Meet Behzad and Zaerdil

This is Behzad. He hails from the Jhelum region of Pakistan and works in Doha as a tandoorwala. Behzad's been at this job for 14 years. It might not seem so from his demeanour, but it is actually 2 am in Doha at this time and Behzad started work less than two hours ago.


A tandoor is a traditional oven from the Middle East and South East Asian regions that serves to cook breador roti. In modern times, it is run by gas, but there was a time when coal or wood lined these extremely hotovens and cooked tandoor ki rotis for hungry passers-by. Behzad starts work this late at night in preparation for his morning customers who leave for work right after Fajr prayers at 5 am. Mostly workers, his customers work far away from the main city and so, take their daily bread with them when they go to work. Behzad told me that he has about four hours of work ahead of him after which he cleans up before going to bed around 8 am.

This is Zaerdil. 34 years old, Zaerdil hails from the Sialkot region and has been in Doha for nine years. He works with Behzad every night too. Together, they work alone at night all night only to sell all their rotis as soon as Fajr ends.

Here Zaerdil kneads pre-prepared into a flat circle before passing it along to Behzad who actually cooks the rotis.

The oven is extremely hot. This camera got a little unsettled for a few minutes when I held it above the oven.In Pakistan, and even here, on hot days of the summer, these men work with their shirts off, the heat is unbearable for those of us not used to it. Imagine a fire equal to about ten elements being turned on at the same time, and being encased inside a stone cave- that is the basic construction of a tandoor.

Behzad takes the dough, flattens it some more, places it on the pillow and then sticks it onto the stone wallof the oven, after a few minutes, he has a piping hot roti come out - crisp or tender depending on how long he cooks it.

You can find tandoors in every major residential area here. Actually, you can smell them from afar. The smell of freshly cooked bread wafts around the neighbourhood and many a times, smells compete for your attention. The most popular and the best tandoors are easily recognised, they gather huge crowds at lunch and dinner not to mention close to dawn too.

These guys work hard for pennies in comparison to what they put in. This is hard work, a normal man at thisjob for the first time would feel too much discomfort to even learn anything much less excel at it. Yet, this is what these men do. They support families back home, working night shifts here.