By Ramesh MathewPerhaps no bakery in the city is as busy in the couple of hours before Iftar as a newly-relocated outlet close to the roundabout on the Dewan road, opposite Shahra Kahraba.Braving the scorching heat outside, scores of faithful, including families, line up every day in front of the shop for taking home Qathif, an Arabic pancake, as the time for breaking the Ramadan fast approaches.Sadia Bakery, more than 50-years-old, was located until a few years ago in Shahra Kahraba before moving to the new location, retaining its patrons despite the move. “For most of those coming to our shop, it has been more of a tradition to break their Ramadan fast with Qathif prepared in our bakery,” said Ahmed Ali, who is perhaps the most familiar face among its staffers to the shop’s regular customers.A middle-aged Qatari national, waiting for his turn to collect the pancake, recollected coming to the place as a small child accompanied by his grandfather. “At my home in Madinat Khalifa, Qathif made at this bakery is a must at Iftars,” he said. While remembering coming to the bakery at its previous location as a school boy, the Qatari customer recollected that there were many similar outlets operated by Iranians in Shahra Kahraba some 25 years ago. “However, to my knowledge only this bakery has survived the business challenges over the years.”As the crowd grows bigger in the Ramadan evenings, those preparing the bread too are engrossed wholly in their work, handling too many jobs like mixing, preparing and packing Qathif in boxes one after another to be delivered to waiting customers .A closer look at the shelves helps one get the real feel of the numerous Ramadan delicacies popular among locals. However, the staffers vow that there’s nothing at their shop that is as demanding as this bread. “Qathif may also be prepared elsewhere in some city outlets and others in its outskirts but certainly this is one place where maximum people come to buy it during the Ramadan,” says Ahmed Ali.The shopkeeper said they had a tough time getting a proper place to relocate their shop after the previous one was demolished a few years ago. The shop was operated for some time at a small outlet elsewhere after the first one was demolished. Ali said the reloaction to a site very close to the shop’s original location had also helped them regain most of its loyal Qathif customers. “People wanted us back in this area where we started and we are now where we ought to be,” said Ali, while packing a big plastic container with Qathif.