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"What has hidden itself in the shadows will become clear to you.” This message in the fortune cookie which Zyros Zend had just bitten into (he insists no interview with him can proceed without sampling his fortune cookie) might perhaps have been applicable to him. But it definitely augured well for us as we set out to learn more about the committed young entrepreneur and his business, Fortune Cookie India, which is turning out to be most fortunate. With more customers choosing to end their lavish functions or restaurant meals with this delicately flavored, sweet and crunchy fun food, Zend is delighted that the concept he introduced 10 years ago has already found a niche market among five star hotels, Chinese restaurants and party organizers throughout India.

"Children love my cookies,” observes Zend, mentioning how the little ones prevail upon their parents to take them to a Chinese restaurant which offers cookies rather than one which does not. "And even though it is a single cookie that is supposed to end a meal, the waiters gladly offer more, knowing that delighted children and contented parents invariably results in more tips,” reveals the cookie maker.

Within the v-shaped fold of each crisp cookie is accommodated a slip bearing a ‘fortune’ message from his data base of around 600 quotes. Not everyone though is content to pick up the readily available cookies from the shop Dew Drop at Dhobitalao. There are customers who choose to use this food medium to launch their products. He refers to HP printers, Dena Bank, courier companies, pharmaceutical companies and a TV channel using Fortune Cookies to promote their services. Young mothers on the lookout for new concepts use his cookies as birthday invites. Several wedding and navjote functions at Allbless Baug or Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy Agiary have ended with a cookie bearing a thank-you message from the hosts. One American lady placed an order for cookies wherein each day of the month she could assign a request or responsibility to her husband. This went on for six months until a new posting saw them migrate. She was hoping to carry loads of them but Zend convinced her that the good taste and texture of the cookies was meant to last not more than one-and-a-half months.

The most unusual request came from a Dadar Parsi Colony resident who wanted Zend to slip in a diamond ring with a marriage proposal in the cookie. The message read: "Your life will change in the next 10 seconds,” recalls a beaming Zend, enthused that he could play Cupid to a Parsi couple. This client is the only one who has been allowed to come near his cookie making machine, reveals Zend referring to his agonizing search for the machine in 1998. He brings in a file to show how he tried to establish contact with people in China, hoping that his correspondence in English with necessary Chinese translations would lead him to at least one manufacturer. When he heard of a major Chinese trade fair in Guangzhou, armed with some of his cookies from Bombay he even went there. Ultimately he was able to get in touch with some American manufacturers and after obtaining the rates, sent for one machine to launch his business. 

Each cookie is packaged separately with the company name in English and Chinese and the telephone numbers: 22035586, 9821025289 printed in red on the plastic wrapper. The red dot on the package (mandatory as per the food laws to indicate a non-vegetarian product) caused him to lose an important pharmaceutical client. "I had to break my head to come up with a vegetarian recipe,” he remembers the initial frustration of finding a substitute for albumin (the egg  component in his cookie) until he was finally able to make a vegetarian cookie which "looked as good and tasted almost as good.” While the eggless cookies are sold for five rupees a piece, the ones with eggs are sold for Rs 3.50 each. If a customer asks, "What is the rate per kilo?” he shoots back, "Aai kai khari biscuit chhè ké kilo par malé (Are these like the salty crusted biscuits that Indians like to dip in their tea and eat that they can be sold per kilo)?”

Preferring to mix the ingredients himself, Zend makes sure that he attends to this chore each day. He is the sole proprietor of this venture on the rationale, "I wanted one captain, one ship. I didn’t want a new concept in an old establishment (the family owned Yazdani Bakery in the Fort area).” The rest of his waking hours are devoted to marketing his product, and as a third generation Zend, sharing responsibilities along with elder brothers Zorast and Perzon, and cousin Tirandaz, in manning the cash counter at the family owned Yazdani Bakery, their shop P. K.Wines in Crawford Market and the chikoo wadis in Vangam, near Dahanu. He well remembers how his father Zend Zend doubted his sanity when he suggested that they market apple pies and rum plum cakes from Yazdani Bakery. Luckily for him his first batch of apple pies were sold within an hour of being brought out on the counter. Among the other novelties he introduced at this long-standing bakery were oatmeal and raisin biscuits, olive and focaccia bread…

He takes pride in bringing out a copy of the Lonely Planet publication, a guide to Mumbai, where Yazdani Bakery’s rum plum cakes and apple pies find a mention with a commendation, "It’s better than anything your folks are eating back home.” The baker sends for samples of the rum plum cake made in 2006 and in 2007 to show how wrapped in foil with the year marked thereon he periodically checks it out to see how long it can retain its quality.

