A few years back when Tassiya Tariq, 27, got married, she knew besides continuing her studies she will be a full time homemaker. Although she did not know much about cooking, her interest for authentic Kashmir cuisine especially Wazwaan made her browse online to search for recipes. Tassiya was disappointed to see little or no material available online about Kashmiri wazwaan. So she decided to set up a YouTube channel “Kashmir Food Fusion”.
Tassiya’s Youtube channel has attracted more than 27000 subscribers in just a span of one year and she is also active on other social media platforms like Instagram where she updates about her new recipes.
Tassiya, who has a post graduate degree in literature, said that she tried writing blogs about recipes as well, but she eventually realized that showing recipes to people through videos is much effective.
“I first learnt myself from my in-laws, particularly my cook. Whenever there used to be any family function at our home, I used to keep an eye on our family Waza (Kashmiri cook) who also helped me a lot,” Tassiya said, adding that she has added authentic Wazwaan footage from her family functions to her YouTube channel in order to help people across the world understand Kashmiri cuisine in a better way.
The cuisine enthusiast says her husband has been very helpful in editing her videos and uploading them on YouTube.
“Now I’m myself trying to learn since my husband keeps busy with his own job,” Tassiya said.
Her Kashmir food fusion channel has been receiving good response from people of different age groups and a variety of places and countries.
Views expressed on some of her recipes says a lot about how much people are connected to her cooking through YouTube. There are many recipes available on her channel that have had more than 1.5 lakh views.People from every age group and different nationalities have been commenting on her YouTube videos and on other social media posts.
“I often interact with people who are tracking my videos. There are many Kashmiri pandit families who tell me how much their youth learnt from these videos. It gives me immense pleasure that I’m able to help,” she said.
For now, Tassiya aims to keep authentic Kashmiri Wazwaan recipes available for people on internet, but she also hopes in the near future she can also earn from it by using YouTube’s provision of monetization for channels that have a certain number of views and subscribers.
There are other stories of Kashmiri enthusiasts of Wazwaan who don’t live in Kashmir anymore.
Nazrana Bashir, a postgraduate degree holder of mass communication could not let go of her love for media and her Kashmiri culture. As she settled in Mumbai after getting married years back, she missed the Kashmiri dishes particularly wazwaan and started to search online.
She shares the same experience as Tassiya about not being able to find any literature or online videos about Kashmiri wazwan.
In the beginning cooking for her started as a necessity.
“After moving to Mumbai in 2010, I missed the wazwaan and other home recipes,” Bashir said.
“Since nothing was available about it online, I would often call home to know recipes whenever I had to cook anything.”
Years after settling in Mumbai, Bashir rather than getting disappointed for not getting recipes online decided to herself be the source and inspiration for others to cook Kashmiri cuisine.
Last year, this 33 years old homemaker started her YouTube ‘Zoondaeb’ which already has around 8000 subscribers.
“Little that I found online was authentic and the dishes were not made by Kashmiri cooks. What I saw online was something that was tarnishing the image of Kashmiri wazwan, that is why I decided to start my own channel and let people know about the real recipes.”
Today, her non-Kashmiri neighbors love this young woman from Baramulla for her work.
Nazrana Bashir is also very active on Instagram and says youth often interact with her through social media and ask for help.
“People from all age groups suggest recipes that they want to see uploaded on my channel.” Her mass communication background has come very handy for this homemaker. Bashir shoots and edits all her videos herself.
“I’m doing the voice over in English but will also start in Urdu and Kashmir so the videos will cater to larger audience.”
Bashir is now planning to write a book on Kashmiri recipes because she says that she was equally surprised when she did not find any book on Kashmiri cookbook on wazwaan.
“There was some literature available but it was mostly about Kashmiri pandit cuisine. This is what is inspiring me to write a book and I have started researching for it,” she said.
The two homemakers, Tassiys and Bashir are opening a way for people across the globe to look into Kashmiri culture and learn from it as many Kashmiri citizens and others living in different countries interact with them online about a rich culture.
