HYDERABAD: The Lost Land held at Terrassen Cafe, Film Nagar, was all about uncovering the fascinating journey of rediscovering the lost culture of Sindhi community, from traditional Sindhi cuisine to the finest ‘Sindh work’ and stories of Sindhi diaspora
In post-partition India, many people who were forced to flee from the Sindh region in Pakistan came and sought refuge in Hyderabad and other cities in India. As more and more Sindhi culture slowly prevailed, they brought with them the gift of undiscovered traditional nuances, which mainly included the unique flavours of Sindhi cuisine. To a great extent, their cuisine is influenced by Arabs, Mughals and other dynasties that ruled over the Sindh province at different points of time.
One such event, “The Lost Land” was held in Terrassen Cafe, Film Nagar, recently where the carefully curated Sindhi cuisine offered quite a few vegetarian delicacies with an excellent culmination of easy-to-make recipes, traditional spices and vegetables, such as Sai Bhaji, Aloo Tuk and Bhuga Chawal. “This is the first time we have our community gathered here, I wanted to create a festive menu authentic to our roots, the very food we enjoyed as children made by our grandmothers, it’s great to see all of which coming back and watching our culture prevail as we go,” shares Dhanesh Sharma, owner, Terrassen Cafe.
Adding to the delicious food, Saaz Aggarwal, an incredible writer who comes from the Sindhi community had an incredible session about her latest book ‘Losing Home, Finding Home’. Saaz spoke about the countless stories of partition and post-partition which affected the community in multiple ways. Saaz further added, “My journey started with wanting to preserve my home language, pass it on to the younger generations and keep our roots alive for which our ancestors fought and struggled for.” She shared her distress of not being able to find much about her culture out there for everyone to understand and how more of her work now is based on the resurgence and is a special project because there are still a number of stories from her own childhood which drove her to study more on the beauty of Sindhi community.
During the Q&A session, when asked about what inspired her to carry on the messages and her work surrounding partition, Saaz explains, “The Sindhi story started coming out 65 years after partition. There was much less violence in Sindh than other partition-affected regions and the Sindhis assimilated without fuss. In my 10 years of research I found numerous untold stories and why they have to be told, as it would change how the Sindhi community is represented and would help protect our old traditions.”
Furthermore, the event organiser, Daneesh Majid, added, “Although it is overshadowed by legacies of partition, I want the future generations to be aware of the riches of Sindhi literature, I have spent years researching, reading and learning about communities and Sindhi community is particularly fascinating as it has so much to offer. So to make sure the community isn’t scattered and doesn’t distance young Sindhis from their heritage of incredible literature and legacy, it’s important to preserve its existence.”