Ashiq Hussain
Srinagar, March 13: The Kashmir Valley has fallen in love. With good life and everything that comes with it. The growing population of professionals and middle class has taken the aspirations – especially lifestyle-related ones – of the people to a different height.
And the new lifestyle is trickling down the social and economic ladder too. Take, for example, Anees Ahmad (15), son of a carpenter. He sits with his gang of friends in the cozy comforts of a classy restaurant in Lalchowk, downtown Srinagar, and discusses, among other things, the recent cricket match with a school nearby.
Attired in typical middle class Kashmiri dress, their language is not too sophisticated, but they are feasting on a spicy kabab, handling expertly their knives and forks.
Dining out used to be a status symbol of only the rich a decade back, but it’s fast becoming part of the popular culture now. The poor, the ordinary and the middle class are getting used to meet in a restaurant, according to Ghulam Mohammad (43), who has been a waiter at a Lalchowk restaurant for 25 years now.
He remembers the time when he had to wait until 4 pm for the government offices to close to receive his first customers. “Government officers, doctors and engineers were our main customers. I would remember each and every customer. But today, even people who don’t look like they can afford the luxury are coming to the restaurant,” he said. Mir Jan (27), a restaurant manager, felt, “Now the prices are affordable for even the lower middle class. Besides, people want respect. They love to be called sir or madam and served in a restaurant. This they won’t get at a roadside dhaba.”
There is more to the growth of the dining out culture in the Valley. It is breaking some taboos too. A decade back, restaurants here would often be an all-male affair.
Forty-year-old Khalida, a school teacher who uses only her first name, said, “Girls never dared to venture into a restaurant. They did not know how to eat and behave with unrelated males around. But now, boys and girls meet and even get engaged in restaurants.”
Noor Mohammad, a government bus driver, said, “My father would say that people having food outside, especially barbeques, are loafers. Although I managed to have some, but it was too shameful to get caught.”
