmiri Bakery in Noida Sector 53. [here] Over the years, I have posted quite a few photographs of their produce. Some of which are now doing the random rounds of social networks. I have a crazy theory about these bakeries: you can tell the state of Kashmiri society, or any society, by the state of its bakeries and the state of the people running them. On one of the photographs of Kashmiri bread that I posted to Facebook page of this blog, someone from Srinagar actually complained about the fact the now these varieties of bread [roth] are even rare in Kashmir. It is nothing-less of a miracle that these things are relatively easily available to the Pandits living outside Kashmir in Delhi thanks to a handful people. This bread culture is a remnant of  a way of living. If you were a kid in Kashmir, and if one day your family sent you out to buy the bread from the local bakery, you knew you were not a kid anymore, you were now a grown-up ready for all kind of responsibilities. I remember of first few visits to the local bakery in Srinagar. I remember dogs getting fed by patrons and kids getting freebies from the baker. There was a kind of good freebie culture in Kashmir, I guess…even Milkmen, Dahi sellers/Zamdod wol often used to offer freebies to kids. Anyway…

Recently someone wrote in to inform that the good folks running the Bakery in Noida Sector 53 are in real trouble. Mukund wrote in to say:

 “The KASHMIRI BAKERY talked about in this blog is in SERIOUS TROUBLE. There were two brothers working at this bakery one of whom died(i don’t know how). It brought all the responsibility of his family(plus his own family)on the second brother who was running this bakery alone, until a few days back. I went to his shop today and to my horror his ENTIRE SHOP WAS BURNT because of an electricity accident. According to him the accident caused damages worth A FEW LAKHS, which is a lifetimes earning by this man’s standards. Poor guy was still working on the choolah which was the only thing that seemingly survived. The guy was so depressed that wasn’t even accounting properly and was making mistakes which were lowering his profit(i.e. asking for lesser money than he was due), until an elderly gentleman told him. Im saying all this just to let our people know that this is the only kashmiri bakery in the entire Noida/greater Noida area and has been around with us for at least past 10 years(maybe more). And every kashmiri in this area have had his girdas, lavassas, telwurs etc at some point in time.WE SHOULD SPREAD THIS ND HELP HIM AS MUCH AS WE CAN VIA MONETARY DONATIONS.
PS: he hasn’t asked me to do anything, its just that i felt moved by what ill fate he has struck.”

I hope the community living in the area would come forward to help. Here are the bank details of establishment. I the folks running the bakery and they already plan to open it this week.

Name: Roshan Lal
Bank and Branch: J & K Bank. Sector 18, Noida. [IFSC Code: JAKA0GHAZIA]
Account No: 0319040100093092

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T’cho’tchi. Kashmiri Roti

Kandur Roth Baker’s Kashmir bread

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