Blink issue 93 november07 2015

THE BROS OF BIHAR Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar are giving Modi and the BJP a run for their money in an election that promises to be a turning point p4 saturday, november 7, 2015

ďŹ kmik/shutterstock

Cooking is as much about doing, as it is about reading and remembering. It is the centrepiece of a festival, bringing together family memories, eloquent recipe writers, even helpful bloggers perched on our countertops p7 - 21

Page to pan to plate

MONUMENT’S MAN On the trail of a historian who documented 400 medieval ruins 55 years ago p2

BUZZ FEED Test your GK with a quiz about food and drink and the places they are associated with p24

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Heaven and earth The Throne Verse (Ayat Al-Kursi) in the form of a calligraphic horse, from 16th-century Deccan wikicommons

THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Keepers of ancient peace 400, not forgotten Then and now (Top, left and right) Chilla Nizamuddin and Kilokri tomb as they were when Japanese historian Matsuo Ara visited them 55 years ago; (bottom) their present-day facades photos courtesy naoko fukami

rohit gupta

In modern scientific discourse it is considered anathema to discuss religion, yet it is from religious speculation that science has gained much In Delhi, a group of intrepid Japanese researchers are taking a roll call of the medieval legend goes that when the Persian “...heat, previously considered to be a material Prescott Joule stated in 1847 the spiritual immonuments that were mapped bythan a fellow countryman-historian than poet Sadi of Shiraz visitedpainstakingly the flour- substance, is none other an irregular mo- plications of the new law:more “Thus it is that order ishing temple of Somnath in the tion of the most minute particles of a body, is maintained in the universe — nothing is dehalf a century ago 13th century, he was astonished to

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see an idol that moved in response to prayers.

It dawned upon him soon that the priests had e meet at 9am automaton sharp. The cheated by hiding a mechanical team of five Japanese explorinside it. ers arerecount ready — this with episode cap, waSeveral historians bottle by and wet—wipes — in from Bustan (Theter Garden) Sadi a popular the lobby Sumitra inn, located in the back subject of of illustration in the Mughal period. lanes of Thapar Delhi’s Safdarjung Development Romila even suggests that Sadi Area. may Two are bespectacled students ofZoroastrians Hindi at Jahave confused fire-worshipping waharlal Nehru University. is an be aswith idolator Brahmins, butThe we third can never sistant professor of architectural sure what transpired — since Sadihistory himselfand is the fourth Yamane, narrator. professorNevertheat Osaka known to beisanSounreliable University’s of Language and less, it wouldGraduate have beenSchool great sacrilege to turn Culture. and Ipuppet get talking.

Or more your deityYamane into a mere who dances to precisely, reels What out phrase in the pull ofhe strings. kind ofafter Godphrase moves at the whim most and perfectly-woven I stare the command ofHindi, earthlyand priests?

If open-mouthed.

Hiswould speechnot is that the haveit were a real God, the of whole Unilis of move Lucknow, wheretopigeons flutter in the verse according his omnipotent Will? corridors, ittar lurks in the and tehzeeb The anecdote above is air interesting to isusa way of life.

Moved by the ghazals of Mir Taqi mainly because it resonates with the central Mir, he started learning in his twenties dilemma of science in theUrdu 17th and 18th centuand In hashis been teaching it forTo close to 20A.years. ries. book From Galileo Newton, RupHe Hall evendescribes writes histhe ownconundrum couplets and has “… recitert thus: if ed them at the annual mechanical mushaira Jashn-e-Bahar. the universe is wholly God has no This in interaction in the lobby providesthen the propart it; if God controls the universe it is logue to the kindnor of day I am about to have.

It not mechanical governed by laws.”

The wouldand make Indiana Jonesofproud.

It is ascience day of birth development modern tracking, exploring and chronicling, as rich in happened in the Christian world, and it was adventure is in discovery. natural thatasaituniversal law — such as NewtoI accompany the four nian gravity — would beJapanese seen as aresearchers, manifestaled by the indomitable Naoko direction of divine will. Almost every Fukami, new scientific tor of the Society for the Promotion notion wasJapan simultaneously analysed from of a Science, Cairo, onview. a monument hunt. Armed religious point of with only 55-year-old map created byby a the cerAfter theamacrocosmic orbits defined tain historian named the to team force of gravitation, the Matsuo attentionAra, shifted inaims to and map microscopic 400 medievalphenomena. monuments of Delvisible Carlo hi over twowrites years.in Their project — awkwardly Cercignani his biography of Ludwig titled ‘Urban The Development Heritage PresBoltzmann, Man WhoandTrusted Atoms:

which collide one against another. This mo- ranged, nothing ever lost, but the entire mation cannot be observed directly, because the chinery, complicated as it is, works smoothly particles themselves are invisible…” and harmoniously ... the whole being governervation Delhi: Re-evaluation of ed This In 1819, of theHistoric French experimental physicists obliteration of heritage by the sovereign will of God.” is a poignant Mission Clément for Indianand History and Archaeology, Nicolas Charles-Bernard Desreminder of the importance of Fukami’s work.

Religious ideas are indeed prototypical University of Tokyo, in 1959-60 andheat: 1961-62’— ormes imagined a universe without “Not models In India,ofwe cast nary a sideward glance at our the universe, and should be subject has awould simplethere mission.

They wishlife to see howdisthe to only be no more in this cultural inheritance. get Espebullthe same scrutiny asMonuments scientific ideas.

400 universe... monuments over of time.

In- cially mal buthave alsoevolved movement every dozed,the stepwells sealed, are deschoolsare that denyhammams the existence of tach would is also helping them the process. kind have ceased oninEarth.

There would God molished.

To catalogue and document 400 altogether share something in common Ara, be Japanese historian ofno Indian HistonoProf longer an atmosphere, rivers, no with monuments an exercise only in God dilimodern isscience.

Islamnot holds that ry and South Asian and History, passed away in gence but also seas; motionlessness death to acknowledge cannot be depictedand in memoriala human 2008. Fluent in Urdu, he visited would be everywhere.”

Heat Delhi 55 years ise what was.

Ara’s detailed map is sound not just asan form, a reasonably ago and created that a detailed was something couldmap not that provided individual’ssumption research project, but rather it is considering the intertheseen, location of the monuments. be and yet it was universal There were al- also like a pop-up which stellarbook heavens areconjures too largeup tothe be Religious ideas are history sofrom detailed notes forofeach — the ownership, — the warmth human medieval of the Fukami’s controlled by acity. creature withwork only indeed prototypical function, status, matetouch to the fire features, that raged in payslimbs. heed Or to the Delhi four the structures Vedantic school models of the rials,Sun, statetoofthe preservation the oxidation and of little timewhich for. By tracking ofhasMimamsa, speculated universe, and should date. Fukami and“the her oil team use blood, which was in the downthe each of themofwith sinabout existence onlythe a perbe subject to the Ara’s of documentation as comflame life”. cerity of a hound on a hunt,God, her sonal (and not cosmic) Built during 1191same scrutiny as pass and lodestar to track each Instead of the pure, geometgroup literally brings monuamong the many colourful varie1526, someideas of these scientific of those 400 monuments. ric movement of the planets in ments back from the dead. The ties of Hinduism. edifices have now The task is rather monumenpristine curves — the movepetite historianthe says, “In Japan, Or consider philosopher become homes, tal, asofmany these ment heat of from onestructures body to you wouldn’t find 400 medieval Boethius, who wrote The Consolacomplete with TV have been obliterated, another revealed that energy enin monuments, but in 523, India not of Philosophy in AD which sets and clotheslines tion croached upon,was or rendered unthe universe always conserved, even greatly influenced many people are interested in medieval Christian recognisable.

Some ofone these though it changed from form to another. thought. He their heritage.” wondered about the possibility structures dating backoftohistory, the one of the that mankind could By a strange—coincidence In two we set liveautorickshaws in peaceful harmony Delhi sultanate have pioneers in the (1191-1526) science of —heat was named af- if only it emulated off for Kilokri tomb, located bethe stars. “If you wish to disnow become complete with ter the Persianhomes, poet we met earlier.

Intelevision his work cern tween thelaws wideofspan the and Mathura Road and the the of high mighty God,” sets, scooter parked out- wrote on theclotheslines efficiency ofand heata engines, Sadi Carnot the carefully neighbourhood of Boethius topiaried in his last days, even though in side. Whileapeople prove of the aMaharani uncovered principle of helpful nature most that would Bagh. warm prison — “... lookWith up toathe roofsmile, of the Yamane highest time,assume they can turn irritable when strangers later cosmological proportions — un- heaven. approaches chaiwallahs and kabariwallahs to There the stars, united by just agreetramp through their new doorways, leashing an entirely varietysays of Fukami. religious ment, find out thethe location of the tomb.Thus His impeccakeep ancient peace… the muEven as the project is underway, the find- tual speculations. ble Hindi immediately warms movement people towards love governs their eternal and ings till date scientific are grim.discourse Hundred itand twenty the In modern is considthis motley We walk through narrow but war ofcrew. discord is excluded from the eightanathema monuments have been all and but yet demolered to discuss religion, it is bounds well-cemented gallis, past shops selling keof heaven.” ished,the including oneofthat cannotspeculation be located babs and rotis. Kyota Yamada, with a PhD in Infrom fountain religious gupta explores the history of science fromscience the map. are in ruins, swalthat hasTwenty gainedthree so many harvests.

An- rohit do-Dutch architecture (he has spentasmonths t @fadesingh lowedmajor up either by urban sprawls or nature. other figure of thermal physics, James Compasswallah in Nagapattinam, Colombo and Kochi), no-

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Losing out The nala in Taimoor Nagar, along which the team traversed looking for the Kilokri bridge recorded in the dated photo below (left)

Tell all So Yamane and Naoko Fukami stop to ask residents for directions to the monuments nandini nair

tices the tiled facades of the houses and realises it is a sign of recent prosperity. We continue down the alleyways, stopping to unfurl the map and show residents the original photos of the monument. After 15-20 minutes we hit our destination — the 700-year-old tomb.

