Keene International Market offers taste of home to people from around world

At Keene International Market, the slogan is "All bellies welcome," and with products from more than 30 countries, it can certainly fulfill that ideal.Owner Chuda Mishra said the market can give people from around the world a taste of home."We try to focus on a little bit from all over the world," he said. "That's what makes us different, I think."Products from Japan, the Philippines and Korea can be found next to foods from Germany, Pakistan and Sweden.>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple | Google Play <<"My main goal was to bring everybody together and connect," Mishra said. "I feel like the food connects a lot of us together."If you ask Mishra where he's from, he says it's a complicated question. He proudly wears a Keene shirt, but he was born in Bhutan on the southern China border, northeast of India. At age 3, ethnic cleansing by the government forced his family to flee to Nepal, where he lived for 16 years in a refugee camp — 100,000 people living in about a square mile."So, we had bamboo huts with bamboo and a plastic roof," he said. "We had toilets that we had to share with our neighbors."He said refugees had to collect water for drinking and bathing. But he said he did have access to good schools where he learned English. At age 20, he moved to the United States with his parents and one brother. It was on that journey that he took his first-ever hot shower.Once, he made it to Laconia, where he remembers seeing snow for the first time on Nov. 26, 2009.He has held various jobs in New Hampshire here, including driving a bus and truck and as a security guard.With a wife, two daughters and the food market, Mishra said he has found his place now, bringing familiar flavors to people from all over the world."Moving to Keene, I met a lot of folks from cities or people who moved to the U.S. just like me and were desperate for food that they grew up with," he said.Mishra has a shelf full of treats from Nepal, and he said he plans to return there for a visit in August for the first time since moving to the U.S. But Keene is where his heart is now."Just to see how much excited people are to see certain things that they grew up seeing and they haven't seen in years," Mishra said. "Those things kind of make me feel special."