Author: ValleyObserver

SRINAGAR: On a cold morning, a group of men on their small boats are looking for something on mid waters in world famed Dal Lake here. Are they up so early to catch rainbows? Surely not! They have no nets or angling rods. Are they there to collect fodder? No! So, guess it right – Dal does not grow green leaves on surface in winters. Well, actually the two Pheran clad men are up too early to pluck the most sought after aquatic vegetable’ –the organic Lotus Stem or Nadru as called in local parlance.

Growing naturally in major lakes in Kashmir, Nadru  continues to tease taste buds and powers livelihood in the valley.

Equipped with a long stick, two Dal inhabitants 48-year-old Bahir Ahmad Akhoon and a 46-year-old Mushtaq Ahmad Akhoon are continuously dowsing the waters to locate lotus stem. As soon as they feel the obstacle with long stick, they immediately pull it out with the help of a Shum, a metal fork tied at the end of the rod. And on the surface pops up the long, cylindrical creamy white lotus stems, one of the prized vegetables of Kashmir.

Though the organically cultivated Nadru grows naturally in all the major water bodies of valley, Dal Nadur or a lotus stem from Dal lake is regarded as the best quality for its exquisite taste and whitish color.

Nadrus grow mainly between the autumn and summers. By end of March, Nadru farmers pluck out edible lotus stems worth crores.

Used widely by the valleities, Nadru has a lion’s share in Kashmir’s cuisine. Be it Eid and Navroz for Muslims or Shivratri for Kashmiri Pandit families, the waterborne vegetable is essential part of local culture.

Near and dear ones are invited and served cuisine made from Nadru. It is hardly possible that a Nadru dish is not served to invitees during the feasts organized in Kashmir families during winters.

“My son who studies abroad is returning home after a gap of one year. I am going to prepare Nadru dish for him, as he likes them the most. I am exploring what else to get with them,” says Hafeeza Akhtar from Srinagar’s Lal Bazar, while carrying a bunch of large sized Nadru in a bag.

Lotus stem is often prepared with fish that makes them ‘Nader Gaade’, a dish loved by one and all. ‘Nader Haakh’, lotus stem and Collard Green and ‘Nader Muje’, Lotus stem and radish are among the traditional dishes made from locally produced Nadru. Besides there are variety of foods ranging from street chaats to snacks and dishes whose essential ingredient is famed Nadru. In some neighbourhoods of Dal and Anchaar lake, where the lotus grows in abundance, people can be often seen drying the stuff on attics to keep it for summer use.

Such is the craze for this edible stem of symbolic lotus plant that it serves as a token of love or prized gift in Kashmir culture. A bunch of Nadru stems is a prized gift or treat exchanged between the acquaintances, friends or relatives especially during winters and festivities.

While adding colour to valley cuisine these lotus stems are a source of livelihood too. From cultivation to marketing, hundreds of families across Kashmir benefit from it. A cultivator, vegetable sellers or nadru dealer, everyone gets their share from its trade.

“I have been cultivating nadru for past 20 years. Whole men folk, my two sons and  I usually harvest 10,000 to 12,000 bunches of lotus stem every year. This aquatic commodity is our major source of income,” Ghulam Mohammad Akhoon told the Valley Observer while plucking the lotus stems in Dal. “At times, I often hire people to pluck the stuff as the demand upticks during severe cold. During this period, most of people prefer to stay indoors and like to cherish Nadru dishes,”

Before being sold in market, these lotus stems are arranged in bunches, which are graded according to the length and girth of stems in a bunch. An average Nadru bunch weighing about 2 kilograms fetches between Rs 200 to Rs 300. There are some bunches which are priced up to Rs 900 in the market. The price of edible stems shoots up during festivities however.

The cultural legacy of Nadru continues despite the waterborne crop faced a near total wipe-out from Dal and Anchaar waters during the devastating floods in September 2014. In the wake of floods, many Nadru cultivators had rented  marshy lands in the neighboring district of Ganderbal, preserved seed there and then again propagated it in these lakes. Thanks to these resilient Nadru cultivators, lotus in a full bloom is again a popular sight on Dal and adjacent waterbodies in the valley. The prized vegetable has re emerged as a main aquatic crop of the valley and  continues to fuel the livelihoods of hundreds of families associated with the trade.

Meanwhile Akhoon who is dowsing the Dal waters, finds his catch, a long lotus stem -the Nadru!

