00:00Well, to tell you frankly, I was not interested in running the shop.
00:07I graduated as an engineer.
00:10I was more interested in professional life.
00:13Located on Jalan, Melayu in Kuala Lumpur,
00:16Jay Hint has served Punjabi fare and traditional Indian sweets
00:20to generations of loyal customers for 80 years.
00:24And it is still going strong.
00:27Keeping the restaurant going is Bupinder Singh,
00:30a former chemical engineer who took over the business from his late father in the 1980s.
00:36When the shop was going, it was being neglected.
00:41And I quit my job and decided to take over in 1984 because of my mother.
00:47I decided to take over the shop. She was very worried about it.
00:51So I kept it going and it's not easy.
00:55It was very tough.
00:58His father, Dalip Singh, had bought the business with three partners in 1946 from its previous owners.
01:05Over the years, he gradually bought out the other partners as well.
01:11Bupinder fondly remembers playing hide and seek with friends at a mosque outside the shop,
01:16catching fish in a nearby river and sneaking tastes of the North Indian sweets being prepared at the shop.
01:23I used to work in the shop when I was about 12 years old.
01:28I never ever thought of giving up the shop.
01:30Never, that thought never crossed my mind.
01:34It was just something in me that I had to do.
01:38I had to keep it going, you know.
01:41The name, Jai Hind, must maintain.
01:49Very proud of the name.
01:51Jai Hind's enduring appeal is perhaps most evident during Deepavali, its busiest time of the year.
01:59Customers flock here for traditional favourites such as barfi, gulab jamun, coconut candy and laddu.
02:06All made using recipes handed down from India.
02:11I just love to see my customers keep coming back and I'm here.
02:15And I'll see them once a year maybe sometimes.
02:18Maybe for Deepavali alone I'll see them once a year.
02:20That's it.
02:21For me, that is the best way I can celebrate.
02:23Of course, I celebrate my workers at night.
02:25We buy the firecrackers and all that, you know.
02:28And prepare some special meals and all that for the workers.
02:32To stand here and serve and sell my sweets and make my customers happy.
02:39To me, that is my Deepavali.
