DH Radio | The Lead: How the Wazwans of Kashmir are dealing with Covid-19

Any Kashmiri wedding or special occasion is incomplete without wazawan and is a highly stylistic cuisine

This episode of The Lead from DH Radio brings to you the story of what's happening to the famed Wazwans of Kashmir during the Covid-19 crisis. A wazwan meal is a unique identifier, pride of Kashmiri cuisine and identity, comprising of lamb and chicken-based dishes and few vegetables.

Ahmed Shariff: What is a Wazwan? Could you tell us more about the cultural significance of this in Kashmir?

Zulfikar Majid: Wazwan, the Kashmiri cuisine, is a unique and inseparable component of Kashmiri culture. It comprises seven to 36 dishes mostly of mutton, chicken and few vegetables. The ethnic meat products of Kashmiri wazwan are popular because of their appealing flavor, texture, and palatability characteristics. The preparation of wazwan is considered as an art and a point of pride in Kashmiri culture and identity. Any Kashmiri wedding or special occasion is incomplete without wazawan and this highly stylistic form of food preparing and serving is one of the more celebrated customs among most Kashmiris.

Ahmed: With no employment, what are the Wazwan chefs doing now?

Zulfikar: Since the abrogation of Article 370 last August and subsequent lockdowns, most of the wazas are with little or no work as most of the weddings and functions are being carried out without any pomp and show. The work of wazas have reduced drastically. With Covid-19 SOPs in place, a family has to invite less than 50 guests for a wedding which in normal times used to be 300-400.

Ahmed: Has the administration done anything about it?

Zulfikar: No, not really. There is no such scheme with the government to help out the wazas.

Ahmed: What is the road ahead for them, do they have anything planned out?

Zulfikar: Like everybody in Kashmir, wazas too are waiting for the situation to improve so that they can carry out their work the way they were doing. Some of the wazas are these days doing some other work, like selling vegetables or fruits to feed their families.

Ahmed: Is it a hereditary profession and what does the younger generation think about it?

Zulfikar: Over the years, like other professions in Kashmir, the younger generation of wazas too have slowly but steadily started to drift away from the profession of their previous generations. Some of the children of wazas are studying medicine, engineering and other professional courses now. New people with no background in the trade are now preparing wazwan. However, there are still some famous wazas in Srinagar’s old city, who take pride in their profession.

Ahmed: Now, let's listen to the conversation that Zulfikar had with Abdul Gaffar, Waza

Q: How has the lockdowns since last August impacted your work?

We have suffered huge losses, first it was August 5 last year. On that very day, I and my team had to cook 500-600 kgs of wazwan at one wedding function only. But due to the situation, the function had to be cancelled. Since then there has been no good news. But still during last year's lockdown, some activity was going on. This time after Covid, there is almost no work. Even if there is a wedding, we have to cook at the most 30 or 40 kgs of wazwan which is ten times lesser than normal times. There are only losses and nothing else. People associated with this trade are in deep crisis Whatever our earnings were, we are spending that now. There is no work. We may get a day’s work after a week or two weeks.

To know more about the conversation, listen to the podcast...

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