Meet The Man Who Serves Kahwa Shots

Interview by Insha Mir

Tell us about yourself and Moozins?

I am Mohsin Malik from Srinagar. After completing Bachelors in Information Technology, I worked for IBM in New Delhi for eight years. The urge to do something of my own and family compulsion made me to return back to Kashmir. I had a great passion to open up a fast food joint of my own someday. When i was in Delhi, me and my friends went out to look for places but due to job constraint the idea couldn’t mature. At that time, I didn’t have any specific idea to go for a pizza shop. Ultimately, the death of my father in 2013 forced me to leave the job in Delhi and take care of family in Kashmir. When I came back, I was very skeptical what I’ll do there. I would have gone for a job as I had a good experience but I wanted to start something of my own, having that passion. And I took the decision to open up Moozins, an exclusive pizza shop, in the beginning of this year at Kara Nagar. That’s how Moozins actually started. It is located in the heart of the city, yet far from the madding crowd with awesome menu and equally awesome service.

Do you any background in food industry?

Not at all, a foodie maybe I can say.

We have so many pizza outlets here, right? Then why a pizza shop?

Being someone who has stayed outside and that too in a metro, I have seen the food culture there. People go out but here we have no such culture in Kashmir. People here are living a disturbed life, and I wanted to do something about the food culture.
We definitely have so many options, but now there is Moozins, an addition or we can say an extra option to the people. Lot of people especially of this locality don’t find it easy to go there, at least they have an option now.

Why Moozin’s?

Why not Moozin’s? Well! It’s a very funny story. When I was in training, I had to fill up the name of the unit in the form. There was a guy who was with me in the training. He told me if he was Mohsin, he would have named his restaurant as MOZINS. And I wrote down MOZINS. After that, I had to design the logo, and one of the designers gave me the logo with name ‘MOOZINS’ although I didn’t like it but I took the name. The name was very much appreciated. Some people thought it sounds Italian.

What were the bottlenecks you faced in starting up?

The first challenge for any business is to get started and Alhamdulillah! I got started in a better way. ‘If you take a step, you have to show courage’. After getting started, the biggest challenge was to arrange the money. A good friend informed me about JKEDI. I joined and received the training in 2015. Unfortunately, there were floods in 2014 and then an attack on the building as a result my project got delayed for 2years. The second constraint was to find a place. I went to many places but they were very expensive and finances were also limited. After I explained my project to JKEDI, they helped me not only financially but polished my entrepreneurial skills. An amount of 8.5 lakhs was sanctioned, rest I had to manage. Then, I saw this place and I thought maybe it will work.

What keeps you ahead of others outlets? And what new Moozin’s is offering. Is it the same of or following the line?

Lot of people who come here, they say the pizza quality is better than others. No definitely, it’s not following the line. I have planned to have a very strong delivery system. People shy away going to restaurants especially with families but they want to have the food like outside people do. My idea for that is to use Bicycle instead of bikes. So, I want to go eco-friendly and set up a chain. Just after some minutes of receiving an order, we send it for delivery. To give home delivery a kick start, we are delivering to the adjoining areas of kara nagar but I’m planning to extend it to all over Srinagar in my next phase.

How Moozin’s represent Mohsin?

“Moozins represent the dream of Mohsin”. The moment we opened doors for public, I thought Mohsin is just a servant. A lot of people who work here for common masses, I’m one among them.

Do you think Moozins is giving a tough challenge to other?

Kehwa shots are something nobody serves in the entire world. We offer three types of kehwas: Saffron, Ginger and Lemon. They are served in special glasses.  Shots are my own specialty and have become my USP. This is how I’m going to represent my Kashmir. It is definitely giving a tough challenge. We have 30 different varieties of pizzas in veg and non-veg that include Plain cheese, Margarita, Simple veg, Mo veg, Mix veg, Veg Makhani, American heat, Yum-Dum pizza, Mexican delight and many more. I bring different types of cheese from outside and Moozin’s is the only place which serves smoke cheese pizza. We have our own special pizza wherein we use three layers of chicken- Salami, Sausage; the third is special made chicken and much other stuff in veg also. My aim is to sustain in quality, provide good food to the people of Kashmir, because Good food relieves tension. At least for that particular time I am giving happiness to people.

Any message for the budding entrepreneurs?

Not to lose courage. If you have any dream, believe in that dream. It’s a life in itself. Give your dream a life. Because of some little obstacles we often give up and don’t follow that, but you never know how close you are.

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