It feels like Thuwan Aariff Halideen and his wife are still as in love as they were a half century ago. They finish each other’s sentences, make googly eyes at each other, and have an instinctive sense of each other’s space. On the day after Eid, remnants of their large family are still around. They have seven children, and save for one son in Qatar, everyone else managed to make it to visit their parents for the festival.
Raising seven children wasn’t an easy task and the Halideens managed it partly through the delicious preserves they started making over 40 years ago. “Accharu (Malay pickle) and uruga (lime pickle) are what helped us raise our children, put them through school, and see them grow up to be successful,” says Fathumma. She hails from Galle, all the way down in the South of Sri Lanka, and remembers coming to Batticaloa, her mother’s hometown when she was 16. It was there that she met Thuwan.
The preserves come from an old recipe passed down through Fathumma’s family. Thuwan, whose shop, to this day, sells fruits and vegetables, would bring unsold stocks home so that she could preserve them. This made it cost effective, but it was only after her pickles became well known among friends and family that the couple realized they had a marketable product. They started selling bottled lime pickles through Thuwan’s shop, and supplied large quantities of Malay pickles (which is an essential companion to a good biriyani) to large events and functions.
The couple, who live in a predominantly Tamil village, are no strangers to coexisting. Still, the INSPIRED program introduced them to many new loyal customers among the Tamil and Sinhala community members who attended it. One of them even became an investor, facilitating a loan that was crucial for recent expansions to the business.
Ever since joining the program, the enterprising couple have received a new impetus. “The responses we got for our products at the trade fair were overwhelmingly positive” gushes Thuwan. INSPIRED introduced them to packaging techniques and approaches to large scale production that they are eager to try. He proudly shows off new marketing material he has developed, including brand new labels for his bottles. Thuwan now dreams of supplying their product to establishments across the country.