Vadu Saha: The 60-year-old sweet maker deeply intertwined with the history of Rajbari
A former wealthy Hindu family in Rajbari evolved into becoming the district’s most famous sweetmaker, with a signature chomchom that claims to be better than its Tangail counterpart
People in Rajbari called him Vaida Saha. His original name was Nirmol Saha, son of Loknath Saha. Loknath called him Vadu out of affection, because was born in the Bangla month of Bhadra. And hence the local dialect turned the word Vadu into Vaida, that too, out of affection.
Vadu Saha was 'the' sweet maker of Rajbari. Which sweet, you may ask? Let us begin with Komolavog.
The orb-shaped sweet looks like a lamblike, innocent fella from the outside. From the look of it, you might not feel quite enticed to take a bite. But once you do, an explosion of different flavours of sweets, with measured kheer and sugar syrup (shira) that melt inside your mouth, will take hold of you immediately – only to amaze, if not confuse, your taste buds with an orange-y essence.
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If you have a sweet tooth, the taste of the orb-shaped Komolavog will perhaps be the biggest surprise you have had in a long while. But then, you will learn that Komolavog is actually not Vadu Saha's flagship sweet that made him famous and beloved across the Rajbari district - and gradually in Dhaka, as well as some other parts of the country.
It was the chomchom - yes, the same one which originated in Tangail and remains a special Tangail feature.
Surprisingly, chomchom turned the tide for Vadu Saha. Unlike the regular chomchom in the market, Vadu Saha's chomchom comes with a greater layer of kheer on the outer body. When you bite into it, the outer shell breaks and a layer of shira permeates. Quite strong stuff or too much sweet you would say, if you tried it for the first time.
Vadu Saha store, which is officially known as Nirmol Mistanno Bhandar, sells around 200 kg of chomchom every day.
The store's Shormalai is also popular in Rajbari, but for people outside the district, both Shormalai and Komolavog are unknown, almost alien. This is because the former perishes very quickly so you need to get it straight from the store early in the morning. Meanwhile, Komolavog didn't quite find a footing under the shadows of chomchom.
Since Vadu Saha launched the store in 1953, its fame was largely limited to the Rajbari district and its periphery. His sweets are only now growing popular across the country as some social media-based online pages like Food Mama, Zarif Food etc began delivering sweets to people's homes ever since the Covid-19 pandemic.
But, Rajbari's beloved sweet maker Vadu Saha died in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic - leaving his sweet empire to his three sons who now live with a greater 21-member extended family.
The fall and rise of the Saha family
Rajbari was traditionally dominated by Hindu zamindars back in the day. Loknath Saha had riches and lands. But by the early 1900s, he couldn't hold on to his wealth and sold most of his land.
He had two wives and half a dozen children from each. So his children didn't enjoy the opulence that their father did. But they carried on as a big extended family supporting each other.
Nirmol, alias Vadu, founded his store in Rajbari Paanbazar under one of its huge rain trees that no longer exist today. In 1953, when he started his snacks shop at Rajbari, Nirmol had a big family to look after. He initially used to sell fried snacks like alu chop, onion fritters, nimki, etc.
In the following years, he learned the art of making sweets from a sweet maker named Nittolal Adhikari, who had a store in Rajbari rail gate's Kalimondir area. Back then, it was the most crowded area in the district.
It was roshogolla that Vadu first added as a sweet dish to his snacks shop menu.
"Father started making sweets in 1963. It was the year I was born," said Porimol Saha, Vadu's eldest son, adding, "he followed Nittolal's recipe by heart, and the sweet we make now is still based on that recipe."
Vadu never had to look back ever since, except for the 1971 independence war. They had to flee the genocide to India. When he returned in December, Vadu Saha had Tk90 in his pocket. But he relaunched his store anyway, under the rain tree on land that belonged to Nittolal Saha, a relative from his wife's side. Nittolal and his sons later handed the piece of land over to Vadu.
Ever since, the story has only been about the rise of Vadu Saha, his sons and his brothers.
After Nirmol Mistanno Bhandar became a success, Vadu helped his stepbrother Sankar Saha to start his sweetmeat shop at the entrance of the Paanbazar area, which is as famous as Nirmol's. They are indeed such a famous duo that people often mistake them as the same store. His other brothers were also successful in their respective professions.
