The Gazetteers Department

The most frequent sight in a busy locality like the bus stand. the railway station, the bazar, the cinema houses, etc., is that of a pan shop surrounded by a group of customers.

Pan and bidi shops were fairly distributed in the town and were also established in villages. Generally every shop has polished brass bowls for chuna and kath and brass plate where betel leaves are arranged.

The pan-bidi shops are of two types. The first category comprises shops that sell prepared pan-pattis, bidis, cigarettes, matchboxes and some articles of daily use, such as, soap, agarbatti, tooth paste, tooth powder, post cards and postal envelopes, besides a few petty medicines like, aspro, anacin, etc. The other type of shops are those that sell only loose betel-leaves, betel-nuts and other ingradients of pan, besides other articles mentioned above.

In the case of a big unit, the amount invested in fixed capital was about Rs. 2,000. It is mostly locked-up in decorative mirrors, nut crackers, containers for various articles, pots for chuna and kath, a bucket to store water for cleaning betel-leaves, etc. A big shop frequently maintained a radio-set and had tube-light fixtures. In case of medium and small units decorative mirrors, radio-sets, etc., were rarely found.

The main accessories consist of betel-leaves, betel-nuts, tobacco leaves and powder, lime, catechu, cloves, cardamoms, copra (dried cocoanut), sweet fennel, different varieties of jarda, and other ingradients of the pan including items of masala to make the pan either sweet or astringent to suit the taste of the consumer.

These shops whether big or small sell various kinds of pan pattis, such as, plain i.e. with catechu, lime and betel-nut with tobacco and those containing other masala which is generally sweetened.

The daily turnover of these shops depended upon their location and ranged between Rs. 4 and Rs. 5 in case of small units and Rs. 30 in case of big units. The medium units earned a daily income of about Rs. 15 to Rs. 20.

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