Karachi Bakery Vs Bombay Bakery

With the advent of Modi Sarkar in India, there seems to be a drive at undoing all that was sane in India

We all know about the Bombay Bakery in Hyderabad, Pakistan. It is a widely loved establishment. People of the older generations across Sindh swear by it.

Despite the progress made in the baking business and the establishment of many more bakeries across Pakistan which offer equally delicious products, most in the older generation insist that nothing beats the Bombay Bakery.

Lines are formed outside the bakery every day and well before noon many of the cakes are gone. To go to Hyderabad and not return with a Bombay Bakery cake is nothing short of sacrilegious, insist many.

It came as a pleasant surprise when some years back we read about the Karachi Bakery in Hyderabad, India and we marveled at the coincidence.

According to its website, the Karachi Bakery was founded by Khanchand Ramnani, who migrated to India during partition in 1947. The bakery’s first outlet was opened in Hyderabad and has grown into a nationwide franchise. The bakery is popular for its fruit biscuits. Unlike the Bombay bakery, the Karachi bakery has opened up several outlets over the years,

But recent events suggest that while many can see this juxtaposition of names positively, there are others for whom this can be a problem. A branch of the Karachi Bakery in Bengaluru, the city formerly known as Bangalore, has now covered up the word ‘Karachi’ on its signboard  after a mob protested against the name, Indian media  reported.

Some people gathered at the Indiranagar outlet of the popular Karachi Bakery to demand that it pull down its signboard.

The Bengaluru Police Control Room confirmed that it had received a distress call in connection with a ruckus at Karachi Bakery in Indiranagar. Subsequently, photos showing the word “Karachi” covered up on the signboard and an Indian flag displayed at the bakery started making rounds on social media.

Other Bengaluru outlets of the Hyderabad-based company have been receiving threatening calls since mid-February from groups demanding that the firm should change its name or shut down the business.

The incident comes in the wake of the Pulwama bombing in Kashmir on February 14, which killed more than 40 Indian troops. We can only marvel how stupid some people have become.

It seems that the tables have been turned by some ironic twist of fate. It was Pakistan that was considered to be intolerant. It was here that we would report on extremism and how certain elements were playing havoc with the lives and property of others.

Time and again we had read or reported such incidents with a heavy heart. Such stories were lapped up with glee by some media outlets across the border.

And now with the advent of the Modi Sarkar in India, there seems to be a drive at undoing all that was sane in India. Time and again, friends from across the border have lamented over how much their country seems to be changing. In the Karachi bakery case, as we have seen in several other cases over the past few years, one has to assert their religious identity in order to survive.

In the case of the Karachi Bakery, what it seemed saved the day was not common sense but possibly the fact that the owners of this establishment were Hindu.  The manager of the Karachi Bakery outlet told the media that the mob stayed for about half an hour and demanded that the bakery change the name.

The manager says that the men in the mob thought that the owners of the Karachi bakery were from Pakistan despite the fact that this has been a popular bakery for the last 53 years. The mob left once they were satisfied that the owners are Hindus and only the name was Karachi bakery. “To satisfy them, we put up the Indian flag,” the manager said.

Following the protests against the bakery in India, people on Twitter shared photos of the popular Bombay Bakery in Pakistan’s Hyderabad, highlighting how the word ‘Bombay’ was very much still there.

Senator Sherry Rehman also joined the conversation on social media, saying: “Bombay Bakery is thriving in Hyderabad [...] Nobody wants to even think of changing their name. Erasing our past or diversity will only lead to myopic exclusions.” Let us hope common sense prevails on both sides.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2019.

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