Mir Farhat
Even though the world gets more high tech, prepares fast food with every ticking of a clock, for Ghulam Qadir Senoo sticking back to tradition has been his principle in making pickles.
The 66-year-old pickle manufacturer, popularly known as the ‘Pickle king of Kashmir’, did not lose hope even though the valley witnessed death, devastation and stagnant economy during the last two decades of conflict.
Senoo started to manually make pickles at his home in a narrow alleyway of old city’s Habba Kadal locality and has found himself running a thriving business, despite his grim family past: he has lost three of his beloved family members-wife and two sons- and a thriving transport business to the conflict in the Valley.
21 years ago, Senoo had a Kirana shop in his locality where he also sold home-made vegetable pickle to people.
As he realized the demand was picking up, he capitalized on his pickle-making prowess and thought of manufacturing something that people would relish.
“I began to add varieties after varieties of pickles,” he says, sitting behind the plastic tubs full of vegetable and non- vegetable varieties of pickles, lined in rows in his shop.
“And when pickle tasters made a beeline, I experimented with more varieties,” Senoo’s says, sporting a bushy grey beard and wearing a loose traditional Shalwar Kameez (khan dress).
After years of hard work and exuberance, he transformed his shop into a brand, ‘Senoo Kashmir Pickles’, under which he is selling over 100 different varieties whose tantalizing aroma entices taste buds to release mouthful of saliva as one steps into his shop.
His varieties of pickles include chicken, mutton, vegetable, fish, mango, cherry and as he says “you name it, I have it”.
Besides, the non-vegetarian varieties, which are most sought after by people here, Senoo’s preparations include the much in demand garlic and bitter gourd, locally known as ‘Kareel’, which he says have a medicinal value to keep blood pressure and sugar level in check.
“I prepare six types of fruit pickles; famous among them is grapes-pickle which costs about Rs 500 a kg. Apricot-pickle in another big hit in Kashmir, garlic is known to control blood pressure in addition to other health benefits and thus its pickle finds huge customers who turn up to my shop week after week,” he says.
Senoo says these delicious pickles are prepared in a two-room, two-storey house in refined oil and hygienic surroundings and is a dawn to dusk effort in peak season, especially in winter.
“During preparations, proper cleanliness is maintained. Packaging is done such that it keeps them fresh for a long time. About 20 kinds of spices are added to preserves it for atleast six months,” he says.
He says ‘‘spices are added “as per weather and occasions. For Ramadhan, the quantity and the number of spices are lowered to keep the pickles lighter for stomach.”
Not only in the countryside, Senoo’s pickles have found customers around the whole world as tourists who come from far away places like Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Germany, Italy, France and Indonesia land on his shop to relish his delicious pickles.
Senoo wants to preserve his art and trade. but he is not sure whether his sons will carry it forward. “My sons may not choose this trade as their livelihood,” he says.
But Senoo’s son, 32-year-old Abdul Majeed Senoo, a science graduate, instead of brushing his father’s trade off or feigning embarrassment and applying for jobs he was qualified for, says, “Yes, I will carry on my father’s pickle making legacy” as he has seen economic potential of the pickle. Majeed helps his father, who has also employed six local workers in moving forward.
Since Senoo wants to ship his homemade pickles out and sell them in mass quantities, but the government support, which he has been attempting to get for years, has not been forthcoming.
“I have been trying to get an export license to trade the pickles to countries all over the globe, but my attempts haven’t yielded the results yet due to the indifferent attitude of the government authorities,” he laments.
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