Prasad Joo Khan

Prasad Joo Khan was born in 1883 in village Hawal , Tehsil

Pulwama then district Anantnag . mission in the valley in

early 1900’s. He however lost interest in the job and opened

a small general store in village Shermal His father Ganesh joo

and grandfather, Sahib Khan were Patwaris in that area.

Prasad joo also started as a Patwari and was a member of the

team of Sir Lawrence which was on a land measuring near

Shopian which was also his place of work as a Patwari. Later

he gave up the job and concentrated on the store. This store

was later shifted to his own village Hawal. This store would

sell everything from hardware, cloth, tea leaves, herbs,

common medicines, Kashmiri bread, kiryana, stationary etc.

It was a supermarket of the present days.

People from neighbouring villages would also come to buy

things from this shop, which was a retail as well as a whole

sale shop. He however handed over the shop to his sons and

took a retirement at the age of 50 years. He was very good in

reading and writing Urdu and Persian and was deeply

religious. Prasad Joo was a very good and a generous host.

He used to entertain the Sadhus who used to come annually

for Yatras including Amar Nath Jee Cave. Well known

personalities of those times including senior judges and

luminaries on their way to Shopian and neighbouring places

would invariably spend the night at his house. The building

which he built was the most imposing structure in the village,

visible from a distance. On the Shivratri Salaam, day he

himself would give monetary gifts to the villagers who would

make a bee line in front of his house. Villagers used to come

to him for advice regarding all the important matters like

their children’s jobs, education, marriages etc. He used to

spend his time with his friends at his house and was fond of

having hukkah in Kashmiri style with children being around

pressing his back and legs from time to time. The Gurujee of

the family used to come often and he had built a special

small room from prayers where he used to pray every day in

the morning.

He passed away peacefully without any major illness in year

1965 at the age of 82 years leaving a legacy of 7 sons and 3

daughters all well settled in various parts of NCR and

Srinagar.