Billing for your bakery and sweet shop in Arunachal Pradesh
Fresh bread, boxed sweets and a cake with an advance on it, counted at the counter.
From the first loaf at dawn to the cake collected on Saturday
The loaves that went out to each tea stall, and what each stall wanted
Write the loaves for each tea stall on its own page as you load the basket. The next morning you read what each stall took the day before and what it asked for later. The loading comes from the pages and not from memory, and the stall that was short is not short again.
The box sent on after Mopin or Nyokum, listed line by line on its bill
A household that wants a box to send to relatives after Mopin or Nyokum asks for laddus, a few oranges and a loaf. Write each as its own line on the bill, and the box is read back line by line. When the family orders again for the next festival, last year's bill is the list you start from.
The tea stalls' hour is not the walkers' hour
Each bill carries its time, so the dawn loaves for the tea stalls and the bread sold to walkers on the road show as two rushes. The stalls come first and the walkers later, and the second tray goes in between them, not after both.
Tools for a counter of bread, cakes and boxed sweets
Bills on your phone
A bill with a loaf, a packet of tea-time biscuits and a bun, sent to the phone in an ordinary week with no festival in it.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the family that orders a cake and buns for the Nyokum feast, with the advance on the first line and the rest written when the box is collected on the eve.
Daily reports
How many loaves went on each cold morning and each festival day, kept so the next bake is made from the numbers.
Low stock warnings
A level for sugar and flour in the festival weeks, so you open a new sack before the oven is half loaded.
Why an Arunachal bakery bakes by guess and sells by the hour
Bread carried up the hill road in a bamboo basket, with a tea stall at every bend
The loaves are tied into a bamboo basket on the back of a bike and ridden up the hill road before the first walkers. Each tea stall takes a different count, and you drop them by memory. Back at the shop a stall has phoned for more and another says it was short, and nothing was written at either bend.
Biscuits and cakes brought up from a bigger town, beside what you bake yourself
Your shelf holds what you bake at dawn and packets of biscuits and cakes brought up from a bigger town. The packets come on the same vehicle that fails in the rains, so they run out before the oven does. You find the empty row only when a customer asks, while the baked loaves look full all week.
The tea stall that waits for bread that did not come
When the road is shut and only one batch can be baked, the loaves are shared out among the tea stalls by feel. One stall gets two loaves and another none, and the baker chooses by who he saw last. When the road opens, each stall says it was the one left short, and nobody can show who got what.
Boxes, loaves and cake advances: what bakers here ask
Can I make the dawn bills for three tea stalls in one go?
Yes. Three bills take a few minutes at the basket loading, one after the other while the baskets are tied. The first basket is on its way before the third bill is done.
Do I count the boxes and paper bags as stock?
Yes, if you want to. Add each box size and the paper as an item, with the number you hold. The warning comes before the last box is used, and not when a customer is standing with a full tray.
The Nyokum box I packed last year was liked. What do I change in it this year?
Read last year's lines for what sold out and what was left, and change those first: more of the one that went, less of the other. The box keeps the same look, and the lines on the new bill are the new count.
A tea stall says it was two loaves short this morning. How do I check what I loaded?
Look at the stall's page together first. If the count still differs, take the stall's word for the morning and correct the next basket by the two loaves; a basket on the hill road cannot be counted again.
Mopin in April and Nyokum in February
Mopin, the Galo community's agricultural festival with prayers for a bumper paddy harvest, was reported celebrated across Arunachal on 6 April 2023. A paddy farmer's festival is also a family's day for a treat, and a sweet shop in a Galo town is asked for something to carry home to the guests. The sweet shop in a town where such a festival is held plans its sugar and flour round the week, and the owner who writes down what sold in one year starts the next from a number.
Nyokum, the Nyishi festival, was reported celebrated across Arunachal on 27 February 2023; Toru circle marked its 50th Nyokum and Naharlagun also held a celebration. A town with a celebration of its own counts the days before it, and a bakery in it counts the orders for those days. Between the two festivals the same shop sells bread and tea-time snacks, and the weeks without a festival are the weeks that pay its ordinary bills.