With no business for third year, Kashmiri Wazwan on verge of extinction

With no business for third year, Kashmiri Wazwan on verge of extinction

Published: Thursday, Sep 2, 2010, 16:55 IST 

Place: Srinagar | Agency: PTI

source courtesy: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_with-no-business-for-third-year-kashmiri-wazwan-on-verge-of-extinction_1432554

The mouth-watering Wazwan cuisine from Kashmir is on the verge of being an endangered part of culture in the Valley as many traditional Kashmiri chefs are contemplating to change their line of business in view of the ongoing turmoil.

Kashmir is known for lavish feasts, popularly known as Wazwan, on weddings and other auspicious occasion but given the present circumstances connoisseurs in the Valley are starving for it.

It is for third year in running that the main season of weddings in Kashmir has been hit by strike, starting with the Amarnath land row agitation in 2008 followed by strikes over Shopian controversy in 2009 and the agitation this year.

The series of strikes in all three years started in June, which is incidentally the beginning of the season for wazas to earn their livelihood, over a period of three to four months, for the next year.

"I gave up the craft of my ancestors last year after the Shopian agitation as I would have to starved to death this year had I not changed my business," Basharat Ahmad, who lives in Downtown city, said.

Ahmad sold large copper utensils used to cook mega feasts to fund his new venture -- books and stationary items.

"On an average, our family income per season from the wazawan was in the range of Rs6 to 8 lakh after paying all the wages of the labour and other overhead expenses. But the earnings in 2008 and 2009 was just a fraction which prompted me to change the line," he said.

Mushtaq Ahmad, waza from Khanyar area of the city, said he is also contemplating on a side business.

"It is strange that every year, we have to face this problem when our time to earn the livelihood arrives. I cannot leave this profession but have to do something else to keep up my family," he said.

Fayaz Ahmad, a chef from Nowgam area in the outskirts of the city, has wound up his business and taken up a job in a hotel in Jammu.

"I used to employ 10 persons as a head waza but now am employed in a hotel in Jammu as the demand for the cuisine there is increasing," he added.

Although wazas make for a miniscule population in the Valley, it is their famed recipes that a mere mention of wazwan has mouths watering all around. This might become history if another wedding season is disrupted.

The other community which has been severely hit by the frequent strikes are wholesale mutton dealers, who supply upto a tonne of meat to an average wedding.

"The annual mutton market in Kashmir is in the ranger Rs1800 to Rs2000 crore with half of the business transacted during the wedding season," said Abdul Rashid Ganaie, a mutton dealer.

Ganaie said it was the supplies to the marriage functions where the wholesale dealers made good money because the margin of the retailer would be split between customer and dealer.

"We have been denied that opportunity for three years now," he said.

Most marriages in the valley usually take place between May and September. However, this year most of the marriages were scheduled before August 10 due to the fasting month of Ramadhan as no marriages take place during that period.

In most cases, weddings were solemnised but there was no wazwan that would make the invitees remember the occasion at least till the next feast.

Many social organisations and people in the past have been calling for austere wedding ceremonies but their pleas have had diminutive effects over the typical ostentatious Kashmiri weddings where lakhs of rupees are spent on food alone.