Bhubaneswar: Raja celebrations are never complete without the traditional ‘Raja Paan’. Chewing paan during the festival is a ritual and betel shop owners come up with a variety of flavours to draw customers.
The major places in Capital city where the shops sell special Raja paan are Rajmahal Square, Master Canteen Square, near Kesari talkies, Acharya Vihar, Nayapalli and Pantha Niwas.
Since these betel shops are closed owing to lockdown, the shop owners are using online route to give the paan lovers the taste of their special paans.
Ramakant Senapati of Banarasi Paan Bhandar, who started the one-of-its-kind paan app ‘www.upahar.com’ in Odisha in 2018, is selling the paans like hot cakes since Sunday.
Senapati said, “We are selling more than 100 varieties of paan including Dilkhush, Dilruba, Dil Dewane, Dilwale, Navratna and Moti Mahal and since yesterday more than 500 orders delivered.”
According to him, the prices range from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. “We are delivering the paan in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack within 4 hours of the order placed,” he said, adding that they have also collaborated with Swiggy and Zomato for the delivery of the savoury snack.
“I get the betel leaf from Kolkata and procure different masalas (ingredients) from Jaypore. Apart from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, Banarasi Paan Bhandar has branches at numerous places in the state, including Baramunda, ITR and Nimapada.”
Similarly, Prakash Chandra Sahoo of Litu Betel shop at Sahid Nagar here said, “The lockdowns and shutdowns have seriously affected paan sales but due to demands from old customers and Raja festival we were able to sell more than 2,000 Raja paans during the last two days.” Sahoo said that they are offering discounts ranging from 10-50 per cent on the orders.
PNN