Immediately, Fukami and Yamada get down to work. They take detailed measurements of the structure and compare it to the original. A trained architect, Yamada effortlessly draws

the blueprint, even while standing. They con- cient bridge. A stench rises, the sun beats clude that this Islamic complex consists of a down, water bottles run dry. I ask Yamada if medieval domed monument, the tomb of Sai- these conditions make their work hard. He anyid Mahmud Bihari and a new mosque. While swers with Zen-like fortitude, “It is not more the original arches have been demolished, the difficult than working in Japan. It is just differshapes (square base, octagonal drum and ent.” The juggi jhopdis thin out and open into dome) and the petal-shaped kangura (motifs) a bramble-filled vacant lot, where a few Jat remain unchanged. women cut wood for fire and young men gamEven though much of the original structur- bol under leaking water pipes. Fukami stops es might have vanished, the complex is well- to examine each brick along the way, but mutmaintained because of the efforts of Abdul ters sadly to herself, “Not old, not old.”

Haziz Haji Sahib. The gracious caretaker tells Our next destination is Chilla Nizamuddin, us, over little cups of chai, that four genera- north of Humayun’s tomb. We locate this tions of his family have looked after the com- monument rather easily as it is just a short plex. Using contributions from the walk from the Capital’s premier landmark. neighbourhood he has repaired parts of the Chilla Nizamuddin is easy to find yet visited tomb, sourcing iron from the loonly by devout worshippers and cal kabariwallah. While this wandering felines. The Delhi Walmight not please historians, it la, the city’s favourite blogger, safeguards the building against writes, “the chilla, or retreat, of The gracious the vagaries of time. caretaker tells us that Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya is Delhi’s most serene monument.” I With the recce complete, the four generations of couldn’t agree more. The group team makes its way to Taimoor his family have sets to work at once, measuring, Nagar, past the Meerabai Instilooked after blueprinting and comparing. tute of Technology, in search of the complex They find the building has been the Kilokri fort and bridge. A whitewashed and a new grill hookah panchayat appears to be shutter added, but the original in session in Taimoor Nagar and structure remains. And the damthe men of the community take a breather from their inhalations and exhala- age to the chajja (sunshade) at the east façade tions to gawk at the adventurers. They huddle has been repaired authentically. Everyone around Yamane’s printouts, which show the pauses a few moments to observe the numerbridges as Ara had found them. The eagerness ous cats purring in the nooks and to ask the of the elders does not match their knowledge. resident fakir about the many rings on his They point to the black-and-white drawings hand. It is early evening, but work for the day and exclaim that they remember playing un- is not done.

The group has so far documented 234 monder the bridges as children, but are unable to uments that still exist and 23 others that are in offer any more information.

A fetid drain choked with plastics, home to ruins. Over a hundred monuments across Delpigs, and dark with flies runs along the length hi still await Fukami’s visit so that they can of Taimoor Nagar. The historians however re- once again be brought into reckoning. main undeterred and walk along it to make doubly sure there are no remnants of the an- nandini nair

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See and draw Prof Kyota Yamada draws the blueprint of structures within minutes

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Challengers to the throne

dipankar

The seasoned duo of Lalu and Nitish have run circles around the BJP in an election that will prove to be a turning point in the national political discourse

Turkey in Hyderabad Cooking a grand Thanksgiving meal in India can be a jittery experience, fraught with all kinds of anxieties

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t’s hard growing up as a second-genera- ing down a list of NRI-geared grocery stores, poor thing’s wing propped the door ajar. tion immigrant in America; everyone we were finally ready: turkey, stuffing, cran- Things were cooking, but it did not look like chooses: more-Indian and less-American berry sauce, cornbread, sweet potato pie, an episode of Masterchef… or even Masteror less-Indian and more-American. So beans, and mashed potatoes would be made. chef Junior. I decided we had come too far to while some days are more dal chawal, others Then began the true test of my commit- abandon the meal; especially since I had given are mostly burgers and fries. And while I am ment to this dinner: grocery shopping. I went the cook the day off and there was no back-up happy toNitish eat Hyderabadi biryani days of from store to store crucialprocession) ingredients The icing Kumar is the face of the364 campaign, the dulha (bridegroom) of a seeking baraat (marriage pti meal or fund to pay for takeout. I told myself the year, I, like many of my fellow Americans, whilst desperately showing the store clerks that as long as everything was cooked, it must have turkey on Thanksgiving. So every images of the items I wanted, many times to would be fine; they didn’t have high expectafourth November, mycrowd ritual outhas no avail.

TheKumar. turkeyThe wasfact easily t isThursday late in theinevening but the for the meal right? ter — Nitish thatlocated, socialistsbut of tions mobilisation andanyway, invoking sentiment. He been side the same.

Comb Road the newspaper good small in Congress comparison to its American 10 Circular shows nofor signs of quite My fears unfounded.

The turkey was all hues and the are coming together knows whatwere connections to make and what Blackthinning.

Friday deals, feign interest in and football, stuffing,is corn (for stroncorn- cooked Khadi-clad politicos ven- counterpart; to perfection; heavenshows that thethe opposition becoming memories to evoke; forthe thestuffing benefitwas of his rustic and then the minutes I can gorge andthe potatoes be mashed) ly; dorscount who trade peanutsuntil and roasted cha- bread), the vegetables as good as vegetables ger in beans, arguably most (to politically-savvy supporters as well were as a group of English-speakmyself on a the traditional Thanksgiving easily found, the cranberry sauce na discuss respective prospects dinner. of their were and I was incredibly proud myself. province in the Hindibut heartland.

For Modi and can ing be, journalists from Delhi. He has of seized on By ainstroke fate and (good sweet potato proved leader the bigofhouse the airfare rival BJP,deal), whichI and My grandmother even made one the BJP, success inpie Bihar is justimthe kind of am- RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comments about found myself an in Hyderabad around Thanks- possible find.is needed to counter what they reservation to has shown intimidating resoluteness ofcounter her famous pies, so munitiontothat what heapple believes is the giving last year, and I was determined to recre- largely I arrived exhausted and propaganda BJP’s time-tested through the campaign. whilestrategy I was initially about viewhome as elitist/left/liberal to createsad a HinduateAsthe American football, a bit wetradition, walk in — sans the guards barely botherfor to more not having sweet potato pie, it againstthan them.

BJPfrustrated Presidentbut Amit Shah has Muslim divide during elections.

I strongly we badmas my extended family.

My atmosphere idea of cooking an ready to cook without further check the invasion — the suddenwas hai not yeh missed.

LaterSab that evecontemptuously dismissed the rising chorus believe “Bahut BJP wala.

HinduThanksgiving American mealYadav was stands received As I beganbeef to lay ly becomesThanksgiving lighter. Lalu Prasad in obstacles. when family against intolerance, ban,out threatchoose to India’s Muslim karnening ka kosis karmy raheentire hain (The BJP of is year after ascunning. it is 20-plus with wide eyes and light laughter.

My greatingredients doublethe middle of his courtyard in a white dhoti the syncretic culture asand a needless campaign con- year very They areaunts, trying uncles, to dividecousins, Hindus the most in line with aunt proclaimed thatknees American was too check uncle’s hitched up to his and food a trademark and grandparents surrounded fined tothe the recipe, rarefied my precincts of and Muslims),” he tells us, as he Indian culture bland for undershirt.

Indians, “spices you strong”, appeared and asked what sleeveless Aftermake a punishing day of cook the dinnerhow table, I felt deep the Lutyen’s zone in Delhi. describes Nitish andahe are and, initially, mypublic cousins wereand sceptical but had to bewin done.

I thenwill rememcampaign, eight rallies countless sense of happiness pride in A poll in Bihar prove countering efforts and to commusupportive. notnot a common meat in bered cooking America is difinteractions,Turkey Lalu isis still finished. He spots not my work alsoMusmy that the massesinare still behind nallyonly polarise their but voters.

A victory in Bihar India, and the of spending several thou- ferent fromthey ‘cooking’ forinmany us standing in aidea corner and gestures, recognisto support the leader elected 2014 translates into revival family’s lims are willingness lined up behind them sand on “Aa a bird that was, as my greatin India.

Back homeis most ing a rupees colleague, gayee dobara jhagda karne people (and dining project. and ‘religious intolerance’ just but eat) theymyhave been warned of hope for the aunt “guaranteed did of everything from scratch.

Here, (you’rere-emphasised, here again to fight with me).” to taste families Of all the American holidays my parents the carping a few pathologiagainst wearing burqas and secular camp on the bland” was not particularly attractive.

After many have the luxury of being dele- could The hangers-on are dismissed for some to celebrate, I strongly cally anti-BJP intellectuals.

It will able tonational skull caps when they go outbeto front have picked promising some Indian thethe turkey the grunt of cooking and simply su- lieve we choose time and we sit down forspices a chaton with age- gate Thanksgiving year after year strengthen thework ruling party’s efvote.

The Mahagathbandhan’s (which I am proud who to say I “forgot”), I hadhis to pervise.

Afterlegislative spending business what was the cook’s as it is the most ing Yadav chieftain has, together with in has line been with to Indian culture: forts to push effort trounce the convince family that my Britisha cousin and monthly salary and on just the turkey, comrade my Nitish Kumar, turned provincial immediate and extended in Parliament improve on I was hesi- you gather your BJP’s alleged endeavour to polarIelection were capable of cooking anwith entire American have herinexplore her turkey cooking family, cook aiseheavy into a war of nerves Prime Minis- tant (read as unhealthy) meal, theirtostrength the biennial the Hindus one and diminmeal in IndiaModi. by ourselves; the main concern abilities weUpper had no back-up ter Narendra evening together electionswhen for the House nextbird. year. IAgave side and ish spend caste an identities.

Althoughfilled thewith BJPold is was ruining the expensive bird. the and is instead goingre-elechome stories Whichever way Bihar turns this weekend, it her and laughter.

And even though I celeeffect of day thisoff, victory Shah’sof certain simultaneously wooing different caste groups Soon, however, myas undying optimism won, she to watch laugh am- brated will be remembered an inflection point.

For early, Thanksgiving in India, it didn’t feel too tion as BJPstayed President this and winter.

He at is my serving through the individual appeal of its allies Jiand my cousin andchristened I found ourselves shortlist- ateurish cooking the rather grandly MahagathbandI was surrounded by people the residual termskills. of Rajnath Singh as the rul- different. tan Ram Manjhi, Ram Vilas Paswan andI loved, Upening that just werea to be served at dinner, hours of cleaning and chopping han,items it is not comeback trail for the ingAfter was a turkey the table for the party President and a setback in Biharvegewill there dra Kushwaha, itsoncore vote and, is still with the rest ofLalu, my family chiming in with the I was finally to directtomy attention scam-tainted the ambitious Nitish Ku- tables, time, there were some kebabs and white give a handle to hisable detractors start lobby- first upper-caste voters. occasional or Congress. question.A“Maybe turkey.

