Imtiyaz Pandow
Pulwama: If you are interesting in the traditional bread making of Kashmir then you surely need to know Rajpora. Its bread, Shirmal, bakers sell at least 30-40 kg’s of Shirmaals every day and during festive seasons around year they sell 5-6 quintals of it.
Rajpora village is situated 7.5 Kilometers away from Pulwama.
Famous baker Ghulam Qadir Sofi, is believed to be the first person to bake Shirmaal in Rajpora.
“Almost 15 families across the Rajpora village are engaged with this job of Shirmaal baking,” said Gh. Hassan Sofi (60). Sofi is son of Ghulam Qadir and is proudly claims of being the first disciple of his father.
“Bread baking is our ancestral profession, and being a son of Ghulam Qadir I am the first who learnt this art directly from him and all the contemporary Shirmaal bakers of Rajpora are directly or indirectly my trainees,” Sofi claims.
According to Abdul Rashid Sofi (52), another Shirmal baker from Rajpora claims that they need not send their produces to market as customers themselves come to them. “Customers from every nook and corner of the valley visit us directly,” he said.
According to Abdul Rashid on an average day every baker of Rajpora sells at least 30-40 kg’s of Shirmaals
“It costs 120/kg,” said he.
Hussain Ahmad, another baker from the village said that during festive occasions, Eids, Ramadans etc ‘every baker sells atleast 5-6 quintals of Shirmaals which is quite a satisfactory sale’.
