Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan’s leading independent publisher, Markings, proudly presented their award winning title Zaiqay Frontier Ke – Dera Ismail Khan Kay Bhulay Bisray Pakwan to Bhutan Queen Jetsun Pema in a private ceremony and also to audiences at a panel discussion during the sixth edition of the prestigious Mountain Echoes Literary Festival in Bhutan.

The book was well received at the literary festival by attendees, which included Dasho Benjy, Advisor Environment to the Royal Government of Bhutan, at a special dialogue session between Atul Bagai, the son of the author, Dipa Bagai, leading Indian media personality Vinod Dua and Markings CEO Kiran Aman. The talk highlighted the quintessential cross-border and cross-cultural initiative, which undeniably, exemplifies the spirit of food for peace and the preservation of culture. On the following day, Atul had the honour of presenting the book to Queen Pema and other members of the royal family at a private session.

“It has been a great honour to present our book to the queen of Bhutan and to represent our book at this coveted platform. Markings and I have been fortunate to represent our respective countries with this book at the Jaipur Literary Festival and now at the Mountain Echoes Literary Festival in Bhutan and hope these platforms make room for greater peace dialogue globally and regionally in the time to come,” Atul said.

Speaking about the international appreciation and representation of the cookbook at the Bhutan Literary Festival, Aman said, “We believe this to be much more than just a cookbook and were honoured when the Gourmand Award committee, earlier this year, recognised and honoured it as a symbol of peace and as a step towards the recognition and restoration of shared history and culture that had been divided by borders. We thank the Royal Family and the Bhutanese literary festival for also recognising the title in this same context.”

Translated as Flavours of the Frontier – Forgotten Recipes from Dera Ismail Khan, the cookbook is a pioneering Urdu-Hindi, Pakistan-India collaborative endeavour comprising an assortment of the most coveted recipes by the late Pushpa Kumari Bagai, who herself was the custodian and exponent of a very special culinary tradition – the vegetarian cuisine of the Hindu Pathans of Dera Ismail Khan.

Earlier this year, Zaiqay Frontier Ke – Dera Ismail Khan Kay Bhulay Bisray Pakwan was launched at the Jaipur Literary Festival by the leading Indian filmmaker and Urdu activist Kamna Prasad joined by esteemed Pakistani media personality Moneeza Hashmi, who is also the daughter of renowned poet, the late Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

Published by Markings, the book has a diversity of 80 recipes by Pushpa as edited in Urdu by Shanaz Ramzi with cover illustration by Ayesha Durrani, layout by Tuba Arshad, photography by Adeela Badshah, Kohi Marri, Nakul Malik and Atul and Hindi to Urdu translation by Abbas Sial.