Braving raining bullets and mortar shells the sweet makers of RS Pura have not downed their shutters amid high tension along the International border in Jammu frontier.
They continue to produce and deliver sweet delicacies to their customers without taking a break. The only worry on their mind is the safety of customers as they have to travel to the border area to collect their orders.
Besides producing world famous Basmati rice RS Pura villages are also famous for producing mouth-watering ‘milk cake’. Small sweet shops, with traditional oven, are scattered all over the place in the border belt up to zero line.
During the festive season and on auspicious occasions like marriage ceremonies people from far off places in Jammu flock the border belt to book their orders. Even BSF indulges in ‘sweet diplomacy’ and treat the taste buds of Pak rangers during customary peace time flag meetings and other occasions.
No official function of local police, State Government department or even Army units located in the area is over without having ‘milk cake’ from RS Pura on the platter.
Pimma Shah, the most famous name in the business and considered master (Guru) by all others told The Pioneer, “In the last two weeks I have not closed down my shop even for a single day”. Shah, sporting grey hair and big smile on his face, said the firing in the area had adversely affected the over all situation and disturbed peace in the region but we cannot afford to sit idle even when Pak rangers trained their guns on our village”. “I know it is raining bullets and mortar shells in our village and no one knows what lies in store for all of us. All I know is I cannot afford to close down my shop”.
Ahead of this festive season, I have booked some big orders and I am duty-bound to deliver the same at the right time, Pimma Shah told The Pioneer while he was busy in his work in his modest village shop, few hundred metres away from the border.
“People in my village have taken shelter in safer places in RS Pura but I am staying back in my house along with my son. I start working early morning around 5.00 am as I have to deliver my orders in time”, said Pimma Shah in between packing boxes of sweet delicacy. He is in the business since 1971 and has made the delicacy popular all over the place.
Keeping a close watch on the time machine, Pimma Shah said, “I have to be very punctual and cannot afford to delay things as I have to deliver 25 packets to a family in Maralian every day. They have booked 200 boxes on account of marriage ceremony. Then there are others too in the pipeline, Pimma Shah told this correspondent displaying note book with details of advance booking.
Another sweet maker in the village, Balwinder Singh, who treats Pimma Shah as his first teacher said, “Despite tension in the area we have not stopped working. This is festive season and we wait for bulk orders during the peak season. “We just cannot afford to stop producing milk cake. This is our bread and butter”.
He said when Pak rangers target our village we rush towards bunkers and take shelters there. I have not shifted my family from the village. We are all staying here in the village, he added. In adjoining villages too it was business as usual.The workers in the sweet shops were racing against time to deliver goods to their customers without any fear.