By to thedeny timehim I was readyterm. to mari- rice mar and thesuggestion battle-scarred victory to positioned inconspicuously ingthe with the RSS a fresh Lalu stands with the bulwark in of the his corner electowe’ll find a turkeyinto at Reliance” (we didn’t), and cook it, I realised myLalu, uncle didn’t in Bihar translates revival of hope for the nate of mybehind familyhim who—had had 16 their of Sipping oversweet tea with these ab- for ral any support about perfill cent “What stuffing?” (food to front. stuff It inside thea have built-in oven like the one back home.asI Thanksgiving seculariscamp on the national will see stracta situations become tangible.

Cynical Muslims and foods. over 15 per cent Yadavs. Not bird).

After an entire morning to panic, but my cousinpoliticians appeared with new challenger for the throneof of vetting Delhi initems 2019 started most hardened mainstream are, many among his voters deserted him even haque is a Washington-based for theform menu, recipes, and narrowportable oven barely fit the the abid in the of looking anotherup three-term Chief Minis- aLalu has still not that lost his instinct forbird; political during the Lok Sabha electionswriter last year when

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the Modi wave swept Bihar; Lalu retained 20.46 per cent of his voters even if it translated into only four Lok Sabha seats. He is, as the Grand Alliance’s lead strategist, Prashant Kishore, describes, the “cake” for Nitish Kumar’s “icing” in Bihar. Nitish could retain only 16.04 per cent of his backward/most backward and Dalit constituency in the Lok Sabha elections, which is the main reason for him bridging the gap and aligning with Lalu to trounce the Modi-led BJP. Accordingly, Nitish does the ‘icing’ job in the campaign, doling out data, statistics and never straying from his elevated perch to resort to invective. It is a clever strategy marked by two different types of campaigns by the two allies — the rabble-rousing has been left to Lalu, who has come up with the ‘Narbhakshi’ (cannibal) title for Amit Shah, while Nitish mouths the more sober spiel on development and his vision for Bihar. They have set up Twitter/Facebook accounts and dish out smarter repartee online than the entire BJP apparatus can muster. Lalu, the convicted scamster who has not won a significant election in the last 10 years, presents Nitish as the face of the campaign, the dulha (bridegroom) of a baraat (marriage procession) populated by Muslims and Yadavs. With a staggering 242 rallies that covered all constituencies but one in Bihar, Lalu has notched up more miles and crowds than anyone else, in the busiest election since the Lok Sabha polls last year. He is clearly the most sought-out and entertaining campaigner in Bihar, thinking up impromptu one-liners and doling out locally flavoured invective.

“Dhan ka roti tawa mein, Modi ud gaya hawa mein (Modi has been swept off the Bihar campaign)… Hamara baraat ka dulha hai Nitish Kumar. Inka kaun hai (Nitish is the bridegroom in our marriage party. Who is the BJP fielding?” he asks, in rally after rally. Sample the challenge, delivered in quintessential Lalu style: “Jab tabla bajega dhin dhin, to ek pe padega teen teen (For each of their voters, we have three),” he says, to the approval of the crowds.

Tweet for tweet The BJP has countered this blitzkrieg by the PM’s powerhouse performances in a series of rallies where he has shifted gears from the

Fire and brimstone Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shifted gears from the promise of big development to invoking fears of the ‘Return to Jungle Raj’ in Bihar ranjeet kumar

promise of big development to invoking fears The exception is the Congress, the only poof the ‘Return to Jungle Raj’ in Bihar, mocking litical entity impervious to the rigours of the the rival coalition as a congregation of ‘three Bihar campaign. The Grand Old Party remains idiots’ and, finally, making barely concealed true to its defeatist self with Rahul Gandhi abefforts to polarise the voters by accusing the senting himself from much of the campaign; Mahagathbandhan of directing quota bene- taking time out instead for a padyatra in Karfits to Muslims. Amit Shah’s acnataka and writing letters to the cusation that “crackers will PM demanding special category burst in Pakistan” if the BJP losstatus for Andhra Pradesh. All this es is an episode in this series. while Lalu and Nitish addressed Regardless of the Regardless of the outcome between seven to 10 rallies a day, outcome of the of the respective campaigns, in their own areas of strength as what has struck me through- respective campaigns, well as in constituencies crucial what has struck me out the Bihar elections is how for their allies. Nitish Kumar, for throughout the Bihar hard each battle has been instance, campaigned for Lalu’s elections is how hard fought. The shrewd strategist sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi immeeach battle has in Amit Shah has found himdiately prior to polling in their rebeen fought self pitted against an equally spective constituencies. crafty adversary in the LaluNitish’s aides are aghast at the Nitish collective. The organisaCongress’s nonchalance, an indetional behemoth of the RSS/ cipherable indifference to what is BJP is matched in fervour by arguably the most talked about the native cunning of the Bihari socialists. election since the Lok Sabha polls. But as one It has been sound bite for sound bite — an walks up to his residence in the quiet, leafy Asaram Bapu-Narendra Modi video for a Nit- lane in Lalu’s neighbourhood, the sense and ish Kumar-Tantrik visual, a Twitter reply for a strategy in the Bihar Chief Minister’s camTwitter barb and a masterful Lalu mimicry of paign becomes apparent. He is accommodatModi’s announcement regarding a mega- ing the Congress, allocating as many as 41 package for Bihar worth thousands of crores. seats to a party that barely managed to win four in the last assembly elections, because it is a critical ally at the national level.

From the time Nitish parted ways from a Modi-led BJP after 17 years of a largely peaceful coalition, he has resurrected his secular image, made peace with Lalu and hunted down the Congress to create a platform that could well turn out to be the principal opposition against the BJP in the future. I have watched Nitish gain in confidence since the start of the campaign when he was asking all, including Arvind Kejriwal, to join him. Like Modi, Nitish has a point to prove in Bihar. The former Chief Minister of Gujarat humiliated him in the Lok Sabha polls and Nitish has been licking his wounds ever since. He has to prove that he was right in disinviting Modi for that now famous dinner in the summer of 2010, just as he was right in dumping the BJP when they projected Modi as PM candidate.

He snatched Modi’s poll strategist, Prashant Kishore, and installed him in his own house.

He ran a personalised campaign, staking all to emerge as the BJP’s alternative in Bihar. Lalu has aided him for his own benefit and his son’s future. With the Congress as junior partner, India’s shrewdest politicians have put their best foot forward to trounce the BJP. If this is not enough then it is difficult to fathom what will be.

Speak easy Lalu Prasad knows what connections to make and what memories to evoke, for his rustic supporters as well as English-speaking journalists ranjeet kumar

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Tried and of tested Anatomy hateat home AGENDA

A new breed of home-schooled chefs — those who earned their chops in their family There is— a core economic to the current ‘intolerance’. The formula is simple: India kitchen are stirring the angle F&B pot needs to get richer to become more tolerant

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hefs could be broadly categorised ominant liberal thought modern into three types: Those in who were democracies affirms thatinstitute; religion ‘born’ in a professional and politics should alwaysbusiness/ stay septhose born into a family Thisand is naïve: are — tradition ofarate. cooking; thosereligions who are ‘born’ and always have been — political movements. at home!

In Today, fact, the world’s major religions are the more and more chefs are emerging most the successful politicaland parties of all time. from third category creating ripples, Think of Hinduism, Islam of or Christianity as if not waves, in the world F&B. They are politicaldriven parties, startedbordering by the respective largely by passion, on insanprophets, evolved centuries ity.

I shouldwhich knowhave as I belong toover this group. into trans-national, I must confess, thehyper-political path is strewn entities, with as now called religion.

Also, think ofwith a 20th-cenmany potholes and mines, as it is laurels turybouquets. political movement Maoism, and And while itlike is not an easywhich ride, can evolve over one. centuries into a it is asimilarly thoroughly enjoyable trans-national religion, particularly if China For a home chef, the biggest critics are right becomes thefamily dominant country as of also the 21st there at the dining-table, the century,cheerleaders. as it is on course be. can, at times, biggest Theto barbs In the history of the world, yesterday’s drive thelong chef-in-the-making to contemplate politics is today’s religion, Itoday’s politics of is abandoning the kitchen... did, a couple tomorrow’s forth. Therefore, times, only toreligion, becomeand moresoentrenched in the the impermeable of themy church kitchen and ended“separation up abandoning jourand theand state” is a red herring. nalism filmmaking career. In the world’s two democracies India and thefood, US — Mylargest forte today is south—Indian coastal an eminently permeable membrane sepabut decades ago, as a schoolboy, my experirates religion fromthe politics. ments began with oven and baking. UnforBoth the Hindu India,‘sank’, and the Christunately, my first right cakesinnever and the tian right in theencouragement US, are active and mainstream overwhelming from my fampolitical Their hatred of the ‘others’ ily pushedplayers. me to become its official baker.

The (fundamentally an essential cooking bug wellMuslims) and truly isestablished, my wedge that triumphant right-wing journey towards chefdom began. politicians from Narendra Modi to George have A couple of decades ago, whenWweBush married, usedwife en route to power.toItmanage is no coincidence my and I decided the house that the any current spate help. of Islamophobia Inwithout domestic That meant in lookdia after comes same time as the elecing thearound kitchenthe too. tions Bihar. passed on to us a diary with a My in mother Post 9/11,ofthe rabid Islamophobia these collection simple recipes.

Both of usoftreated politicians andand their supporters also astep, sign it like the Bible followed everyissingle of the success of political Islam: the Taliban, especially the measurements.

Al-Qaeda or Islamic State’s caliphate The sudden discovery thatglobal one can create dreams need Muslim victimhood in what pluralist good home-food, or at least that’s we democracies.

India, Modi’s government is thought of it,In was a great feeling.

But along unwittingly doing its to help thethe likes of came the potholes — best friends loved food Islamic State their cardinal theory of but critics in establish the family were not going to be

Under attack From the poor villager Mohammed Akhlaq, to Bollywood’s biggest superstar Shah Rukh Kin do The author Khan, no one is spared (extreme right) with the bile and bigotry of his culinary skills the Hindu right mob team aruanangsuaudit roy chowdhury

generous. From downright “What is this?” to right consistency, smell, taste and colour.

