A sweet legacy of Badri ko Halwai Pasal
Agency: Around 115 years ago, during the Rana regime’s peak, Kathmandu’s Rajkarnikar family owned a sweet shop. One of the family’s daughters gradually became a master at making sweets.
The Rajkarnikar family used to deliver sweets daily to the Ranas’ palace, who were fond of sweets. Over time, the daughter of the Rajkarnikar family, Nani Beti Rajkarnikar, started to receive praise from the Rana family because of her skills in making sweets.
Amid all this, she got married to a man from Lalitpur. She was occupied with household chores for some time, but later, she began to miss her sweet-making work.
Juddha Shumsher Rana, a nephew of the then Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, was also fond of the sweets made at the Rajkarnikar family’s sweet shop.
Juddha Shusher wanted to have a sweet shop near his palace, Jawalakhel. As demanded by Juddha Shumsher, one of the members, Nani Beti’s brother, went to Jawalakhel to open a sweet shop. He then wanted someone to help him in the business so he called Nani Beti. This dates back to 1909. After opening the sweet shop in the prime location of Jawalakhel, Nani Beti started to work even more. They added more sweet items. Although the general public used to visit the sweet shop less, Nani Beti used to deliver the sweets to Rana’s palace every day.
After 23 years of Nani Beti running the sweet shop, Juddha Shumsher became the eighth prime minister of Nepal, ruling the country for 13 years.
The sweet shop of Nani Beti in Jawalakhel has now become 115 years old. Currently, the fourth generation of Nani Beti is running the sweet shop. Similarly, the fifth generation is also involved in the business. After a hundred years of running the shop, it was named Badri ko Halwai Pasal.
“This sweet shop, opened by our great-grandmother 115 years ago did not have a name earlier. Back then there was no culture to name the shop,” says Kedar Tamrakar, 63, great-grandson of Nani Beti.
