John Henry Kerr, the then governor of Assam, wrote in his diary, “Today there has been no supply of bread from the Gohati bakery as the road is under repair. Local bread is too hard and sticky — Gohati bread is soft,” (Shillong, November 24, 1923). Another government file refers to a “sanction of Rs 380 for His Excellency’s X-mas party for which bread, biscuits and cakes are to be ordered with Gauhati Bakery immediately with an instruction that all materials should reach the Governor House by midday, preferably by 12 noon”.

During Jawaharlal Nehru’s visits to Guwahati, cheese straw from this bakery was invariably served on Nehru’s breakfast table as he had a liking for it. Indira Gandhi’s Z-category security personnel kept standing by the oven when bread meant for the former Prime Minister was being baked and packed in this very bakery. By this time the reader must have guessed which bakery I am referring to. It’s M/s Shaikh Brothers of Panbazar, Guwahati.

Nearly 125 years ago, Shaikh Ghulam Ibrahim, a young and enterprising youth from Hooghly district in Bengal, came to Assam to execute a construction-related business when the Guwahati-Shillong Road was being rebuilt by Maula Baux, the famous contractor of yesteryears. During this visit, Ghulam Ibrahim visualised that Assam had good potentialities for bakery business where a good number of British officers and planters were settled by that time.

Opportunities came soon. The Ibrahim family already established a bakery at Mirzapur Street, Calcutta, and it was doing roaring business. However, business in Calcutta suffered seriously when a plague epidemic broke out there in early 1880s, killing thousands of people. People began to leave the town in droves, and Guwahati wore a deserted look. It was then that Shaikh Ghulam Ibrahim decided to proceed to Assam to diversify and expand his business beyond Calcutta.

Travelling by train, steamer and even partly on foot, this fortune hunter ultimately arrived in Guwahati. Though he had visited Guwahati earlier also for supplying hats, belts, uniform and other accessories to the British solders and planters, this time, in 1881, he came to firmly settle in the town.

Shaikh Ibrahim’s first venture in Guwahati was a soda water-making plant, which he established at Panbazar in 1882. Encouraged by its success, when he decided to expand his business, a bakery was the obvious choice as in this field the family already had expertise. His elder brother Shaikh Sobiruddin joined him and thus Shaikh Brothers was established at Guwahati in 1885.

Why was a bakery, a comparatively new concept of business, instead of any safe business venture, experimented by the Shaikh Brothers? Possibly the Bengal experience convinced them about the emerging future of this business in Assam. In Bengal, spread of education, British rule and other related factors, including the emergence of a neo-Babu culture, gave a boost to the bakery business. Assam at that time had no bakery. The British settlers and the slow emergence of a middle class in Assam would provide a good market: this vision and the challenge to introduce something new in the province, which would automatically attract some consumers. Possibly all these considerations convinced Shaikh Ibrahim and Shaikh Sobiruddin about the future of the bakery business in Assam. Further they were confident about their lineage, being the bakers from Hooghly district of Bengal which produced some of the best bakers of the world during the colonial rule.

Their vision proved true, though the business in Guwahati took some time to capture the market as the orthodox section of the society was not in favour of patronising the products like bread loaves, biscuits and pastries made in Western style as those were completely new in the region. Some religious taboos also stood in the way. However, within two to three years, the situation changed and the firm’s business flourished. Planters, both from Upper and Lower Assam, ensured a regular clientele.

After satisfying the consumers of Guwahati, M/s Shaikh Brothers’ bread, biscuits and cakes entered the chief commissioner’s house at Shillong (now Raj Bhavan) in the 1890s. From 1905 onwards, special boxes for the Governor House were daily dispatched to Shillong from this shop in horse-drawn carts. That was since the days of J.B. Fuller, when he became Lt Governor in October 1905.

The notification appointing M/s Shaikh Brothers as official suppliers to the government of Assam was published in the Assam Gazette. John Henry Kerr, Sir Machael Keane, Robert Neil Reid, the successive governors, had been its patrons and admirers. Their personal appreciation letters used to decorate the walls of the shop till 1960s. Jnandabhiram Barua, Tarun Ram Phukan, Rohini Chowdhury, Dr Bhubaneswar Barua, historian, Barpujari brothers (senior late Heramba Kanta and his younger sibling, Surya Kanta) were among the regular elite visitors to this shop.

With the passage of time, business also had to be diversified. The next generations of the Shaikhs — Shaikh Khuda Hafez, Shaikh Ali Hussain and Shaikh Sultan Hussain — are still remembered by the octogenarians of the city for their “excellent behaviour and amiable disposition” which took M/s Shaikh Brothers’ business to new heights. In particular, Khuda Hafez and Ali Hussain gave their heart and soul to give Shaikh Brothers the present shape. Converting the shop virtually into a departmental store, they began to deal with textiles, hardware, shoes, medicines and general provisions. They also had the export-import license for Westend wristwatches. However, bakery products were never ignored. Rather from 1960 onwards, it was again given top priority.

Before the present RCC structure was built in the mid-1960s, the shop was operating from an Assam-type house in the same premises. The showroom was separated from the workshop by a curtain. The workshop (the employees called it factory) had some big ovens and smoke emitting from these ovens were channelled out through a huge chimney. This chimney served as a lighthouse for the boatmen in Brahmaputra as it was visible from a long distance. In a chilly morning of 1916, an employee saw a small tiger cub sitting comfortably by the side of its chimney. Even in 1920s, a tiger, washed away possibly by the flood of Brahmaputra, took shelter behind the Shaikh Brothers workshop. It was chased up to the Kamakhya foothill.

M/s Shaikh Brothers of yesteryears used to work in style. Wheat and cheese for the bakery used to come from Australia. Hoves (a type of yeast for fermentation) came from Belgium. Cashewnuts were procured from Goa. Dry dates and raisins found their way into this shop from north India and Peshwar. Bakers in this establishment had specific expertise. For example, Gulu Mistri, who came from Burma, had special expertise of making cheese straws. He kept the recipe and the mixing technique a closely-guarded secret all through.

During Christmas, the shop was decorated with “baked X-mas trees” and a “full chocolate-coated Santa Claus”. Children made a beeline to watch that Santa. Though those days of Shaikh Brothers are part of history today, tradition remains. Though its baker Gulu Mistri, cashier Jainal Abedin, or gatekeeper Shah Jahan or salesman Abul Hussain of yesteryears, who remained attached to this shop for more than fifty years, are no more, their legacy remains.

Sk. Khoda Nawaj, Sk. Sakhawat Hussain, Sk. Khaleque Nawaz, Sk. Malique Nawaz , Sk. Azijul Hussain, Sk. Ajmal Hussain and Sk. Arfan Hussain — the present managing partners of this old establishment of the city — are trying their best to keep the goodwill of Shaikh Brothers, which was built brick-by-brick by their predecessors. Sk. Ajmal Hussain said the secret of their success was honesty. The other senior partner Sk. Khoda Nawaz commented, “Service to the customers is our topmost priority and we are very lucky that our customers have great faith on us.”

Keeping that tradition and goodwill, Shaikh Brothers is continuing its nearly a-century-old home delivery service to a selective clientele of central Guwahati even today.

A bridge between the Nineteenth and the Twenty-first centuries, M/s Shaikh Brothers is indeed a part of Guwahati’s heritage. This shop has seen the small town of Guwahati growing into a thriving metropolis. Not many people of the city are aware today that since 1934 Haji Sobiruddin Road of Paltan Bazar area is named after Shaikh Sobiruddin, one of the founders of Shaikh Brothers.

Dipankar Banerjee