Muslim be victimhood.

From the missing”, poor villager “Could better, something the vulnerable the Hindu right’s aggression.

After twoto years, and alongside a steadily inMohammed Akhlaq to Bollywood’s biggest su- creasing comments were enough to drive one to order But there is also athe core economic to repertoire, erissery finallyangle got the perstar Khan,born, no one is spared the thumbs-up in.

But aShah chefRukh was being and it was one the current ‘intolerance’, whichtable’ most of Indifrom the ‘high during bile and of the Hindu who was bigotry not willing to give up.right mob. The Onam. an media blithely ignores in those its analysis.

The What was involved two years message to Indian coun- of From fellow chefsMuslims who havefrom beenthe through rapid economic growth of the chef last two gestation for the home-born was decfree try’s rulers is training, this: eat what weheard want that you to eat, training, professional I have there ades has resulted millions of Indians finally passion,inand a complete audit.

A say what awe want topoint’, hear, obey orders, or is always ‘turning from our something as great breaking thetopoverty school be in. trap and moving into else! It’sas a message pushing the Indian simple getting that the is right consistency of theNow, lower-middle-income bracket, making it what happens when this home-grown Muslim to the brink. scrambled eggs, to making a smooth white chef the predominant income bracket the coundecides to step out from theincosy little Imagine up onein day, as a southsomeIndi- home sauce... the waking perseverance mastering try. A key characteristic of professional, the lower middlekitchen and into the coman lady or gent, reading that of hon- mercial world of thing simple that,and in fact, is a process class is that its constituents are restaurants?

The initial expenorth Indian politicians ing and perfecting your skills. have highly insecure about falling rience can be nerve-wracking. banned the their sale ofinstructors, uttappam in thein my case They had but into I remember back the first daypoverty, I walkedand intothey the country, and lynch mobshad are to attackthe dining table at home be conquered. commercial kitchen look atIthe and marginalwaspoor supposed to take ing anyone who simple dares eat it. Or And one of those dishes that helped In the long history ised as competitors for over.

The magnitude of their everything rattled me. of the world, imagine about the erissery. me in this complaining was the humble pumpkin scarce resources.

The ranges were large, roaring and spewing yesterday’s politics flames squalor of north Indian cities, only In Kerala, erissery is a common In alike 1993aessay titled ‘Modern dragon.

The pots is today’s religion, and to beand toldalso thatan you are anti-national dish integral part of Hate’, Chicago University ladles seemed made forPolitia gitoday’s politics is ant’s andfestive a Pakistani Imagine the mealagent. or sadyas — it al-your cal Science home. professors The sinks Susanne were as tomorrow’s religion large patriotism questionedatevery most is the touchstone a meal.time Sounds and as Lloyd Rudolph tubs. My kitchen wrote could simple but is simply because youthe were If that turns out right, rest ofborn the easiest thing to about the that freezer. demolhave fitted in mobs the walk-in south Indian in muster. a north What Indianisma-get wrong, especially the food passes ished the Babriwas mosque.

“They The dishwasher like a drivejority country.

Over Itthe past few when your mother, the erissery all about? is yellow the educated inare carwash.

No, I didunemployed, not run back weeks, that is how Indiawith has been pumpkin boiled, mixed a sister and aunts are at tonot the poor andhome illiterate,” the comfort of my kitchtreatingcoconut its Muslims, encouraged simple chutney, a tadka by a prime they wrote. “Frustrated the lack of good en… insteadbyI plunged right in the table minister who haswith madebrowned only lukewarm noises jobs and opportunities, and garnished they areinstinct victimsand of and — with the sheer about tolerance. grated coconut... sounds simple modernisation, seeking to victimise others passion cultivated at home — —I not blame thetoHindu butBut is let theuseasiest thing get right alone. like ‘pampered’ Muslims.” slowly tamed the ‘monster’ into a India’s left-liberal, secularyour political parties wrong, especially when If Modi had been able domestic pet. to deliver on his have a lot to answer too. In haste to milk promised mother, sister and aunts aretheir at the table. acchheitdin, are that inSoon enough, waschances like working at the home. theFor Muslim vote they played almost twobank, years, at have everyoften Onam and And tolerance debate would out not like havethe become so the food too turned kind you to the regressive and promotVishu, whenever Muslim I boastedgallery of hosting a tradi- get ugly.atFaster growth would have meant less echome.

Simple, uncomplicated, delied thesadya dregs community towas promitional forof thethe family, the erissery con- cious, onomic insecurity the majority lowreflecting thefor familiar smellsHindu and tastes. nence. From Rajiv Gandhi’s insidious stand on er Today, stantly a letdown.

The avial may have been middle-class andtwo lesstables, of a one fightprofesover straddling the Shah case to sellingand outpayasam Taslima Nasgreat, theBano sambhar, pachadi too, sional economic the cow. we beandresources the otherlike at home, theTill latter rerin and who were brave BUT the Salman erissery... Rushdie, either the pumpkin was mains come aareal middle-income economy, intolervaluable ‘testing ground’ — concoct, enough to speak against regressive Islam, In- set overcooked/ undercooked, the coconut chutance fuelled by insecurity willreactions. be a regular it on the table, and look for It india’swas secular governments their variably ney not smooth enough,have, or thewith browned feature of our political landscape. varies from silence, a little noise of aphypocritical stands, fed theeither right-wing Hindu proval, coconut garnishing was not brown The formula simple:appreciation.

India needs to get to ispure An resentment of brown.

Muslims. The secular skulldug- honest-to-goodness enough or too richer to become more tolerant. skills audit. gery over notallchanging most Perfecting of this is the where theregressive skills are kumar mitra tr is Master Chef isofthe Zeaside, specialising sambuddha mustafi founder of The elementsfrom of Muslim personal law has only honed... choosing the ingredients, the arun home-style coastal cuisine. He is based in Delhi t@some_buddha Political Indian made Muslims more and ghettoised method of prep,poorer, the cooking, getting and the in

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Few things are as synonymous as festivals and food. This Diwali we celebrate not just the meals we love but the recipe books from where it all began...

Contents p8 - All for one, one for all – Aysha Tanya

p10 - The aroma of secrets – Aditi Sengupta

p12 - Eat, cook, love

– Kathija Hashim & Aysha Tanya

p14 - Horn, OK, feast – Deepa Bhasthi

p15 - Cookbook chutney – Soity Banerjee

p16 - Past forward – Arundhati Ray

p18 - Tried and tested at home – Arun Kumar TR

p19 – The handbook to survival – Shabnam Minwalla

p20 – Turkey in Hyderabad – Abid Haque

p 21- How the internet taught me to cook – Snigdha Manickavel

partha pratim sharma

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The more the merrier Storytelling adds to the flavour of cook-together sessions; (below) a family portrait from the author’s personal album all images by aysha tanya

Pastfor forward All one, one for all The vegetarian cuisine Sheherwalis — Jain settled in Bengal’s Murshidabad Learning a family recipe,ofor even the right waytraders to crackwho an egg without breaking the yolk, is more thaninducted 300 years agoa — is a marriage of diverse influences like being into secret society. Putting together a cookbook, therefore, is another way of preserving stories and memories

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t’s water chestnut time of the year and The Sheherwalis are devout Jains with roots with the products of its muslin weavers, bell hirty eggatyolks four cups of over sug- watched the baskets localand markets brim theirbut mothers make this dishincountin Rajasthan who call Azimganj, Mur- showed me the right way to crack egg withmetal artisans, silversmiths, juteanproducers No,moss-green this isn’t a recipe a wonky less with ar. this aquaticfor vegetable, timesdistrict, in the home. old days, mutta maala re- out shidabad They speak a Hindi the yolk, I felt like I was being inandbreaking woodcarvers. science experiment, the main mains whose spiny skin protects but the succulent strictly caterer’s dish. studded with aRajasthani, Bengali, and Urdu ducted into thrived, a secret It comfelt The settlers their society. wealth and for experimenting the classic Malabari white ‘nut’ingredients within. I enjoy with words; Theretreat are many reasons dishes likea monumental mangoes with why the reverence in the way pickingthese up a new munity burgeoned, andthat gradually peoMuslim dish mutta maala.

Thisthem ‘egg mutta paniphal(Mappila) (to use the local name), using maalashows are nowine; longer at the fingertips of skill sommelier and their vegetarian or the learning new language makes you ple of deserta made the river-fed fertile garland’ anmeats, integral part of aevery Mappila in salads is and throwing handful into every Mappila cook. For one, there’s matfood, while maintaining rigorous Jainthe laws of feel.

Like I hadplains accesstheir to ahome. part ofInmy culture Murshidabad their statecelebration.

Thestir-fries, sunshine-yellow threads of ter Asian-inspired serving them wrapof tediousness separating 30 that no root vegetables —orcarefully spices (onions, garlic, is slowlymansions, slipping away. ly riverside they lived by Jain dicyolk, simmered sugar food, syrup,and is a dropping fixture at yolks ped in bacon asinfinger from the whites is no joke.

Then there is tates of austerity. But they were far from ginger), frequently features native Bengal proAt home everywhere feasts, and isclear just as firmly entrenched every them into steaming broths. Butinmy fa- the having right jackfruit utensils. and A ladle duceissue like of potol (waxthe gourd), its insular, and interacted with the local Bengalis Mappila heart: aisprospective groom comingsato made vourite avatar the Sheherwali paniphal coconut shell is used pour(bel) the I’m seeds, from plantain (kaanch kola), woodtoapple to admit that when I first started andashamed the extended household of the Nawab. visit? rice,golden-crisp mutton currytriangles, and muttawhere maa- yolk mosa:Ghee dainty in thin strands into bubbling vat of cooking, it was Presented and water chestnuts.

Theythe make crispy latkes, andBengal’s airy, light-aswith yearla likely to beofon the menu.replaces A wedding theare subtle crunch the paniphal the sugar.

But use as I stood to my aunt, while she a-cloud soufflés generous of the next Bengali fivethat interested rather round abundance of me vegetables function forpotato 1,000 guests?

