The great struggle of Banarasi Paan

The 71-year-old Rajendra Chourasia wears a calm look despite the long queue outside his shop. He smiles at each customer as he embellishes the dark green-coloured betel leaf. His younger brother sits opposite him, assisting him in the dressing of the leaf.

It is 7:00 am. The adjacent shops are still closed, and the road is empty. The queue outside the Keshav Tambul Bhandar becomes longer and restless.

The shop has a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with one of the Chourasia brothers.

“I had gone to meet Modiji when he visited Banaras for the inauguration of the temple corridor. Our prime minister has changed the face of the city,” says Rajendra while adding the gulkand on a paan. Paan is a popular post-meal accessory across India.

The 1966 dated shop is named after the eldest brother Keshav. Chourasia started sitting in the shop at the age of 14 years.

“I used to study while sitting in the shop and went on to do a Masters,” he says.

The five brothers take turns to be at the shop which opens on all days and closes only a little before midnight.

“During the lockdown, our shop was closed for three months. But now our business is finally getting back to normal.”

A meetha (sweet) paan at his shop costs ₹25 and takes a major share of the business, while a zarda paan costs ₹10. However, it is the Banarasi paan, which always has a special place. The Banarasi paan is a spread of areca nuts, catechu (kattha) of fresh betel leaf, tobacco, and slaked lime, to which other ingredients like rose petals (gulkand), silver foil (varakh) are added. 

The distinctiveness of the Banarasi paan lies in both the taste and texture of the leaves as well as the mixed spices--and the presentation.

Inclement weather

Amidst the positive veneer, there is also an underlying disenchantment with the business.

Manoj and Sonu Chaurasia, the two brothers who own and run Kuber Paan Bhandar, another ancestral paan destination in Banaras, have already started feeling the pressure.

“We are not closing our shop because of emotional ties but have lost enthusiasm. Post-covid our business has been hit tremendously and we are barely able to meet our daily needs,” says 42-year-old Manoj. 

His younger brother, 35-year-old Sonu, has a similar narration.

“Things were better before Covid. But during the lockdown, the paan-lovers started making their own paans at home, which continued even after the lockdown was removed,” says Sonu. 

“We got this shop as a virasat (property) from our father. But now for the youngsters' paan has become obsolete and outdated,” he adds. Sonu says that the younger generation has moved to gutka.

Sonu and Manoj have seven other brothers who are in the paan business but have moved out to different shops.

Ashok Chourasia, one of the brothers of Sonu and Manoj owns and runs Ramchandra Chourasia Paan Bhandar and is enamoured with ‘Modiji’.

“He has done a lot for the city. The local business is improving,” says Ashok. 

But deep within, Ashok can sense the ‘uncertainty’ that looms over his ancestral business.

“The paan business is not what it used to be. One of the factors responsible for this is the dislocation of my shop. The current location is not very customer-friendly,” he adds. 

The duo's other brother, Vikas Chourasia, opened his shop in July this year and is still trying to understand the market dynamics.

“It will take some time for me to access the business fluctuations but as of now the sale is fine because of tourists that visit the city during Diwali,” says Vikas. 

Material market

And it is not just the paan— even the paan material is weathering a rough climate.

“There has been a fall in the business of paan. The younger generation is leaning towards paan masala,” says Shiv Kumar Chourasia who has a 50- year-old shop in Pandariba. Pandariba is a wholesale market of paan in Banaras. 

Dittos Suraj whose family has been in the business of paan materials for the last 80 years says, “In the last five years my business has seen a fall of 85%. After the lockdown, there has been a steep decline in my old customers. On the contrary, the sale of paan masala and gutka have gone up.”

Suraj is even thinking of shifting to some other business.

“In the last 25 years, this is invariably the worst time for my business. I can only hope that it picks up soon,” he rues.