Vadu's three sons also joined work with him. His eldest son Porimol started helping his father in the early 1980s when he was in the eighth grade, and he has been looking after his father's legacy for the last 40 years. He was eventually followed by his two other brothers – Uttom Saha and Utpol Saha.
"We have always lived as an extended family," said Porimol, "there was a time when my mother and my wife had to cook for up to 50/60 people regularly. Our father taught us the value of togetherness. He used to say that when you grow older, even if your sons are away, your brothers will look after you, if you stay together. My wife learned it from our mother, and now she values it."
Till the end of his days, Vadu Saha stayed in an extended family with his sons, their wives and kids in the same building. Since his death in 2020, Porimol has led the Saha family with his mother at the centre. The joint family still eats together and stays together.
The evolution of Vadu's sweets
Nirmol Mistanno Bhandar has over 28 different varieties of sweets.
Depending on the demand, the store requires 150 to 200 maunds of milk per day, which is approximately 4,000-6,000 litres that they collect from different farms and households of cow farmers.
Fridays are busy because of weddings and other occasions. And for Rajbari people, no occasion is complete without Nirmol's chomchom.
According to Porimol Saha, the vessels that fry or boil the orbs of chhana are made to a specific measurement - one kadai or vessel can hold 15 kg of sweet, which requires 3 kg of channa.
The cow farms provide milk for them because apart from this sweet business, they have a cow-feed business as well, from where the farmers can buy food for their cows at an affordable price.
36 employees are currently working for this sweet shop.
Of all the varieties of Nirmol sweets, chomchom, Komola Bhog, Roshmalai, Shormalai and Barfi Sondesh are the market leaders.
If you are a fan of Cumilla Roshmalai, we would suggest you try the Nirmol's. Unlike the traditional store-bought roshmalai, theirs has a dense thick rosh, almost kheer-like consistency. The sweets are smaller in size and not spongy, rather they have a soft roshogolla-like texture.
If you are someone who prefers your sweets less sweet, the Barfi Sondesh is perfect for you. Smooth chhana sondesh, cut in a square barfi with a slightly burnt top, it tastes extremely refined and light.
The flagship sweet's glory
Now, a little more about the chomchom… It is basically an oval-shaped brownish variety of roshogolla, made with chhana and sugar syrup. But the difference is Nirmol's chomchom has a thick coating of khoya kheer on top of the sweet, which balances out the sweetness perfectly.
So when you bite into the divine chomchom, the crumbly kheer mixes with the thick sugar syrup and that's when you know this is the best chomchom you are ever going to put in your mouth - trumping out Tangail's famous chomchom.
"What most people do is they sprinkle powdered biscuits on the top. But we have a thick coating of Khoya kheer," Porimol said proudly. "The recipe we got from Nittolal Adhikari involved thick kheer dried up, dusted and sprinkled over sweet, so that after biting the layer, sugar syrup drops in and melts in your mouth."
In case you store the sweets in the freezer, the sugar syrup may be frozen. In such cases, Porimol advises putting the sweets in the microwave for 15 seconds.
"Back in the day, people ate a lot of sweets. I saw people eating more than 5 kg of rosogolla and 3 kg jilapi in one sitting. Back then there was no diabetes. People would call it polyuria. But now we work desk jobs, our bodies don't work. People started complaining that it is too sweet, and they cannot eat it. Then we started reducing the amount of sweetness. We decreased the quantity of sugar, and increased the water a bit," Porimol said.
But this didn't put a dent in their business. Instead, "there are more mouths than before. So there is more demand now than before," he said.
We asked him how, even after 60 years in business, their recipes remain intact, or how nobody could successfully replicate them. "The recipe doesn't get properly copied. It is not like this has not been tried. Maybe there is a divine blessing," he replied.
Porimol is now concerned about the future – if the next generation will continue with the family tradition.
"You will find sweetmakers who have been working for 45-50 years in our shop. But now with time, people are getting educated and they don't want their sons to work like a labourer in some sweet shop. This is the reason there will be a time when there won't be enough workers to run the factory," he explained.
"All history and traditions of Rajbari are mostly gone with the demotion of our Rajarbari [the famous zamindar palace of the district in Lokkhikol]; all we have are these sweets. If it is doing good, we are happy," he added.