Mutton biryani and spice mix paanch phoron, black customary mash filling, and the familand fruit, they swiftly introduced mutta maala are samosa what every iar North Indian spice self-respecting cocktail of cu- mustard seeds and mustard oil; these into their kitchen, modifywedding host willand serve. min, asafoetida aamchoor is given an but they also freely raid the Naing traditional Rajasthani reciInspired by the And to bring it full circle, thestamp naming unexpected, stridently Bengali withcerethe wabi spice cupboard for the frapes to include them, and also Bengali’s famed mony for a newborn will also most likely in- grant heat of cinnamon, sweet richness of coconut. adopting Bengali and Nawabi sweet tooth, soon volve mutton in some variation I love preparing these moreish paniphal cardamom, cloves and pepper. they were patronising spices and cooking methods, as the local moira and, of because course, mutta snacks of themaala. symphony of taste and long as no Jain dietary rules were The perfect blend (confectioner) and Considering the importance of is heighttextures they offer.

And the pleasure broken. Inspired by the Bengali’s also creating their this celebratingthat all the eneddessert by theinknowledge I’m preparing A raconteur par excellence, Siddfamed sweet tooth, soon they It felt monumental in own versions of monumental events in our famfood that’s been created by the highly-evolved harth’s were patronising the local moira the way that pickingspellbinding stories ilthe pitha ily life, you would think that the culinary tradition of Bengal’s Sheherwalis, a lustrate the remarkable (confectioner) and also creating up a new skill or enthusiastic cooks of the Mappicommunity of wealthy Jains who had settled business acumen and cultural their own versions of the pitha learning a new la infamilies the state.would have this recipe that marked the She(thin rice flour pancakes scented language adaptation makes down pat. encounter However, surprisingly, My first with Sheherwali cuisine herwalis’ early, glorious history with rose water) and nariyal katli you feel most cooks are not fa- Siddharth in Murshidabad. It’s a tale that was atMappila the home of the Dudhorias, (coconut fudge). miliar with making mutta maala. and Sangeeta.

That splendid meal, and several begins some 300 years ago when some Jain They borrowed elements from the Bengali Not the women in the family whowith food in- families of Rajasthan took up the invitation of Babu’s wardrobe and developed a unique diasubsequent interactions (always spend their days elabovolved!) hosted bycooking this couple have helped me the Nawab of Murshidabad to come settle in lect. Gradually, this small community rate the Masterchef-watching, learnmeals, aboutnot Sheherwali history, and itsfood re- Azimganj and Jiaganj, twin towns situated on morphed into a culturally distinct group and blog-devouring 20-somethings who are com- either side of the Bhagirathi river. They trav- came to be labelled Sheherwalis by Jains living markable food practices that seamlessly fortable in the kitchen Theelements truth is elled across the breadth of the country to pro- outside Azimganj, the term referring to their bine Rajasthani, Bengaliotherwise. and Nawabi that besides a few women who have vide financial services in a region prosperous urbane sophistication. within the matrix of older Jain strictures.

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the ingredients of a great family cookbook, in that it helps you better understand a family through the food they cook.

Know your own It turns out that it is possible to better understand your family even through the process of writing a cookbook with them. We set up a committee to take charge of collecting and organising the recipes. One of the biggest challenges we faced when compiling recipes is that even within a family, there are several verAs you like it Cooking mutta maala, a classic Mappila dish, at the author’s family kitchen in Kannur sions. Which one to include? My grandmother made her fried chicken with onions, and so that’s how my mother and all my aunts make than the food that I grew up eating. That are at the table, sharing a meal with them. The it. However, my grandmother’s sister hated didn’t change until quite recently when my recipes are often accompanied by a few family onions in her fried chicken, and that’s how her extended family decided to compile a family stories and photographs to give you context. children make it to this day. cookbook. As we were putting together a list While we argued and recipe-tested our way One of my favourite family cookbooks is Olof the recipes to be included, listening to the ives, Lemons & Za’atar by Rawia Bishara, who through the list, we also realised that meaelders discuss curries and appams they hadn’t left her childhood home in Nazareth and set- surements were not something most home eaten in decades, it became clear that there tled in Brooklyn with her family. Her book is a cooks feel compelled to use — more often than was a wealth of information that we stood to celebration of Palestinian dishes she learnt to not, seasoned cooks eyeball ingredients rathlose if we didn’t systematically collect and re- cook from her mother back in Nazareth, and er than use precise measurements. My aunt cord. It became clear why this family that usu- which, thousands of miles away from her Razia says that she keeps track when she cooks ally guarded recipes like state secrets would hometown, provides her with a by remembering the number of want to put their minds together to come up lasting connection to her roots. times she stirs a dish. For examwith a cookbook — to ensure that the younger It is, as you would imagine, ple: add the sugar to the milk and generation, even as they moved away from tinged with nostalgia and childstir 100 times, which to someone My aunt Razia says families to start their own lives, could carry a hood memories. who learnt to cook from cookthat she keeps track Unlike Olives, Lemons & Za’apiece of home with them. books that are precise down to when she cooks by Family cookbooks have carved out a niche tar, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s The half a minute, is a bit unnerving. remembering the for themselves in the food world over the past Settler’s Cookbook focuses on the Although family cookbooks, number of times she recipes that her family concoctdecade or so. especially the ones with very trastirs a dish Some of them are heritage cookbooks and ed on moving away from India ditional recipes, may seem sushare recipes that have been part of the family and settling in East Africa. Many perfluous, they play an for decades, while others are eclectic collec- of the recipes, which have their important role in preserving tions of traditional recipes that sit alongside roots in India, provide a clear one’s family history and providones that have more recently made it into the map of their travels, and have ing social commentary. been modified to include local East African infamily repertoire.

One of the reasons traditional heirloom recThe most engaging of these cookbooks are gredients — plantains with peanut curry; ipes get a bad rep is that they are considered to the ones that give you a peek into the everyday posho and rice. be time-consuming and tedious. Yes, it does Although technically a memoir, it has all not make sense to cook mutton in a terracotta life of the family, and make you feel like you vessel over a wood-fired stove for most people, but recipes can be updated while still staying true to their essence.

Another setback faced when cooking recipes that have been around for decades is that they often involve antiquated utensils that are no longer readily available. However, with a little ingenuity, it is possible to improvise. In a pinch, the mutta maala that I mentioned earlier can be made by drizzling the yolk out of a piping bag.

The greatest benefit of incorporating more traditional recipes into our meals is that it is the surest way to eat sustainably.

As the world rediscovers sustainable eating, it becomes obvious that this is the way most Indian families have eaten until quite recently.

Our kitchens relied heavily on local, often homegrown produce and the dishes changed depending on the season. In our attempt to eat local and seasonal, the food of our ancestors is our strongest ally.

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Different strokes Even within a family, there are several versions of a recipe

aysha tanya is a Kannur-based food writer

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Gourmet wheels Fuel Up food truck its next destination, it willdietary feed hungry people Raw history HinduThe widows, relegated to arushes corneralong of thetocookhouse and forcedwhere to follow strictures, topfuel theuplist of the un-applauded chefs of India reuters

Horn OK, feast The aroma of secrets

Food trucks are becoming all the rage in Bengaluru and raking in the moolah as they provide Cookbooks andtoTV shows are all the rage today, but for long there were only stories fuss-free grub thefood hungry passerby that kept recipes alive, even within families, and many an innovator faded away unsung

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ow does one keep up with food cause “we got a brand new truck,” said Jaisim- Das said that he has seen a phenomenal inustardIfoil.

Nigella seeds (kalonji). ha. trends? there is the mysterious trict,Several the illiterate cooking lessons for crease in the number of food trucks opening buy widow’s and modify second-hand Potatofoam sticks, thinnest possifloating ofthe liquid nitrogen in trucks, the young ‘stories’. he Bijoylakshmi said, adding were that mostly there are rules for business in the last four months alone. “… I ble. And only long (not squat) molecular gastronomy one sea- against She wasusing too poor to buy most oftothe second-hand trucks sellingrefood know of six more trucks that are being fabriPut it all in a bowl son, there isgreen the chillies. back-to-basic flavours of if dients for the recipes handed down orally. they have been usedshe to ferry passengers and/ cated as we speak. We share staff, when there is and steam forfood’ half that an hour.

That’s greasy ‘dude trends for the most next, or Biju andWithout her mother less and thanby a drop in a need,” he said. goods. heftyare rents mostly straightforward recipe for what thousands of cooking each preceded by the now ubiquitous hashthe Indian the ocean of unsungare innotheocean food — themselves, revenues in As a community, they plan to rent out large Bengalis callthebati chochhori, dish, when the tag.

Perhaps latter is a nod toathe ‘all-Amervators whose recipes, quite recently, range of ₹3-8 lakh peruntil month, all three say. grounds for events. Later this month, nine served with hot, slightly rice, cold performs ican man’ — slouched on soggy a sofa with beer didn’t their way into cookbooks or area tele- food trucks will gather at a common venue. An Foodmake trucks, however, remain in a grey well on the in hand andcomfort-food boxes of pizzaquotient. or a burger in front of vised Lost in theofcauldron are the stotheshows. business because the near-absence of annual food carnival is also on the cards. Fuel there’s a little more to Hollywood this story, accord— But popularised by generic offer- laws ries regarding of nameless, faceless whose this new entrantpeople to the food in- Up also creates a personalised menu for priing toDude my food mother. that hotdogs, ‘little more’ is dustry. ings.

— orAnd burgers, sandexperiments in the kitchen, forapart reasons social Subbarao told me that from the vate parties, though their regular haunts are courtesynachos, of Biju,BBQ-ed a matronly who ruled standard wiches, steaksfigure and an in-house and otherwise, have peppered ourbemenus food licence, there should a per- tech parks, where they offer healthier options the kitchen and—hearts certain Ghosh fam- mit special or two make of upathe standard menu withfrom textures, colours and aromas. the city municipal corlike salads and sandwiches. Acily ainfood Bhowanipore, middleon truck, whereathe fluff of restaurants poration to park With standing within theselittle trucks in cording to Das, their goal is to class southtoKolkata neighbouris trimmed highlight just the food. families, womenand saw the kitchen different neighbourhoods bring “gourmet food onto the hood, for overhas two18decades after Bengaluru registered already, out of from the RTOasfor their fiefdom and their cookmodifications streets.”

Independence. high-rimmed which one is an A ice-cream truck. Several skillsBut andproviexperimentsFood re- trucks, vehicles.

