Kashmir’s traditional wedding chefs, popularly known as ‘waza’, have decided to stop serving the elaborate multi-course wazwan after 10 pm, citing long working hours and poor treatment at wedding functions.The decision was taken unanimously at a meeting held at a marriage hall in the Rajouri Kadal area of Srinagar. The chefs said they had been forced to work under difficult conditions for years, particularly because wedding feasts often get delayed by the late arrival of the groom and his relatives.Ghulam Nabi Waza, president of the Kashmir Waza Association, said the community had remained silent about its working conditions for too long.“It takes several hours to prepare the dishes, and usually we work late into the night. Then we are expected to start serving lunch from around 1 pm till 6 pm, which is followed by dinner, which starts well into the night,” Waza told news agency PTI.He explained that the situation becomes even more difficult when chefs are hired to prepare food at the bride’s house. They often have to wait until the groom and his wedding party arrive, sometimes well past midnight, before they can begin serving the feast.“There have been incidents where the maulvi left without solemnising the nikah because the groom did not turn up till 1 am. We are also humans. So we now set the 10 pm deadline,” Waza said.Waza also criticised the growing trend of guests arriving late for wedding celebrations and urged people to change what he described as a bad habit.
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“There are so many people attached with the wazwan, and they too have the right to dignified working hours,” he added.Other chefs at the meeting also raised concerns about how they are treated by wedding hosts. One of them said they are often not given proper arrangements to rest despite working for long hours.“For example, we are not provided a proper place to sleep. We work long hours and need some time to rest before we prepare ourselves for the next day’s gruelling routine. The hosts should take care of that aspect,” the chef said.