President's favourite paan shop

Tucked away in a quaint little shop in Connaught Place is the paan shop of S.N. Pandey and sons. It's like any another paan shop, which one would ignore in the hustle-bustle of everyday life. But the shop is in institution in itself as this is one place where
India's first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, many other leaders and celebrities used to frequent for their share of paan.

S.N. Pandey started the business of selling paan in the year 1942 - even before independence and he still sits here, lovingly making paans for his patrons. Many leaders have been frequenting this shop since its inception and as a matter of fact Pandey and his family till today have very good relations with the leaders. Smt. Indira Gandhi, one of their many paan lovers, had offered Pandey an election ticket, but he politely declined saying that he was happy pursuing his passion.

During Indira Gandhi's time a whole lot of paan used to be supplied to 10, Janpath. The second shop of Pandey's is at North Avenue, from where the Paan goes to Rashtrapati Bhawan regularly. The state office seeing the popularity of their paan allotted them a shop at North Avenue in 1972.

Any president and prime minister who has come to power, had the chance to savour Pandey's paan. The pictures of Pandey in his shop with some of the leaders are a proof of his famous clientele.

Other celebrity customers include film star Saeed Jaffery, who has been a major fan of their paan. In fact for his movie 'Chasme Baddoor', he took guidelines from them as to how to make a paan, how to chew it correctly. And this gave an authentic feel to his character. As S.N. Pandey's son puts it, "Mr. Saeed Jaffery is known nationally and internationally, he loves our paan and took a lot of information on it during the filming of his movie. We also have the honour of treating famous actress Madhuri Dixit to our paan, she loved our paan. So has famous painter Mr. M.F. Hussain, he was so flattered by our preparation that he gifted my father a painting of monkey god 'Hanumaji' which we still have with us. My father has very good relations with him and in the celebrity circle. "

They have a special arrangement for marriages, as they give their best in whatever they do. Marriages are special occasions; they decorate and put up a pandal and a stage. Usually four people look after the pandal and whoever wants whatever variety of paan which is there in India, they make sure its there. They try and keep varieties of paan, but the base or leaf of paan is something that has to be different. The famous ones being the 'desi patta' and 'meetha patta'. But the 'meetha patta' tops it all, but their specialty is Banarsi and Marahai paan, which is even sold as a specialty. The two main varieties are meetha paan and saada paan, but by and large 'tambaku' consumption has declined, as people now prefer eating guthka.

The customers come from far and wide to savour their 'special paan'. S.N. Pandey's son says, "Some customers are as old as 50 years. Four to five of them have been coming regularly since half a century and around a handful of them have been devoted customers since 15- 25 years. As for women they like paan a lot and there has been an equal ratio of men and women coming for paan. Women are as fond of paan as men."

Pandey's son treats this business as a profession. He says, "I have done B.Com. from Delhi University but still I took this up as my profession. I have never taken it as my business, for me it's a form of art. I have learnt all the in's and out's from my dad, but I haven't learnt it completely. I am still evolving and learning it. He has an experience of 60 years in this field and I will learn till he teaches me. As for my children, one of them is doing LLB and the other is doing CS. They work here with me and have taken their training from me. It's now all upto them whether they want to take it up as a full-fledged career or not. I don't want to force them, if they are interested they can take it up otherwise they can also take it up as a hobby. Right now my father is running it and then its me after him."

Seeing the savouring paan, which is made so lovingly by Pandey, you sure won't go anywhere else for it. S.N. Pandey is an institution in itself and will continue for generations to come, seeing the amount of care and love the owners have put in to make it the President's favourite paanwaala.

- Text and pics by Jyoti Narang