People of Saurashtra love three things: their siesta, popular beverage chaas aka buttermilk with every meal and paan. Babulal Paan Vara, a small paan house in Jamnagar serves paan but apart from–gulkand ( a sweet preserve of rose petals ), meetha (crunchy titbits like tutti-frutti), elaichi (cardamom), sopari (betel), sauf (fennel) or aatha (tobacco) paan–you also get an aftertaste of ideologies at this small, quirky shop.
Babulal paanwala who set up this small paan shop in Hawai chowk of Jamnagar–talked about politics through his offering, the paan.
The Paanculture in India is known. The betel leaf, also popular in other Asian countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia has overwhelming popularity and reach in India. There would not be a single Village without a betel leaf kiosk. The paan is one of the free things like water, which is acceptable on all occasions from birth to death as a cultural nuance across communities.
Babulal’s little shop in Jamnagar has three pictures of leaders from around the world: Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, Former US President, John F. Kennedy and Former Premier of Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin.
He sourced these pictures from customers-turned-friends who went on foreign trips especially to London. He used to get photographs of these legends and later he used to laminate them in Jamnagar and display them in his shop.
Babulal was fond of two things–reading and serving quality paan to customers. The tobacco that is put in Babulal Pan Vara’s Pan is original. Tobacco is ordered from Banaras and the fermentation, called aatho, in Gujarati, is done authentically by the family at home.
Babulal started this tradition some 75 years ago when he set up this place.
At this 75-year old paan shop all the ingredients are either handpicked or hand made at this shop, right from Sopari (nutmeg) to Aatho (a type of chewing tobacco). This shop exports paan across the globe– the USA, England, UAE and more. The family has been paying Income Tax since 1964 and everything that takes place in the shop–is in black and white.
Over 6,500 paan were sold daily from this shop–where hardly two people can sit. It is believed that one of his regular clients was Jam Sahid, the prince of Jamnagar who visited this shop and often interacted with Babulal.
Today, as soon as one enters the Babulal Pan Vara shop, one’s glance will be directed towards the four pictures hanging on the wall of the shop. Along with three world leaders, Babulal’s niece Chetan has placed the picture of his deceased father alongside the leaders. “Mota dada was fond of reading. He read about world leaders and was impressed by different thought processes and ideologies. He was a man of strong ideologies and believed in saying it out loud.”
Babulal failed grade 3rd as a student. Due to poverty, he started working at a paan shop when he was barely eight years old. He dreamt of having his own paan shop someday and that’s why he began learning, reading whatever was available. “Dada used to read newspapers daily. He used to request his customers to give him their used books. That’s how he grew his knowledge. He was a curious and self-made man.”
Chetan, who has been running the shop, said that his uncle passed away on Feb 17, 2013 –at the age of 90 years–but they are still walking on the same road paved by him and that is the reason that everything is handmade.
The shop that once exported paan across the world now, finds it difficult to make two ends meet. Chetan said, “No orders have been received in the last two years due to Covid-19. We barely receive orders from Mumbai, Ahmedabad and other districts.”
Chetan said that nowadays the craze for Masala has also increased so people are avoiding eating pan. According to the shop owner, the business has been severely affected due to Covid-19 and Pan shops around the district have reduced. In a day, they used to sell 7,000 Paan but now the business is in a rut.
Story by: Mansukh Solanki, Jamnagar