"Full credit for this goes to Sophia College,” acknowledges Zend who did a craft course in bakery at Sophia College after graduating from St Xavier’s College. His schooling was at G. D. Somani and Cathedral and John Connon, Bombay. Continuing to maintain his ties with Sophia College he says, "They call me every year as external examiner. I give the students some sound, practical advice…” Starting a food establishment is not easy. There are clearances to be obtained… one has to deal with the Bombay Municipal Corporation officials, he lists the peripherals. And yet, there can be recognition too as attests the letter from Krishna Vatsa, secretary, relief and rehabilitation, revenue and forests department, commending Yazdani Bakery for supplying good quality bread loaves, priced at prevailing rates, to Mantralaya during the devastating floods in Bombay in July 2005. As a ham radio operator, Zend says he played a useful role in passing on vital information concerning disaster management during the floods when other modes of communication had snapped.

The thought of starting a business in fortune cookies germinated when Zyros was working for Carnival Cruise Lines in Miami, USA. Surfing on the Internet he learnt that the Chinese initiated the concept of using food as a medium to convey messages when the Mongols invaded China in the 14th century. And although believed to be a Chinese tradition, fortune cookies are actually a US invention. Makoto Hagiwara, the official caretaker of the Japanese tea garden at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco invented the cookies in 1909 and distributed them to his guests to convey his thanks.

"We have it!” declares Zend when referring to the ability among the community youth to launch out as entrepreneurs. "We just have to follow our dream.” When people enter into a contract with a Parsi they feel they are safe. "People are lucky to interact with Parsis.” With the community numbers dwindling, after some years someone from the general populace may feel honored that "mainé Bawaji sé baat kiya thaa or mainé Bawaji sé business kiya tha (I had an occasion to speak with a Parsi or do business with a Parsi).”

To see youngsters find life partners from within the community is one of Zend’s main goals in organizing the monsoon games each year where 16 teams with 14 members each (a mix of eight boys and six girls is compulsory) are brought together over three weekends to play football, volleyball and tug-of-war. In the last 10 years, the trophy for the organizers has been the dozen and more marriages that have ensued. Zend enthusiastically relates how the team compositions and free luncheon and prize incentives induce teams to spend the entire day at Rustom Baug. "I don’t want heroes coming…I want a meeting together of youth,” asserts 38-year-old Zend who is married to Daanish. They have two daughters, nine-year-old Zyraa and four-year-old Zenaida who study at J. B. Petit High School.

The fact that Yazdani Bakery is located within close proximity to two agiaries — Dadysett and Banaji Limji – brings tremendous satisfaction to Zend. He refers to his grandfather Merwan Kabir Zend who for years supplied bread and biscuits by cart from Rising Sun Bakery in Opera House up to Colaba. After five years of search for an eatery which he could purchase, fellow Iranis convinced him, "Bau rakhariyo (you have covered sufficient ground); Yazdani lai lé (buy Yazdani — which was then a restaurant and general store).” After buying over the shares from his partners, he took his sons Zend, Parvez and Rashid in the business, to be followed by the third generation.

Zyros has memories of his grandfather calling out to the men weighing khari biscuits: "Daalo, daalo; sona nahi tol rahé aap (Be generous; you are not weighing gold).” Besides generosity, there are other values too which Zyros has imbibed from his seniors: the importance of producing good quality items, maintaining friendly relations with   customers for "they are always right, sochi samji né patavanu (resolve issues amicably), instead of showing an attitude or being arrogant, be jovial and make them comfortable.” The ultimate lesson being, "We are here because of them.”