Experimenting with the She have was toomade poor to to the ing however, remain in a aluminium — used more employees, been startedbowl by former corporate mained guarded secrets, as sions for the latter two don’t exist sauces, adding new flavours to buy most of the grey area of the frequently storing milk than lured away for from regular paycheques by a love “yet,” toDas winisthe approval he said.heirlooms, It is an issue regular hotdogs — New Yorkingredients for the business cooking made bati of chochfor food — and theBiju’s promise a receptive mar-shetrying of thehaving menfolk and control other to resolve, started style one day, Vietnamese the recipes handed hori stand did the soft-others good ket.

Some out, are as trained chefs, women, the The Food Truck Association,especially a nanext — in-house specialities like down orally boiled duck Operating eggs she added as home-cooks. with minimum staff, tionwide body daughters-in-law. that already has pork ribs and fried Oreos are garnish. yolks tonedcooking up a 80-plus members, they frontThe therunny desk, so to speak, Hindu widows, relegated to a mostly from how USPs are created. The fredown the pungency of at theconcert mus- venues and the metros. The storm around the city, lonely cornercorporation of the cookhouse, municipal in Gur- quent menu Bengali ensurehouseholds, that customLives ofchanges others Inin orthodox widows cooked a range of animal protein despite tard oil, making the Ghoshes, my even private parties. top thetolist of the food un-applauded gaon is soon going consider trucks as ers keep coming back.

People from different a roy chowdhury beinggroups forbidden from eating them mother among them, happy abunch.

The investment to one fabricate truck and commercial chefs of India.

Sitting over herwhich own stove, the establishments, will be a age and earning brackets — several of Widowed 17, Bijucanteen lived and died onwidely. a rad- relief turn it into aatmobile can vary widowtosearched for have variety in heragainst restricted owners who to battle fre- whom ‘mock’ turn forbidden foods: egg curry made with into regulars — can easily afford to ically vegetarian for the of next years. quent Siddhanth Sawkar,diet co-owner The50Spitfire diet. Apart from meats, and eggs, stric- eat complaints fromfish residents forthe ‘taking cottage and lentils, raw jackfruit curry at thecheese trucks.

Dressed inbuilt whitethe with her hair cropped andofa up BBQ truck, vehicle himself, at a cost tures consumption of masoor dal, (which tooprohibited much parking space’ and occasional can passand of as mutton) (tiIndian cities street food and havethe anbori intrinstring of “We tulsihave beadsa around her neck, shethis ex- harassment ₹11 lakh. fabrication unit, so onions, garlic, garam and even from the masala authorities.

Das spinsaid sic ny connection. lentil dumplings also trucks knownstand as vadi in But these apart celled in cooking almost everything the ortho- that was a piece of cake,” he says.

Shakti Subbarao’s ach in some eastern The outcome was a not Mumbai is also states. considering introducing north India). only for their eye-catching get-up but also dox dictates of one widowhood keptpopular off her food own guidelines Gypsy Kitchen, of the other hidden treasury of recipes, and laws, and it using shouldingredients soon hap- theInfood her they shortoffer. storyFor ‘The Widow and theVirgin well-travelled city plate —infish, prawns, poultry trucks town, is a year and aand halfmutton. old. He The sta- pen like in vegetable peels and even seeds. Bengal’s slicker, Bengaluru as well.

Poppadams’ in TheYork LittleinMagazine, it is (published a slice of New namma tabooshisdidn’t her fromatexperimenting tions truckstop — fabricated a cost of ₹8.5 famous chochhori andthree chhechki — vegetable In Bengaluru, these food trucks — and Bengaluru.

2007), Delhi-based journalist Sudha Tilak illuswith —animal Herthe mentor, as isof often lakh at HSRprotein.

Layout in south-east the others mish-mash thatThe areSWAT part of everyday meals in trates the culinary skills of her great grandlike De3, Truck, Off Road Food bhasthi isPati a writer anddespite the editorher of The the case, wasco-owned her mother. the humble kitchcity.

Fuel Up,

by In Deepthi Das and her Truck an average household — were out of deepa — are starting to build whatborn might soon mom Yechumi who, own ‘life an online quarterly journal on food“worked politics to en of her village home Orissa’s Cuttack husband Jaisimha, costin them ₹36 lakh, disbe- turn theseout experiments.

As did of thefood dishes that Forager, to be a community truckers. of deprivation and bereavement’,

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Cookbook chutney How to befriend your recipe book authors and spice up their lives with ingenuity and cheek.

Making time: unknown. Serves: all

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n the mid-1990s, when my brother left home to study, my father gave him a closely written foolscap paper. Covered in his bold hand, it had the recipe of an all-purpose jhol or curry. A flow chart of sorts, with potatoes, eggs, fish, chicken and mutton, each inserted somewhere between step one and step 12, depending on cooking time and Bengali whim (“for deemer jhol, fry the boiled eggs until they blister”). Yet, this distilled sum of my father’s culinary prudence was more than just a set of instructions. It revealed as much about its author as it did about his estimation of the reader, his collegiate son (“step back before you light the gas”).

When I look at my cookbooks, especially the bone” feed and comfort a large, those that to belong to simpler times, I seenoisy peoand forever-hungry The story also ple not things. Peoplebrood. who lent something of throws light on widow, the pallu themselves to how the the food they with cooked and covering herHome shaven head,who reserved herto afterchronicled. cooks brought the noons food experiments: table afor combination of natural talent, remem“Yechumi was in charge of making prebered tastes,Pati individual temperament and serves pickles and making wheat between and ragi lots ofand typos.

Authors who thrived vadams, lentil appalams and wafers and sago the pages of poorly produced, picture-less other These nothing were usually outside the books,fritters. and thought of ending a reciambit of “Put dailyonmeal anddries demanded pe with: dummaking till water up and elaborate and skill... Then when only ghee preparations remains.” theAtsun baked the roof to blazing a time when cookbooks areproportions, reinventing she would tiptoe and hop on and the science burningjourterthemselves as graphic novels race to spreadare huge sheets of their damplives, fabnals,floor and bloggers unpacking ric, her old of torn nine-yard saris. On lovesusually and contents their fridge online, it appalams and them, she would may seem bizarrelay to the diground for meaning in terse vadams toand dry dry across the entire length sago half-sentences ingredient lists.

But and breadth the roof.” imagine the of thrill of ‘knowing’ or dreaming up a person who writes almost with biblical Secrets galore certainty: “Those not admiring garlic flavour Better known than the aunts, grandmothers (sic) can also be served this (lahsun ki kheer) and nannies who toiled round-the-clock withnot know.” out praise or acknowledgement, is the story of whatAli. if I told that the khansama cookbook Haji ow, Murad The you one-armed (nicknamed ‘tunda’ his handicap) from I’ve quoted fromfor above lists a bunch of Bhopal put Lucknow the global culinary game dishes?

That itsonjungli mans recipe is map with histhe melt-in-the-mouth gilawati kepaired with disclaimer — “I have deliberbabs and flaky paranthas. Tunday, the shop he set up in the busy Chowk area in 1899, made headlines last year when the founder-chef’s nephews (Ali died childless) went to court to settle a dispute over patenting the legacy. The court decided in favour of Mohammad Usmaan, grandson of Ali’s younger brother.

The legitimacy row may have died down, but the recipe that catapulted the nondescript eatery into the culinary Ivy League remains a mystery. In every interview — print and broadcast — Usmaan maintains that the ingredients used are a ‘family secret’. He also dodges questions on whether the magic formula is in the safety of a bank locker, just like the ones for Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The internet is flooded with ‘guesswork’ recipes for the Tunday kebab. Some claim that at least 160 ingredients go into it, while others attribute the unique taste to sandalwood. The genesis of the Tunday story goes back to the royal patronage of chefs by the Nawabs of Awadh. It is said the recipe was created to sate the cravings of a toothless Nawab, who had offered a handsome reward for it. More than 50 kg of the kebab, with an overpowering taste of garam masala, are sold every day from the

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ately avoided giving any weight and measures you rather not acquaint yourself with a womas these are not available when stranded on an whose photo covers 3x3 inch of the inside shikar”? But look beyond the imperial titles of backcover of a two-volume cookbook? One both the cookbook, Cooking Delights of the who wrote the book in 1910 — 26 years before Maharajas — Exotic Dishes from the Princely Tarla Dalal was born and 63 years before MadSun-baked House of Sailana, and its author, Digvijaya hur Jaffrey published her first,treats James BeardOutside the ambit of Singh, and you might discover a man who’s winning cookbook. daily cooking, activities used to giving orders, of course (“always use Pragyasundari Devi, who singlehandedly like papad-making Gujarati yam”), and exacting to a fault [“serve improved my rusty Bengali-reading involve elaborate skills, is a preparations (murgh irani) when it’s almost cold”], yet not grandmotherly feeder of souls. and Theskill kind one paul noronha; (below) a entirely inflexible in his kingly ways (his ga- must always write about in present tense. still from Luv Shuv Tey ram masala includes 11 ingredients, but saf- Quick to admit whenChicken she’s uncertain Khurana, a [(roughfron is optional!). Like the conductor of an ly translated) “It’s hard to telltake exactly light-hearted on how family recipes orchestra, Singh is more head chef muchsecret water you’ll need for than home cook. An aesthete who pulao”], the implicit idea that loves music and art, tends to his not all meals are uniformly rose and cactusof gardens, and ‘dressgood, ormade that insome dishes greasy counter the Chowk establishment.

The Bandel cheese is not Bandel anyWhen I look at my es’Amost dishes with and rai- take ought to be celebrated refreshing and nuts light-hearted on more.

The only information available is thatfor it cookbooks, especially sins… Rubbed up against the earlyis thethose their ordinariness runs ‘guarded-with-life’ family secrets, 2012 that comes from a Kolkata factory. belong to Luv Shuv Chicken ’80s, when film the book wasTey first pub- Khurana. her 2,800-odd Bollywood Given the lackthrough of our own versions of thereciEnsimpler times, I see vi- not It tells the of obvious Omi (Kunal Kapoor), the lished, thisstory is an thing to HadAmerican she hosted TV show, glishthings Mrs Beetonpes. or the TVacelebrity people man who seeks lait-returned do. Not so Punjabi obvious though is refuge in cook Julia Child,I Indian imagine the lebu’r (lime) recipes have long rehis ancestral houseontoserving escape nimcreditors. The mained lost among Singh’s insistence soufflés thatlore sankand wouldn’t be family cooking other behind his trip homeinis the reviv- traditions. Meenakshi ish, a reason milky, ephemeral dessert, whisked awayand under the Ammal her Cook the closest to arefrain cooking al of Chicken Khurana, not a family “clay cups (sakroas)” silver.recipe that and See series come counter.