Nasir Yousufi

SRINAGAR: In a small room of a single-storied house, a 45-year-old single mother, Nargis who lives with her two children in Chanpora here seems jubilant as she places the much anticipated table-sized thread spinning machine in the corner of her room.
Unable to believe that the spinning wheel she had thrown away nine years back has returned to her house -in a new avatar with a promise of economic prosperity.
A modern spinning wheel, modern charkha or modern yinder as called in the local parlance is the latest innovation in Valley’s Pashmina industry that has off late rejuvenated the faith of Pashmina wool spinners in the craft.
The world-famed Pashmina shawls have been a hallmark of Kashmir handicrafts. And the role of women in powering this craft through their unmatched spinning skills is an open secret.
Many Kashmiri women particularly from Srinagar households have been spinning Pashmina and Shahtosh for ages. There are hundreds of legends from yore eulogizing the valor of women, who raised their families from income made from spinning yarn on charkha.

They say as lifestyles shift, so does the household expenditures. By at the turnaround of this millennium, most of these Pashmina wool spinners either hanged these charkhas over attic or send them to scrap for sitting on them meant meager returns. Like Nargis, most of such weavers had shifted to other works more profitable than the traditional spinning of Pashmina wool.
But then, the spinning craft is back with a bang.

And it’s essentially thanks to the group of scientists at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Technology or SKUAST Kashmir, who developed the modern charkha, which has not only rejuvenated the hopes of spinners but the women who are using it claim to earn two to three hundred percent more than what they usually used to earn from traditional yinder.
“With the increased cost of living, to meet the two ends from a meager earning of Rs 30-40 per day from the age old yinder was impractical. So I had to shift from kataen kaem or hand spinning of yarn to some other feasible work almost thirteen years back,” said Arifa Bilal, a 45-year-old Pashmina wool spinner from old City of Srinagar. “But deep in my heart, I always missed that old yinder as the wheel had helped my mother… Fortunately, I came to know about its new avatar, got few days of training in handling this wheel and thanks to Almighty, I am able to earn about Rs 250 to 300 a day now,” added Arifa while sitting beside her charkha.
Introduced by SKUAST-K in 2022, the Modern Yinder is a pedal driven charkha fitted on the table. The pedal driven charkha is much easier to operate than the older wooden ‘yinder’ and has almost doubled the output for these women spinners.

Dr Sarfaraz Ahmad, who was a part of SKUAST-K team that innovated the novel yinder said that the modern charkha has health benefits as well. “Earlier the women used to sit behind the traditional yinder but the modern charkha provides her comfort of sitting on a chair while spinning the wheel”, he told the Valley Observer.
Seconding Dr Ahmad, Sameena Akhtar, a newlywed woman from Srinagar said that given the design of modern yinder, she is able to operate it on ease despite “backache and disc issues.”
The redesigned charkha has been a game changer. It is attracting hundreds of women towards the trade. Many women who had left the spinning have resumed and earn more. A training centre run by a Pashmina dealer in Srinagar has trained hundreds of women so far in operating pedal driven new charkha.
“This pedal driven charkha has helped in increasing the output of hand spun Pashmina Yarn. Together at this centre, we have trained almost 200 women including young girls in operating the novel yinder,” said Ishfaq Qadri who runs the centre at his Me & K Pashmina House in downtown Srinagar. Qadri who is known for selling famed Pashmina Shawls to different parts of the world has so far distributed more than 40 modern charkha’s free of cost among the spinning community.
“Such technological interventions are definitely helpful in increasing both the produce as well as the income of weavers, which forms an essential ingredient in the revival of Pashmina industry in the valley,” he added.
Experts believe that the development is the beginning of an era of revival of once a hallmark of Kashmir- the hand -woven Pashmina shawl business.
Boosting the morale of hand woven Pashmina wool spinners in the valley, Government has also fixed the minimum selling price for one knot at Rs 2.5, which has given a further push to once the mainstay craft of women folk mainly from downtown Srinagar.
According to Mahmood Ahmad Shah, Director Handicrafts & Handlooms Department Kashmir, the craftswomen spinning hand woven Pashmina yarn play a pivotal role in the Pashmina craft and his department is trying its best to ensure the benefits of famed craft trickles down to every stakeholder.
As for the single mother Nargis, she spins the modern charkha to earn her livelihood like never before!