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| The bungalow-based Bombay Bakery, where the cake recipe is still a secret a century later |
There is a queue of people outside and inside the red-colored building in the Sadar area of Hyderabad, Sindh province, Pakistan. A wooden-framed door opens and one of the queuers enters the room.
There are more queues in this room, where money is being given on one side and cakes are being bought by giving tokens on the other side.
Here everyone waits for their turn and returns with a box or two of cakes and walks out with a triumphant smile on their face.
'Bombay Bakery' is written on this building and the year of establishment is 1911. The story of this bakery and the family associated with it is almost a century old.
A Bombay bakery set up in a bungalow
Phalaj Roy Ganga Ram Thadani established Bombay Bakery in 1911 in the Sadar area of Hyderabad. A residence was also built in this bakery located in a bungalow. Phalaj Rai lived here along with his three sons Shyam Das, Kishan Chand, and Gopichand.
Bombay Bakery made chocolate-based bread, biscuits, and cakes and added pure ingredients to them.
Phalaj Roy died in 1948 after which his son Kishan Chand expanded the range of cakes and biscuits, while after Kishan Chand died in 1960, his son Kumar took over the family business with his uncle. He died in June 2010 in Hyderabad.
The English daily Dawn wrote in the news of Kumar Thadani's death that Kumar's grandfather, the founder of the bakery, Phalaj Roy, had married a Swiss woman who used to make bakery products at her home, and after her popularity, she started the bakery business. what was
When the Kalhora rulers made Hyderabad their throne, the Thadani family also migrated from the former throne of Khudaabad Dadu and settled here. He also had a family connection with Gaddu Mill of Hyderabad, in whose name Gaddu Bandar exists.
The recipe for the cake is still a secret
For the last half-century, Bombay Bakery cake has been prepared in the old-fashioned way, in which no machine is used but the perfection of hands, the machine is used only for grinding the almonds while the mixing, etc. is done traditionally.
Kumar Thadani was a recluse and gave an interview only once in his life.
He told Naseer Mirza, former station manager of Radio Pakistan Hyderabad, in his interview that the recipes for chocolate, coffee, and macaron cakes were made by his father, and after his death, he published the cakes in English books. And tried the biscuit recipe which was also liked.
Kumar Thadani's friend Advocate M Prakash said that now the fourth generation is continuing the business.
The cake of Bombay Bakery is famous all over the country, but it is a souvenir of Hyderabad.
Famous writer and researcher of Sindh, Madad Ali Sindhi says that when this bakery was established, the trend of confectionery was new, Bombay Bakery introduced new flavors and made different cakes. They used to have bread and pastries too.
They say that the formula for making this cake was kept a secret, it was common that an elderly lady of the house had the recipe.
Cakes from Bombay Bakery are available three times a day
In the early days of this bakery, 20 cakes were made but now this number has increased 100 times. There is a fixed time to buy the cake because the cake is not available all the time. The bakery opens at eight in the morning but the queue of customers starts before then, yet not everyone gets their share of the cake.
Initially, the bakery offered cakes at 2pm and 7pm, chocolate and coffee cakes at 2pm, and cream and macarons at 7pm.
According to the management of the bakery, there were complaints that while coming at a time, one flavor was being received, then they had to come again for the other flavor, after which it was remedied and availability of all four flavors was ensured.
Today, the cakes are available at three different times, namely eight in the morning, three in the afternoon, and six in the evening, while the bakery is open for 13 hours.
Like Kumar Thadani, his son Sonu aka 'Salman Sheikh', whom he adopted and later converted to Islam, stays away from media and publicity.
Salman Sheikh met BBC Urdu at the request but declined the formal interview.
According to the recent census results, the population of Hyderabad division alone is over 20 million, with the growing population, the demand for Bombay Bakery cakes is also continuously increasing.
Kumar Thadani's friend M Prakash says that 'Kumar used to say that what the family taught, I should impart to the people so that there is no difference in quality and confidence.'
According to him, he was not greedy for money. He was offered several times to open a branch of his bakery in Karachi, Lahore, or Islamabad but he never expressed interest. He used to say that he will do limited work but will maintain the quality.
Even after Kumar's death, his family continued this policy. The production of cakes increased but at a limited level, which was attributed to the fact that cakes are made by hand without machines. If the number of people is increased, space will also be required, but they are happy with this number.
