Among the sprawling businesses along Kanke Road, Ranchi, capital city of Jharkhand, in India, one shop has stood the test of time: a modest looking roadside paan dukan that has become a meeting spot for all kinds of paan eaters from all over the state.
It’s a beloved paan shop for many writers, musicians, businessmen, executives and journalists. People flock there just to break monotony in life, buy paan, talk and move on. And the shop staff, spin hands cutting paan, washing and preparing to hand over paan to them. They would go home chewing it that was packed in green leaves of sal.
“If you like that, then you’ll love this”, he would say.
He was Anuj Kumar Nandi, the founder of the oldest Pan Dukan - Anuj Petal shop - in Ranchi. He passed away after multiple ailments on Friday last. He was 74.
“With profound grief and sorrow, we regret to inform the sad demise of our beloved founder of Anuj Petal shop, Anuj Petal shop. We lost him on January 14, 2022 due to ailment. May his soul obtain Sadgati. Om Shanti,” the inheritor of this shop Arup Kumar Nandi said.
Anuj Kumar Nandi had launched Pan Shop in his name in Kanke Road, near Jawahar Nagar, in 1969 for paan eaters to relish all types of paan including Magahi. In brief, the paan ka patta (leaf)which brings relief and a sense of joy to a dedicated Ranchite’s eyes is called Magahi and is grown in developed and grown in Bihar.
Several Magahi paan eaters condoled the death of Anuj Kumar Nandi on social media. They included Ex Speaker and MLA of Ranchi CP Singh, Santosh Kumar Satapathy, IAS ( Retired), and JP Nadia, Ex Engineer of CMPDI.
"His demise came as a shock to me when I found out that his son, Arup, cousin, Basudev Nandi, Sapan Saha and Bhirjuram Mahato, two staff of their paan shop, were in tears. I remember him as a vivacious bright man, full of ideas and full of life. He was confident. That was something you noticed about him immediately!” Nadia tweeted.
The writer is a senior journalist, Ex Jharkhand State Head, The Indian Express, Ex Executive Editor of Prabhat Khabar( English Daily) and Editor, JharkhandStateNews, Jharkhand Government Accredited News Portal
