BAKERY BY
Aimaan sharif shaikh

C194201

FY.BCOM {B}

    Baker (poder)

                      

The Goan Baker or rightly known to the Goans as ‘Poder’ is someone who is awaited every day for his delicious and steaming hot bread. They come daily in the mornings, afternoons and the evenings with bread on their bicycles, honking their horns. The children run to get their ‘pãos’; having it fresh and hot is the best way to savour it!

In Goa when you ask the poder to give you bread, he will ask, which one? Because Poders have a variety of bread to offer; the soft regular is pão or pav, the flat and round crisp bread with a slight layer of wheat husk is Poie, crunchy bangles called Kankna and scissored bread or katriancho pão.
                                  
Taste, texture and flavours will definitely vary in Goa as the pão from the north will be different from the pão in the south.Every village has a bakery where Goans can get their bread right from the oven. This art of bread making was first brought to us by the Portuguese, the only difference being they used toddy instead of yeast for the fermenting process. These breads (pãos) are absolute masterpieces.

This business is vital for Goans in the state as it is an important part of their daily life. But sadly in the recent years the occupation is on a decline. Dropping demand for the traditional pão, rising prices, few government incentives is making it hard for the poders to get by.

 The Poders need to be supported in their profession and they also need to be assisted economically and socially. We cannot let modernization ruin a tradition that has been a part of Goa for centuries. Poder has after all given us those cherished childhood memories of eating the pão(bread) with family.

Here’s a story of Baker (poder) who owns a bakery in curtorim:-

                   

Mr manial d costa is the owner of the bakery residing in Gandhi ward curtorim it has been 50 years. He is engaged in their occupation, this occupation of his going on generation to generation. Mr d costa’s is the 1^st one to start his baking in curtorim before he used to a lots of order for bread and now it is decreased as there another bakery started recently.In his bakery he has no workers allotted from outside to work all the work is done by their family member and they also look after selling of the bread.
                             

 They don’t have “poder” (person who sells bread house to home in his cycle /bike) to sell the bread instead all the people come near them to purchase the bread. All their work of baking starts at early in the morning at 4’0clock. They start with preparing of dough of the bread after preparing the dough and they keep the dough for some time to get fermented and then they put the bread into the furnace for baking.
      After its baked they remove out and it’s ready to sell.They make different kinds of bread like pav podi katre pav etc.Their whole family is depended on their bakery for their living.Mr D’costa and their family does get a holiday as their work is carried out through the year and has to work in all seasons whether winter, rainy, summer, etc. during heavy rains also they have to work.