And the of biits The“Who Calof sorts forbe South as hers does — made dhaba nameact to reckon with. UnforCouldits this be a aminor of rebellion?

Or re- ble jingle would this Indians, maxim of byBut Minakshie Das cutta Cook Book tunately, the man who created the verse snobbery?

A subtle stab at self-definition doesn’t want delicious food? just because Gupta,mean Bunny Gupta Jaya dish Omi’s with grandfather, loveven?—Check Uncle Jung. you want it, doesn’t you’ll getand it easily.

Chaliha in Bengal. These, ingly Daarjiand — isfervour seYet called the “flavour of a Maharaja’s Good food is hard work.” too, were nile and that ailing. personality” the book takes such pride in As if handholding young brides —published or in my long afterpasta the families Through a series of opaque as a subject of case, a novice who learnt makes Singh somewhat to cook before had always passedsets down trials and errors, investigation.

Unless one cheats and mines posto (poppy seeds) — Devi her handwritten reciOmi and child3,620 search results on Google. But where’s sights on a flawless meal, but takes the lowest pes from elder hood the funsweetheart in that? common denominator among herthe readers matrons.

Much Harman (Huma along. And when after a series of instructions he more obscure a writer, the greater the she arrives at the end of a recipe, like our thata Qureshi) finally sheepics lets out latitude discover the for se- audacity, for cooked trans- joyous “iha besh lage khaiteymetamorphosed (this is quite engressions.

Buxom authors holding out trays of joyable to eat)”. Sometimes,from their oral cret ingredient she’s near-lyrical come-hither cupcakes on the cover are all very — like when she says, sure you and rethat gave Chickcanregional wrap a blanwell, and dishy men with meat cleavers even ket around the vessel in which tellings into a TV en Khurana a disyou set curd in better.

But insofar as cultivating meaningful the colder months, but “rodey avatar since boro the tinct edge. doi jomaleo relationships with strangers in the kitchen, chomotkar hoye” (setting 1990s, cooking and curd under the winThe other bits they leave little room for imagination. Would ter sun can be magicalrecipes movedif from too). I wonder such the homestead a pubThe story of the Bandel poetic proclivity has something to doto with her lic Tagore forum orafter cookery cheese, a small but signifiuncle Rabindranath her husband became popular stalwart on TV. cant roundel of heritage, is yet Lakshminath shows Bezbarua, a literary another secret. Several cookfrom Assam. A post-liberalisation economy, families, books tell us that it was born in Women innuclear the Tagore familywell-travelled have always Indians itching to try different India, Bengal to be precise, unbeen more progressive than the average bhoOmi and childhood cuisines all added to the demand der Portuguese supervision. In dromohila.

But to embrace the idea of cooking sweetheart Harman for orcookbooks andso cookery 1579, Akbar granted Pedro Tafiringi (foreign) ‘Mughal’ food heartily, finally discover shows. Today, many vares the permission to build a suggests conscious choice.

Hadyoung Devi wombeen the secret ingredient en are chronicling their secret church and a town. That exalive and cooking today, at a death-defying 145 that gave Chicken home recipes into cooked family cookplains the birth of Bandel, a few years, jellies and stews in inKhurana a her aspic The books — think, Aparna Jain’s hours from Kolkata, on the digenous Icmic cookers would perhaps be lost distinct edge or Cooking Sood Family Cookbook banks of the Hooghly river. By in airbrushed coffee table perfection.

Or she compilation of OdiUp A Storm, the end of the century, the town may have surprised us allaby taking to molecuya family recipescuisine

by Suneeta and became a hub of wealthy Portular gastronomy or nouvelle like hilsa guese traders, who lived in luxuto the PadmaSusmita river. Misra. But be warned… even today, many an Indian mother-in-law rious riverside mansions.

What I love most about her cookbook notare part with that of secret ingredient that The men who cooked for the European set- may though the listings sequences in which son’s heart a plateful of his fatlers came from the hill tracts of Chittagong. melts certainher foods must beover served, and seasons in food.

Food, theAfastidious Known as Mogs, the tribals quickly learnt the vourite which to cook them. reminder cook that would things you, Seasons is magic.change.

Despite the of art of Portuguese cooking. And it was proba- tell perish.

Warsonslaught determine and comes highway eating, a foolproof bly one of them who invented the Bandel Masterchefs where your food from.

And in this specwillf***ed always guarded secret, cheese, one of the few local varieties that India recipe tacularly upremain world, a“mondo lagey na” like the locked spice-box of yesteryear’s can boast of. The hard, salty, pungent cheese, much (not too shabby) is a good enough incentive to matrons. available in pebble-size packs, often accompa- major-domo cook something. nies pastas, salads and risottos. And only two soitysengupta banerjee is a Delhi-based food and travel writer shops in Kolkata’s beloved New Market sell it. aditi

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Eat, cook, love Here are three delicious ways to add flavour to the festivities. Bring out the chef in you, or feast on the photos

On a sweet note Shahi tukda is also known as double ka meetha in Hyderabad, the city that is almost synonymous with the dessert

Shahi tukda Serves 3 Ingredients 6 slices of white bread, crust removed and cut in triangles 1 1/2 cup milk 2 tbsp fresh cream 1/4 cup sugar 2 tbsp rose water Handful of pistachios, chopped Ghee/butter for frying Saffron, a few strands

Method 1 Soak the saffron in the rose water and set aside.

2 Boil milk and cream in a small pan and reduce to half. Add the saffron to the milk.

3 Make syrup by dissolving the sugar in two tbsp of water.

4 Preheat oven to 180°C. 5 Meanwhile, shallow fry the bread in a pat of butter or ghee and drain on a paper towel.

6 Dip the bread in sugar syrup and arrange in an oven-proof dish.

7 Pour the thickened milk over the bread, top with pistachios and bake for five to seven minutes.

Serve warm.

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Mini pistachio and rose cream pies Makes 2 For the shortcrust

Pistachio pastry cream (Adapted from cookery website The Kitchn)

Ingredients

6 tbsp milk 3 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp flour 1 egg yolk A pinch of salt 1 tbsp pistachio paste (see note on the left) 1/4 cup whipped cream Green food colouring, optional

1 cup flour 1/4 cup icing sugar 5 tbsp unsalted butter A pinch of salt 1-2 tbsp water 1 egg yolk 2 tbsp milk

Pie perfect A pretty replacement for the regular mithai

Method 1 Place the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor, and using pulse mode, process in short burst until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.

2 Add the egg yolk and one tbsp of milk, and process again in short bursts until it is just combined.

3 Pinch the dough with your fingers; if it holds together, it is ready. Else, add another spoon of milk and try again.

4 Tip the mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and gather together, pressing lightly until it holds together.

Flatten into a disc and wrap tightly in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

5 Divide the dough by half, and put away the other half in the freezer.

6 Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper, until 1/4-inch thick.

7 Lift the pastry into the pan, press into the base and sides, trim excess pastry and prick the base all over with a fork.

8 Cover and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Gather the remaining dough into a ball, and repeat the rolling process with the second tin.

9 Now to blind bake the pastry, line both tins with baking paper and fill with baking weights or beans or rice.

10 Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 10 minutes. Remove paper and weights and continue baking for another 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden.

Ingredients

Method 1 In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt. Add in the egg yolk and mix until it forms a paste.

2 Heat the milk until it simmers. Add a spoonful to the paste and stir well. Add the rest of the milk slowly to the paste, whisking the entire time (or you’ll end up cooking the eggs!).

3 Now transfer the whole mixture into the pan, and heat it on a low flame, stirring constantly until it reaches a custard consistency.

4 Take it off the fire and add the pistaschio paste.

5 When it cools completely, fold in the whipped cream gently.

6 If using food colouring, stir it into the pastry cream now.

7 Cover the surface of the pastry cream with a plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Rose whipped cream Ingredients 1 cup whipping cream 1 tbsp icing sugar, or to taste 1/2 tsp rose flavouring Pink food colouring

Method 1 Whip the cream, and as it thickens, add the icing sugar and keep beating. Once it forms soft peaks, add the rose flavouring and mix well.

2 Swirl in a drop of pink food colouring with a toothpick.

To assemble 1 When the pastry case has cooled, spoon in a thick layer of the pistachio pastry cream — about 3/4th way up.

2 Top with the whipped cream.

3 Decorate as desired (we used dried rose petals).

4 Serve immediately.

Arikadukka Ingredients 25 mussels scrubbed, de-bearded and washed well 2 cups parboiled rice 4 green cardamom 1 cup grated coconut 1 small onion, chopped 4 cups water Masala for frying: 3 tbsp red chilli powder 1 tbsp aniseed powder Salt to taste

Method 1 Open each mussel with the help of a knife and leave to drain.

2 Bring water to boil in a pot, take it off the fire, add the rice and set aside for 30-40 minutes.

3 Drain the rice, add the coconut, onion, cardamom and salt and grind to a coarse, thick paste, adding as little water as possible.

4 Stuff the mussels with the rice paste and steam in a steamer for about three minutes, or until cooked.

5 Once cooled, remove the shell carefully. The mussels will stick to the rice dumpling.

6 Mix the ingredients for the masala with a little water until it forms a thick batter.

7 Dip the mussels in the batter and pan fry in coconut oil until lightly brown.

Out of the shell Arikadukka is a popular dish in Malabar’s Muslim kitchens

kathija hashim and aysha tanya run the blog The Malabar Tea Room

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Gourmet wheels Fuel Up food truck its next destination, it willdietary feed hungry people Raw history HinduThe widows, relegated to arushes corneralong of thetocookhouse and forcedwhere to follow strictures, topfuel theuplist of the un-applauded chefs of India reuters

Horn OK, feast The aroma of secrets

Food trucks are becoming all the rage in Bengaluru and raking in the moolah as they provide Cookbooks andtoTV shows are all the rage today, but for long there were only stories fuss-free grub thefood hungry passerby that kept recipes alive, even within families, and many an innovator faded away unsung

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ow does one keep up with food cause “we got a brand new truck,” said Jaisim- Das said that he has seen a phenomenal inustardIfoil.

