With the advent of Ramazan, many occupations offer considerable relief to their practitioners, but cookery is not one of them.

Ghulam Haider has been associated with cooking from the age of 20 years when he came to Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, from a mountain village in Jhelum valley. Initially he joined an eatery in Khawaja Bazaar as a dishwasher cum server, a job he did for five years. However, later not only did he change his employer but also the nature of job by learning culinary skills.

After the 2005 earthquake, when the cooking business picked momentum in the affected areas due to the heavy influx of reconstruction workers, Haider changed his employer for the third time. Today, he is one of three main chefs at ‘Pakistan Hotel’ in Upper Adda, in the hub of Muzaffarabad.

In Ramazan, restaurant business slows down in Muzaffarabad, but not to the extent that Haider — the father of three — can stay home with his family. His workplace remains open almost 18 hours in normal days, and in Ramazan it stays open for around 14 hours, meaning thereby a respite of only four hours.

From barbecue items to curries, Ramazan brings out Kashmiris’ appetite for meat

Nevertheless, Haider’s routine remains unchanged.

“In Ramazan, I go to bed at about 4am, after Fajr prayers, and then again get up at 10am, only to kill time over the next four hours,” he tells.

By 2pm, he is at his workplace, where his colleague Ismail has already brought mutton and grocery items. From 2pm onwards, cooking starts and by 4pm he makes multiple dishes ready to facilitate customers who take packed curry home.

Pakistan Hotel, a name its owner Mohammad Rafique borrowed from his mentor and a renowned chef from the India-held Kashmir, late Ghulam Deen Lala, offers a variety of dishes, some on a regular basis and some on demand.

And the most popular of all is yakhni and rajma which most people take with plain boiled rice, a staple diet of majority of Kashmiris.

Yakhni, a cream coloured preparation of delicate flavour, is made with curd as a base.

Gushtabas are meatballs moulded from pounded mutton or beef. Their smaller version is called rista. While gushtaba is always cooked in the thick gravy of fresh curd base, rista is mostly cooked in tomatoes or minced spinach.

At Pakistan Hotel, Haider makes three dishes of yakhni — mutton yakhni, chicken yakhni (on the weekly meatless days) and yakhni gushtaba.

Gushtabas are meatballs moulded from pounded mutton or beef. Their smaller version is called rista. While gushtaba is always cooked in the thick gravy of fresh curd base, rista is mostly cooked in tomatoes or minced spinach.

Rajma (kidney beans) is also a daily item, which people do not forget to order along with other dishes of mutton, he says.

But Haider himself likes fresh veggies. “It’s not that I don’t like these items altogether … But I prefer fresh vegetables,” he says, handing over parcels to walk-in clients.

Ten years of experience has made him adept at cooking without mistakes. “Customers leaving with a sense of satisfaction is a certification that my cooking has gone down well with them,” he says, with a sense of pride.

Owner Rafique, himself a master chef, appreciates Haider and his colleagues, saying they have made him “tension-free.”

The eatery is also famous for its milky black tea and baqir khani, made of fine wheat flour ground with ghee and cooked in the wood-fired oven.

While Haider looks after the curries, Ismail takes care of the tea section.

The hustle and bustle at the eatery apart, Haider misses his family at the time of breaking his fast.

“I wish to be with them, but my village is far from here in a rugged terrain. … I will visit them on Eid,” he says, his eyes beaming.

Though Haider is not an ungrateful person, when someone asks him if he is satisfied with his job, he lets out a big heavy sigh, regretting why he doesn’t possess any additional skill.

“Sometimes I wish I were doing some easy and relaxed job but unfortunately I am illiterate.”

Deep in the bazaar, Amir Butt uses a hand fan to prepare coals for the barbecue after 5pm.

The 39-year-old has inherited this skill from his father and grandfather, both of whom used to work at a barbeque shop in Peshawar, where he was born.

“It’s a tough job, but whichever profession you chose to make both ends meet is not effortless. You have to face the situation for the sake of your children,” says the father of three, who has twice undergone spinal surgeries.

Amir Butt specialises in beef tikka, beef kebab and chicken boti. Though his clientele shrinks in Ramazan, he says he cannot switch over to any other work just for these 30 or so days (of the holy month).

“Honestly speaking, I feel that I cannot do anything else to eke out a living,” he says.

“I am not an avaricious person. This business is running my household smoothly and I am content with it.”

However, unlike Haider and Butt, many people turn to exhibiting or practising their culinary skills in the holy month of fasting while they do other jobs in the remaining part of the year.

And most of them choose pakora and samosa making, apparently an easy cooking.

Mohammad Sarfraz is one among them. Come Ramazan and the 50 odd years old resident of Muzaffarabad becomes active at his stall at the busy Bank Road, preparing pakora, samosa and other mouth-watering items with the help of his sons.

“I love to do this work in this holy month. It brings me good money,” he says.

The hot and humid summer, with unexpected downpours, does not discourage him.

“No job is easy. … you have to break sweat to make money, whether in large or small amount,” he says. “All you need is determination, commitment and honesty. Then things become easy for you on their own.”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, July 19th, 2015

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