When sweets turn sour: Tangail’s chomchom business in its twilight
Sometime in the 1950s, when Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy had come to Tangail to attend an event, Bangali Gour, a local moira (sweetmeat maker) from Porabari Union in Tangail Sadar, presented him a dessert unlike any other. It was a huge chomchom that weighed more than 10 kilograms.
Suhrawardy was so happy with the gift that he gave Bangali Gour a sugar permit (back then people needed a permit to import sugar).
Bangali Gour's son Madan Chandra Gour told us the story, in a rather proud voice, as we stood inside his courtyard, which also served as the family's sweet karkhana or factory.
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Madan's is one of the last few remaining families in Porabari who still make and sell chomchom. "You will find maybe two to three other families near Charabari Ghat who make chomchom, but that is about it," he said. Many families have left the country while the younger generation switched to different professions.
This decadent sweet once brought Tangail immense fame. Steamers from Kolkata would stop at the Charabari Ghat and passengers would buy kilos of chomchom. Eventually, an entire market or mishti bazar (locals call it mishti potti) formed inside Tangail City, which still exists, albeit on a much smaller scale. Around 25 shops sell chomchom, along with a few other traditional sweets like roshogollah, curd, and ghee. Many of them have factories at the back.
During weekends, some tourists and locals frequent the shops, but weekdays are quiet. However, sales increase during Pohela Boishakh and Puja. Sweets from these shops are sold across the country.
With their glory days long gone, the shops are struggling to survive. It has been three months since gas connection was cut off and production has since decreased drastically. The stoves are running on firewood, releasing unbearable fumes into the air throughout the day.
"Using gas cylinders is absolutely not feasible for our business," said Shopon Ghosh, the owner of Joykali Mistanna Bhandar and the president of Tangail Zilla Mishti Malik Shomity, adding, "previously we used to sell five maunds of sweets every day and now we can sell around one maund. Losses are piling up every day."
Joykali Mistanna Bhandar is one of the oldest shops in the mishti bazar, operating since 1939. Shopon's father Khoka Ghosh started the business.
According to locals, there are two other shops other than Joykali - Gopal Mistanna Bhandar and Gour Ghosh Dodhi and Mistanna Bhandar, which have been operating for more than 50 years and maintaining the same quality in their sweets.
Factories running on firewood
Visiting the factories was not an easy affair as the shop owners claimed there were "too many media reports on sweets being made under unhygienic conditions". However, a little coaxing helped us wiggle our way inside Joykali's factory.
The kitchen was not too big and true to the media reports, it seemed, health or hygiene was certainly not a priority here. Sticky black soot covered the walls and floors.
Workers shuffled around the little space covered with large plastic canisters. Each of these canisters hold up to 47 litres of milk. On earthen stoves were metal korais, boiling around three maunds of milk in each. Firewood was stacked in piles nearby.
Every morning, litres of fresh cow's milk (each litre costs Tk70 to Tk80) is fetched from nearby villages. These are boiled and then curdled using leftover whey.
The curdled cheese or chhana is rolled into oval-shaped balls with a bit of flour and boiled in sugar syrup. After they are cooled for hours, the result is the tan-coloured chomchoms put on glass displays. One kilo usually sells at Tk300 to Tk350.
One maund of milk produces six kilos of chhana and one kilo of chhana can be used to make 2.5 kilos of chomchom. The unscrupulous tactic is to mix a fair amount of flour and make three kilos of sweets from one-kilo chhana. These sweets are sold at Tk200 to Tk250 a kilo.
Manager Shyamol Ghosh has been working at Joykali Mistanna Bhandar for nearly 33 years. He told us they need three to five maunds of firewood (one maund costs Tk300) daily to keep the business running. "Even if we want, we can no longer take large orders," he said.
Owner of Gopal Mistanna Bhandar, Krishna Das said his grandfather Radhaballabh Das opened this shop in 1946. Krishna took over the business in 2000. From 60 to 70 kilos a day, sales have dropped to 15 to 20 kilos, he said.
Shopon Ghosh of Gour Ghosh Dodhi and Mistanna Bhandar said their business originally started with selling curd. They began selling sweets in 2013. They sell a variety of curd, including a special one called 'bolir doi' or 'khorocher doi', which is sold only on Thursdays and Fridays. The curd is used during prayers held for the deceased.
Hanging on to tradition
Most sweetmeat shops in the country claim they sell porabarir chomchom. However, the existing makers in Porabari now produce only small quantities of chomchom based on pre-orders. Unlike Tangail City, Porabari has never had gas lines.
"Our sweets go to places like Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet, Mymensingh etc. They take from us at a low price and then sell at a much higher price, claiming they are authentic sellers of Porabari chomchom," said Madan Chandra's wife Jharna Rani Gour.
Madan's house has an additional room opposite their kitchen where the sweets are kept in plastic drums and aluminum bowls. The sight was not a pleasant one, but the taste of the freshly made chomchom was quite unique.
Jharna's husband and children are all involved in the sweet business but they do not know if their grandchildren will want to continue with it. "Selling chomchom was once profitable, but it no longer is the case. The way the price of sugar and milk is rising, after 10 years, there will not be any karigor (maker) left in Porabari," she said.
What is the secret behind a truly delicious, traditional chomchom from Tangail? "There is no secret. It is nothing but pure cow's milk," said Madan.
Former UP member Gopal Chandra Saha told us that from 30 to 40 families of sweetmeat makers, the number has dwindled to less than 10. "When I was a child, there were many shops in Porabari and Charabari. We would go there to have sweets, it was so exciting," he said.
He added that the drop in sales was also due to poor communication, as the road to Porabari from Tangail is under construction and so blocked for quite some time. The alternative road is full of potholes and especially prone to accidents.
Palash Saha's family is still in the business of making chomchom. He, however, runs a coaching centre and wants nothing to do with sweets. He said, "There is nothing left in Porabari, just us few who are hanging on to the sweets business," adding, "nobody cares, reporters write more negative than positive things."
