After visiting Kake-Da Hotel, I suddenly got a call from Capt. Ajay Chopra, the son of the founder of Kake-Da Hotel and we decided to meet up for a chat. He very generously offered to take me to the Taj for lunch but I said, "Why Taj? Why not Kake-Da?" He laughed and said, "Why not?" Since it was a warm afternoon, we could not sit on the pavement and went up into an air-conditioned room, crammed with people, to eat and to talk and this is what I learnt from captain Ajay Sharma. His father, Mr. Amolak Ram Chopra was the founder of the Kake-Da-Hotel. He belonged to a prosperous family, which owned lands, properties and several wholesale businesses in Lahore - now in Pakistan. The hobby of Amolak Ram was cooking, so while still a teenager, he set up his venture the Kake-Da Hotel in Lahore. A large and posh restaurant, situated on Mall road, it was a great success and the rich and famous came and relished its mouth-watering cuisine.
However, partition destroyed everything for them. Like any other Hindu Punjabi, Amolak Ram ran away from Lahore and suddenly found himself a pauper in Delhi. In fact there was an attempt to murder the whole family but the servants had alerted them about the assailants coming with swords to kill them and to loot the family's wealth. Leaving everything behind, including the chest full of gold coins and jewellery, Amolak Ram had fought his way out of Lahore. He arrived, with his wife Sukhvarsha and a toddler daughter, at New-Delhi Railway Station penniless. A kind-hearted man saw him sitting on the platform holding his head not knowing where to go and what to do. He took them to his house in Pahar Ganj and gave them shelter for as long as they wanted. Amolak Ram, his wife and daughter lived with this kindly man for a 1ong time. It was a great gesture of genuine human love and kindness. I understand after partition when migrants started arriving in Delhi, the large hearted Delhi Walla's including many merchants and lalas including Guptas, Jains and Aggarwals, threw their homes and hearths open to a lot of migrant refugees. This fact needs to be historically acknowledged and appreciated!
Mr. Amolak Ram Chopra Founder, Kake-Da-Hotel
After a while, Amolak Ram found some work in Sadar Bazaar and moved to live in Sadar Bazaar in a small attic room. However, he kept in touch with the kindly gentlemen who gave him shelter first, till the very end and regularly called on him even after making it big. Meanwhile, Shri I. K. Gujral, an ex-patron of Kake-Da Hotel in Lahore, became the Chairman of N.D.M.C. It was he who helped in allotting a small bunk stall (khokha) to Amolak Ram in Connaught place. Once again Amolak Ram hung his board Kake-Da Hotel and got started. It was the first authentic Punjabi Dhaba in Delhi and cooked all the Punjabi delicacies. The place was an instant success in post partition scenario of nostalgia
and grief, especially among the migrants. The rich and poor came, from far and wide, to have a meal there. The secret of Amolak Ram's success was that he tried to keep the quality high and the prices low.
Amolak Ram used to come early in the morning, personally buy all the vegetables, meat, poultry and condiments and cook the entire stuff. It was quite a lot of work keeping in view the popularity of the place. He was so kind hearted and generous that when he learnt that his two younger brothers, who had also arrived from Pakistan, were not doing well, he gave them a share in his shop and allotted them evening shift. He was so charitable that he fed at least twenty poor people each day. The food (both veg. and non-veg.) was packed instantly for them in leaf plates and handed over. He also fed over hundred persons, once a month, on the day of full moon. He became prosperous very quickly and bought a home at New Rohtak Road. As time went by it became a three storey family mansion where the entire extended family lives even today. After coming to India he begot four sons and another daughter. Two of his elder sons have passed away and his third son Capt. Arun Chopra, an ex-army officer, now looks after the affairs of hotel.
Arun had joined the army because his father, a freedom fighter, wanted at least one of his children to become an army officer. He loved the army and gave up very reluctantly when his father died but continues to maintain close links with the army. He wants to keep up the good work and reputation built up by his father. He does not cook as his father used to do but relies on old chefs and cooks trained by his father like Karm Chand (Karma) and Roshan Lal, who have been with them since 1948. One of his father's Head Cooks, Amir Chand just died on the 10th of January 2001, after serving the Kake-Da Hotel for over good 50 years.
Like his father, Capt. Arun Chopra wants to keep the quality high and the prices low. For this reason all the neighbouring hotels accuse him for holding the price line. Recently when everyone in the neighbourhood wanted to sell a platter costing 60 bucks for 65 bucks Arun refused to toe the line. He feels when price of meat, poultry or ghee (by the way everything in Kake-Da is cooked in pure ghee) have not gone up then why the price of a dish should be increased. While everyone went ahead and increased the price, the Kake-Da has been maintaining the old price. The problem is that Kake-Da being on the pavement on a land belonging to NDMC has not been able to expand to accommodate its ever-rising clientele. It is hoped that in the near future, NDMC may sell the shops to the leaseholders, which alone would enable the shops to be improved. Even though business is good as usual, Arun is sad that the poor feeding has stopped after the death of his father. However, the family undertakes a lot of charity work especially for the orphanage next door.
Arun is disciplined and visits the hotel at least once a day and makes it a point to eat something (his way of quality control for hundreds who eat there). He feels flattered when somebody stays in Hyatt Regency but dines at Kake-Da Hotel. Many foreigners come looking for the place and are disappointed to see the unimpressive exterior but once they taste the food they are immensely pleased. This is what motivates Arun towards keeping up the quality. He is also very proud of the fact that hotel has been patronized in the past by a whole lot of dignitaries, film stars, cricket-players, politicians and ministers. Apart from the past PM, I K Gujral, the present PM Shri Atal Bihari Bajpai, also used to visit Kake-Da Hotel very frequently, his favorite dish being brain curry. t times he would decamp with a pot full of curry. Ex-defense Minister George Fernandez came to eat
People eating at Kake-Da-Hotel
mutton-spinach. AFilm star Dharmendra used to be served in his car in the parking lot for the fear of being mobbed. However, Mamta Kulkarni sits boldly on the pavement and eats unmindful of the mob. In a nutshell, the generations of stars from Dev Anand to Rishi Kapoor, have loved the food from Kake-Da. So next time in Delhi you can also join the rich and famous, to visit this modest looking place, to eat great food.