Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandi : The Dual Story of Kolkata’s Sweets!
In 1844, Girish Chandra Dey established this sweet shop. He used to be specialized in making sweets only from ‘Sandesh’ and absolutely no other ‘rosher mishti’ and hence, he started the production of sweets only out of sandesh. Soon, Nakur Chandra Nandi, the son-in-law of Girish Chandra Dey joined his business to bloom a flourishing sweet business in British Kolkata. The shop has been witness to many great historical events like the independence of India. It has supplied specially hand-made sweets to various celebrities like during Aiswarya Rai Bachan and Abhishek Bacchan’s wedding, during when Kolkata Night Riders won the IPL 2014, etc. It has been an expertise in sandesh since its establishment and has been one of the most reputed sweet shops of North Kolkata.
I had a short interview with Partha Nandi, the youngest active descendent of the Nandis. Here is what we talked about!
Q. Tell us a little about the history of this historic shop in your own words.
This shop was established in 1844 and started first by Mahish Dey. His only son was Girish Chandra Dey. Girish Chandra Dey’s only daughter was married to Nakur Chandra Nandi. From then, the shop is famous as Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandi. No one from Girish Chandra Dey’s family exists today and we are the fifth generation of Nakur Nandi.
Q. Why do you think the shop is famous?
Good question! From my perspective, the shop is famous for its quality. Secondly, if you go to any other shop, you will see that they don’t only make sandesh , they make nonta and rosher mishti also with which they fill up their counters but our shop makes so many varieties of only sandesh which I don’t think any other shop makes. We don’t have rossogolla or dahi but only different types of sandesh. We do a lot of experiments on sandesh. I don’t know whether you have tried out, we have an item called singara made of pure sandesh which other shops make with maida and potatoes. We have made a purely different singara by making an outer layer of sandesh and the inner layer with dry fruits.
Q. Which famous personalities have taken sweets from this shop?
See, there were and are many such personalities. Previously, there wasn’t so much of a security problem and they used to come by themselves to take sweets. Now, the main problem is security, so no one comes alone but send people and take the sweets. When anyone from foreign countries comes to West Bengal, the government takes sweets from us to give them. Even, in the marriage of Aiswarya Rai and Abhishek Bacchan, the sweets were delivered from our shop and even Rituparna Ghosh herself ordered sweets from our shop. When KKR won the IPL Trophy, the sweets for celebrations went from our shop. If the quality is good, everyone will come to take it. This is crystal clear!
Q. You are co-ordinating such a huge and renowned sweet shop of Kolkata, so you regularly come across hurdles. According to you what is the biggest one and how do you overcome it?
If in this industry, there is some hurdle, then it’s obviously labour and nothing else! A time will come when there will be no labour and sweet shops will have to make every sweet in machines. The industry will soon be mechanized. At that time, this wonderful taste of sweets will get vanished. In Kolkata, 99% of the shops now make chana bata in machines, but still we have kept it manual because the texture of sandesh and the paks will never be of the same dazzling quality. Machinery will never be able to solve the problem.
Q. What are some of the best-selling sweets in your shop?
We try so that no matter which sweet the customers consume, they will be at least happy. Now someone likes kesar over dana, that’s a different case! (laughs) I won’t name any sandesh, but traditional sandesh sell more than others.
Q. What’s your last message to the readers and writers of Medium?
Eat mishti more! (laughs) It’s quite a better thing to eat than junk food. At least it won’t harm the body. But, obviously eat in a limited manner and grow up to be a true human!
