Food and Nostalgia: Zaiqay Frontier Ke – Dera Ismail Khan Kae Bhulay Bisray Pakwan

Food is no silent sustenance. It breathes, it speaks, it holds tales of generations past. A pearl on the thread of our history, food culture is our pride to preserve.

More than 60 years after Partition, the culture of Indian and Pakistani khana remains entwined. Few marriages of regional identities, both rural and urban, have lasted past such fierce political upheaval as ours. After all that has come to pass, Nostalgia is the tie that binds. After all that has been lost, our taste buds continue to seek and find ‘home’.

No food compares to apney ghar ka khana. No joy equals tasting Nani’s daal, or Dadi’s karhai. To protect and perfect these age-old recipes, some handed down purely by word-of-mouth, has been this publishing’s happy journey.

Particular and precise masala combinations, the density and scent of a robust roti, the succulence and texture of a perfect pot of chawal — such feats of flavour sustain the heartbeat of kitchens across the border.

Each province in this vast Sub continent, each language, each history, is represented between these pages. This is an ancient land. Its history speaks of both Golden eras, as well as colonisation and subjugation. We have known separation and strife for too long, and now we yearn only for prosperity and peace.

Markings Publishing’s sixth title, ‘Zaiqay Frontier Ke – Dera Ismail Khan Kae Bhulay Bisray Pakwan’, translated as ‘Flavours of the Frontier – Forgotten Recipes from Dera Ismail Khan’ written by the late Pushpa Kumari Bagai speaks of such a blessed time. Let its recipes invite you into each others’ homes. Let all our homes become one.

Markings CEO Kiran Aman also presented the book at the ‘Beijing Cookbook Fair 2014’and held a talk titled ‘Peace and Cookbook‘ together with Atul and Dipa Bagai, the son and daughter-in-law of the late author. They discussed the execution of Bagai’s vision for the book and the culinary heritage of the Hindus of the Frontier, highlighting the cultural similarities between Pakistan and India and the importance of such books as a means of bridging the divide between the two nations.

‘Flavours of the Frontier: forgotten recipes from Dera Ismail Khan’ includes a diversity of 80 recipes, ranging from culinary delights such as ‘doli wali roti’, ‘daal ke samosay’, ‘chane ki daal ka halwa’ and ‘boondi ki subzi’ where each recipe is original and reflects the history and culture of the Hindu Pathan community of DI Khan. Within the book, the introduction encompasses a brief history, providing the cultural and social context to the recipes along with imagery of key ingredients throughout the book, a description of the cooking process and images of the final presentation of each prepared dish.

Speaking about the cookbook, CEO Markings Publishing, Kiran Aman said; “Our history and culture stands distinguished in all forms, perhaps more specifically in language and cuisine. The concept behind the collaboration for this book was to explore and present unique recipes, reviving them for the Pak-India palate and sensibility. It is about the preservation of flavours, tastes and traditions that have been passed down from one generation to the next.”

“My mother-in-law was a fantastic cook. Her cooking became the bond that kept the family connected with their roots in distant Dera Ismail Khan, in North West Pakistan, near the Afghan border. My mother in law learnt how to cook from her own mother in law, who shared with her the unique and special recipes and dietary customs from the region and for the ensuing half century and more, till her passing away in March 2012, she was a worthy bearer of the tradition of that distinctive cuisine of the Hindu community of DI Khan. A couple of years ago we persuaded her to record these distinctive recipes so that they could be accessible to all those who loved her cooking in India and in Pakistan, and she embarked enthusiastically on this project. She had cooked intuitively and was not used to specific measures for the various ingredients that went into the different dishes hence in order to accurately document the recipes she actually tried out each of them before penning them down. Sadly, she did not live to see her recipes published as a cookery book. She had so wanted them to be disseminated and distributed, to share the joy she herself derived from food.” said Dipa Singh Bagai.

Published by Markings with Recipes by Pushpa Kumari Bagai, Edited by Shanaz Ramzi, Cover Illustration by Ayesha Durrani, Photography by Adeela Badshah, Kohi Marri, Nakul Malik and Atul Bagai, ‘Zaiqay Frontier Ke – Dera Ismail Khan Ke Bholay Bisray Pakwan’ is currently available to purchase for PKR 1,500 at leading book stores across Pakistan.