Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to understand Lakhmu’s journey from living in the forest to working at the Pandum Cafe in Jagdalpur, in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. He spent his childhood in the forest and was often on the move. So, when he started working and was provided a place to live with the support of the Police department, it meant that, for the first time, he had a stable roof over his head and a job to earn a living. He started in the cafe’s utility department, and soon moved to helping the chef – he was too curious not to learn more. It’s been ten months, and Lakhmu is building life afresh, one step at a time.
Lakhmu and most of the employees at the Pandum cafe share a history of being associated with the Naxalite movement and then surrendering themselves to the government. The Poona Margham (New Path) initiative is one of the major rehabilitation campaigns launched by the Bastar Police to encourage former participants in the movement to renounce violence and reintegrate into mainstream society. Conceived by Sundarraj P. and developed in collaboration between the Police department and Nukkad Hospitality Group, the Pandum Cafe is one such initiative aimed at rehabilitation that offers a meaningful opportunity.
A Cafe Built Around Second Chances
For founders Priyank Patel and Tupesh Chandrakar, the cafe is an experiment in restoring faith in the importance of giving people another chance at life. “At the core of Nukkad, and the core of Pandum, is that simple idea to build a new life – why we can begin life at any stage, why there is always goodness and positivity within people, and why we need to look beyond the tags we put on them.”
From the moment I entered, I noticed messages of peace and hope dominate the decor of the space. Books, letters, and photographs make the place resound with this concept and the people behind it. The word “pandum” means “festival” in Gondi, and a chart on the wall shows the different festivals quintessential to the local agricultural calendar, like kare pandum, or bamboo-cutting permission, irpu pandum or mahua flower worship, jata pandum or mustard harvest ritual, and so on.
Putting Bastar’s Food On The Table
The food is a mix of local, seasonal cuisine and all-time cafe favorites. One of the monsoon favourites was boda, a local mushroom variety popular in the region. Another was basta or bamboo shoots, which is much loved by the local people. They also made a boda biryani earlier this year, as part of their ongoing culinary experimentation with Bastar’s food culture and efforts to make it part of a wider conversation. As I was visiting post-monsoon, I missed my chance to try these. But their hazelnut cold coffee, a rich plate of chilli paneer, and another cafe favourite, the lotus stem fry, kept conversations going for long.
Any discussion of the food of Bastar eventually leads to one mention: the one who put Bastar cuisine on the global map. Yes, I am talking about Gordon Ramsay’s tryst with two local favourites – chapda chutney and dona pudga. While the former is the red ant chutney made by crushing live or dried ants and their eggs with green chilli, garlic, ginger, and salt, the latter is a traditional chicken preparation wrapped in leaves and slow-roasted over an open fire. Ramsey, who flew to Majhipal, in Bastar, as part of his “Gordon’s Great Escape” in 2009, called the chapda chutney one of the best in the world.
As we were preparing to leave, the story of Pandum cafe and the smiling faces of the staff left an imprint on me. This was not another cafe where I was present to dissect flavours or discover trends. This was one of the tangible examples of the change Bastar is seeing every single day.
Read More: Chandanki’s Community Kitchen: A Village In Gujarat That Cooks & Eats Together
Also Read: Inside Arunachal With Thomas Zacharias: Discovering Idu Mishmi Food
