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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Twitter reacts strongly to the shortage of Rooh Afza in India

Shortage of Rooh Afza in India causes agitation among Indian Muslim community. Pakistan offers help to meet the shortfall.

News Desk |

The Indians are reacting strongly on Twitter over the shortage of beverage Rooh Afza in India. Indians are expressing their displeasure over the unavailability of Rooh Afza, particularly the Muslim Community since the beverage is widely consumed in the month of Ramadan during Iftar.

Fretting over the unavailability of the beverage the Indian Muslims say their Iftar is incomplete without Rooh Afza. Indian Hindus are, however, recommending alternative drinks to fellow Indian Muslims. Soon Rooh Afza took to Twitter and assured its consumers that the production is in full swing and that it will soon be available in markets.

An Indian Muslim journalist, Uzair Hasan Rizvi in his tweet wrote, “In Ramzan, #RoohAfza is to Muslims what Spinach is to Popeye.”

According to a story published in an Indian publication, “the sherbet has been off the market in India for last four to five months”.

Officially, lack of raw material in India’s Hamdard laboratories has been declared reason behind the shortfall.

Some users have expressed their annoyance over people fretting over the shortage of the drink. “Replace #RoohAfza by Haldiram rose syrup. Move from Hamdard to Haldiram” a twitterati wrote.

In view of the current crisis, the CEO of Rooh Afza, Pakistan Usama Qureshi reached out to Rooh Afza India on Twitter and offered help endorsed by Senator Sherry Rehman.

Meanwhile, amid the frenzy, an Indian journalist Deepa Kurup retweeted a thread of an interesting story telling about history of Rooh Afza in subcontinent, shared on one Twitter account.

The Twitter thread stated that Rooh Afza was introduced in Indian before partition in 1906 in Delhi who belonged to the family of Unani practitioners.

Hakeem Hafiz Abdul Majeed opened a small shop in Delhi and 1906 and named the brand Hamdard, meaning ‘sympathizer’. He introduced a cooling medicinal syrup packaged in wine bottles. The owner of the brand “Hamdard Majeed” passed away in 1922 while his two sons took over his business.

The younger son, Hakim Said migrated to Pakistan during partition and started from scratch with just two rented rooms.

Hence, Hamdard and Rooh Afza are well-known in both India and Pakistan’s Muslim community.