The bakery's decades-old loyal customers
Many customers of Bombay Bakery have loved their cakes from childhood to old age and even today he is not ready to go anywhere else.
Hadi Bakhsh Jatoi, former MS of Civil Hospital Hyderabad, was holding two cakes in his hand when we met him outside the bakery.
Dr. Hadi Bakhsh Jatoi told us that he has been taking cakes from here for the last 60, to 65 years.
He said that when he started eating cake in life, he bought it from here and even today it has the same decades-old taste. The fourth generation of this family has also maintained this taste.
Azam Laghari, who was accompanied by Dr. Hadi Bakhsh Jatoi, said that he is now 73 years old, and he has loved this cake since childhood.
He says that 'my daughter-in-law came from Sydney, Australia. When she ate the biscuits here, especially ginger biscuits, she liked them so much that she not only took five kilos with her on her return but also ordered them again.
"Be it a birthday or any other festival cake goes from here"
Ammar bin Malik, who was in the queue of cake buyers here, came from Karachi. He said that when he was a child, he used to ask for cakes from Bombay Bakery and now his children ask for them.
Be it Eid, Shab Barat, birthday, or any other festival, the cake has to be taken from here.
According to him, it is not just the stubbornness of children, but the taste of Bombay Bakery is very unique. He says that there are many bakeries in Karachi where the prices are much higher than this but we are not satisfied with their quality.
Bilal Akbar has taken two boxes of cake from here. He said that he was going to Faisalabad from Karachi. He had heard about the fame of Bombay Bakery's cakes, so he came here.
Muhammad Imran reached the cake counter after waiting in the queue for 35 minutes. Muhammad Imran said that ever since he regained consciousness, he has eaten cakes from here, not even anywhere near the bakery.
Apart from chocolate, coffee, lemon cake, macarons, fruit cakes, and biscuits are prepared at Bombay Bakery. They are neither designed on them nor are they made on the cake as requested by the customers. Like the cake, the packaging is simple, a white box with a red and green print on it that says 'Shop in De Bangalo'.
When you open the green ribbon of the cake box, you can smell the buttery cake inside.
The generosity and generosity of Bombay Bakery owners
Before the partition of India, most of the Hindu community in Hyderabad used to trade. After partition many families migrated here but Bombay Bakery is the only business that continued.
Its founder Phalaj Rai also died in Hyderabad a year after the creation of Pakistan.
Kumar Thadani, the grandson of Phalaj Rai and owner of Bombay Bakery, told broadcaster Naseer Mirza in an interview that he did not feel the need to relocate because when there was blood and riots in Sindh, there were fewer riots in Hyderabad. He had not seen a single dead body falling in this area of Hyderabad, so he had not left his land.
Kumar Thadani used to study Hindu religious books, Guru Granth as well as Quran. He claimed to be a disciple of Guru Nanak and Sindh Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.
In Pakistan, Bombay Bakery's identity is its cake, but for the citizens of Hyderabad, one of its identities is the generosity and generosity of its owners.
In Kumar Thadani's life, there were queues of beneficiaries besides cake buyers, he not only helped people individually but also donated to everything from cremation grounds to heart hospitals to preserving music in Radio Pakistan. used to give
In his interview, he said that when any difficulty or illness comes upon us, we think that we are giving less in the way of God, if we increase it, the difficulty decreases.
Recommendation to declare Bombay Bakery as National Heritage
The building of Bombay Bakery was previously white in color but is now painted red. It had small four walls which were raised after the linguistic riots in Hyderabad in the 1980s.
Before there was only a door to enter the building, now the two windows have also been given the form of doors.
The glass showcases in the building for decorating cakes are made of teak wood and the doors are also ancient, some of which have been replaced.
What used to be one line in the shopping room now has four rows, with female customers being given priority.
In the room next to the buying room, there is a furnace, about three in number, while on a marble table, about a dozen people can be seen buttering a portion of the cake with large knives.
There are living rooms with a fireplace room and the courtyard is the same from the bakery to the living room. There is a large lawn and a small garden with living rooms in an area of 15 acres. The roof of this building is made by placing brick squares on ganders and tiers.
The Department of Archeology of the Government of Sindh has recommended that Bombay Bakery be declared a national heritage site. Provincial Antiquities and Culture Minister Sardar Ali Shah says that this decision has been taken due to the hundred years of the bakery's building, tradition, and historical status.