Nigella seeds (kalonji). ha. trends? there is the mysterious trict,Several the illiterate cooking lessons for crease in the number of food trucks opening buy widow’s and modify second-hand Potatofoam sticks,ofthe thinnest possifloating liquid nitrogen in trucks, the young ‘stories’. he Bijoylakshmi said, adding were that mostly there are rules for business in the last four months alone. “… I ble. And only long (not squat) molecular gastronomy one sea- against She wasusing too poor to buy most oftothe second-hand trucks sellingrefood know of six more trucks that are being fabriPut it all in a bowl son, there isgreen the chillies. back-to-basic flavours of if dients for the recipes handed down orally. they have been usedshe to ferry passengers and/ cated as we speak. We share staff, when there is and steam forfood’ half that an hour.

That’s greasy ‘dude trends for the most next, or Biju andWithout her mother less and thanby a drop in a need,” he said. goods. heftyare rents mostly straightforward recipe for what thousands of cooking each preceded by the now ubiquitous hashthe Indian the ocean of unsungare innotheocean food —themselves, revenues in As a community, they plan to rent out large Bengalis callthebati chochhori, dish, when the tag.

Perhaps latter is a nod toa the ‘all-Amervators whose recipes, quite recently, range of ₹3-8 lakh peruntil month, all three say. grounds for events. Later this month, nine served with slightly rice, performs ican man’ — hot, slouched on soggy a sofa with cold beer didn’t their way into cookbooks or area tele- food trucks will gather at a common venue. An Foodmake trucks, however, remain in a grey well on the in hand andcomfort-food boxes of pizzaquotient. or a burger in front of vised Lost in theof cauldron are the stotheshows. business because the near-absence of annual food carnival is also on the cards. Fuel there’s a little more to Hollywood this story, accord— But popularised by generic offer- laws ries regarding of nameless, faceless whose this new entrantpeople to the food in- Up also creates a personalised menu for priing toDude my food mother. that hotdogs, ‘little more’ is dustry. ings.

— orAnd burgers, sandexperiments in the kitchen, forapart reasons social Subbarao told me that from the vate parties, though their regular haunts are courtesynachos, of Biju,BBQ-ed a matronly who ruled standard wiches, steaksfigure and an in-house and otherwise, have peppered ourbemenus food licence, there should a per- tech parks, where they offer healthier options the kitchen and—hearts certain Ghoshmenu fam- mit special or two make of upathe standard withfrom textures, colours and aromas. the city municipal corlike salads and sandwiches. Acily ainfood Bhowanipore, middleon truck, whereathe fluff of restaurants poration to park With standing within theselittle trucks in cording to Das, their goal is to class southtoKolkata neighbouris trimmed highlight just the food. families, womenand saw the kitchen different neighbourhoods bring “gourmet food onto the hood, for overhas two18decades after Bengaluru registered already, out of from the RTOasfor their fiefdom and their cookmodifications streets.”

Independence. high-rimmed which one is an Aice-cream truck. Several skillsBut andproviexperimentsFood re- trucks, vehicles.

Experimenting with the She have was toomade poor to to the ing however, remain in a aluminium — used more employees, been startedbowl by former corporate mained guarded secrets, as sions for the latter two don’t exist sauces, adding new flavours to buy most of the grey area of the frequently storing milk than lured away for from regular paycheques by a love “yet,” to Das winisthe approval he said.heirlooms, It is an issue regular hotdogs — New Yorkingredients for the business cooking made bati of chochfor food — and theBiju’s promise a receptive mar-shetrying of thehaving menfolk and control other to resolve, started style one day, Vietnamese the recipes handed hori stand did the soft- others good ket.

Some out, are as trained chefs, women, the The Food Truck Association,especially a nanext — in-house specialities like down orally boiled duck eggs she added as home-cooks.

Operating with minimum staff, tionwide body daughters-in-law. that already has pork ribs and fried Oreos are garnish. yolks tonedcooking up a 80-plus members, they frontThe therunny desk, so to speak, Hindu widows, relegated to a mostly from how USPs are created. The fredown the pungency of at theconcert mus- venues and the metros. The storm around the city, lonely cornercorporation of the cookhouse, municipal in Gur- Lives quentofchanges menu Bengali ensurehouseholds, that customothers Inin orthodox cooked a range of animal protein despite tard oil, making the Ghoshes, my even private parties. thetolist of the food un-applauded gaon is soon top going consider trucks as widows ers keep coming back.

People from different a roy chowdhury forbidden from eating them mother among them, happy abunch.

The investment to one fabricate truck and commercial chefs of India.

Sitting over herwhich own stove, thea being establishments, will be age groups and earning brackets — several of Widowed 17, Bijucanteen lived and died onwidely. a rad- relief turn it into aatmobile can vary widowtosearched for have variety in heragainst restricted owners who to battle fre- whom ‘mock’ turn forbidden foods: egg curry made with into regulars — can easily afford to ically vegetarian diet for the of next years. quent Siddhanth Sawkar, co-owner The50Spitfire diet. Apart from meats, and eggs, stric- eat complaints fromfish residents forthe ‘taking cottage cheese and lentils, raw jackfruit curry at the trucks.

Dressed in built whitethe with her hair cropped andofa up BBQ truck, vehicle himself, at a cost tures prohibited consumption of masoor dal, (which too much parking space’ and occasional can passand of as mutton) (tiIndian cities street foodand havethe anbori intrinstring of “We tulsi have beadsa around her neck, shethis ex- harassment ₹11 lakh. fabrication unit, so onions, garlic, garam and even from themasala authorities.

Das spinsaid sic ny connection. lentil dumplings also trucks knownstand as vadi in But these apart celled in cooking almost everything the ortho- that was a piece of cake,” he says.

Shakti Subbarao’s ach in some eastern The outcome was a not Mumbai is alsostates. considering introducing north India). only for their eye-catching get-up but also dox dictates of one widowhood keptpopular off her food own guidelines Gypsy Kitchen, of the other hidden treasury of recipes, and laws, and it using shouldingredients soon hap- theInfood her they shortoffer. storyFor ‘The Widow and theVirgin well-travelled city plate —in fish, prawns, poultry trucks town, is a year and aand halfmutton. old. He The sta- pen like in vegetable peels and even seeds. Bengal’s slicker, Bengaluru as well.

Poppadams’ in TheYork LittleinMagazine, it is (published a slice of New namma tabooshisdidn’t her fromatexperimenting tions truckstop — fabricated a cost of ₹8.5 famous chochhori andthree chhechki — vegetable In Bengaluru, these food trucks — and Bengaluru.

2007), Delhi-based journalist Sudha Tilak illuswith — animal mentor, as is of often lakh at HSRprotein.

Layout Her in the south-east the others mish-mash thatThe areSWAT part of everyday meals in trates the culinary skills of her great grandlike De3, Truck, Off Road Food bhasthi isPati a writer anddespite the editor of The the case, her mother. the humble kitchcity.

Fuel was Up, co-owned

by In Deepthi Das and her Truck an average household — were out of deepa — are starting to build whatborn might soon mom Yechumi who, her own ‘life an online quarterly journal on food“worked politics to en of her village home in them Orissa’s Cuttack husband Jaisimha, cost ₹36 lakh, disbe- turn theseout experiments.

As did of thefood dishes that Forager, to be a community truckers. of deprivation and bereavement’,

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Cookbook chutney How to befriend your recipe book authors and spice up their lives with ingenuity and cheek.

Making time: unknown. Serves: all

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n the mid-1990s, when my brother left home to study, my father gave him a closely written foolscap paper. Covered in his bold hand, it had the recipe of an all-purpose jhol or curry. A flow chart of sorts, with potatoes, eggs, fish, chicken and mutton, each inserted somewhere between step one and step 12, depending on cooking time and Bengali whim (“for deemer jhol, fry the boiled eggs until they blister”). Yet, this distilled sum of my father’s culinary prudence was more than just a set of instructions. It revealed as much about its author as it did about his estimation of the reader, his collegiate son (“step back before you light the gas”).

When I look at my cookbooks, especially the bone” feed to and comfort a large, those that to belong simpler times, I seenoisy peoand forever-hungry The story also ple not things. Peoplebrood. who lent something of throws light on widow, the pallu themselves to how the the food they with cooked and covering herHome shaven head, reserved herto afterchronicled. cooks who brought the noons food experiments: table a for combination of natural talent, remem“Yechumi was in charge of making prebered tastes,Pati individual temperament and serves pickles and making wheat between and ragi lots ofand typos.

Authors who thrived vadams, lentil appalams and wafers and of sago the pages poorly produced, picture-less other These nothing were usually outside the books,fritters. and thought of ending a reciambit of“Put dailyonmeal and demanded pe with: dummaking till water dries up and elaborate and skill... Then when only ghee preparations remains.” theAtsun baked the roof to blazing a time when cookbooks areproportions, reinventing she would tiptoe and hop onand the science burningjourterthemselves as graphic novels race to spreadare huge sheets of their damplives, fabnals, floor and bloggers unpacking ric, her old of torn nine-yard saris. On lovesusually and contents their fridge online, it appalams and them, she would may seem bizarrelay to the dig round for meaning in terse vadams toand drydry across the entire length sago half-sentences ingredient lists.

But and breadth the roof.” imagine the of thrill of ‘knowing’ or dreaming up a person who writes almost with biblical Secrets galore certainty: “Those not admiring garlic flavour Better known than the aunts, grandmothers (sic) can also be served this (lahsun ki kheer) and not nannies who toiled round-the-clock withknow.” out praise or acknowledgement, is the story of whatAli. if I told that the khansama cookbook Haji ow, Murad The you one-armed (nicknamed ‘tunda’ his handicap) from I’ve quoted fromfor above lists a bunch of Bhopal put Lucknow the global culinary game dishes?

That itsonjungli mans recipe is map with melt-in-the-mouth gilawati kepaired withhisthe disclaimer — “I have deliberbabs and flaky paranthas. Tunday, the shop he set up in the busy Chowk area in 1899, made headlines last year when the founder-chef’s nephews (Ali died childless) went to court to settle a dispute over patenting the legacy. The court decided in favour of Mohammad Usmaan, grandson of Ali’s younger brother.

The legitimacy row may have died down, but the recipe that catapulted the nondescript eatery into the culinary Ivy League remains a mystery. In every interview — print and broadcast — Usmaan maintains that the ingredients used are a ‘family secret’. He also dodges questions on whether the magic formula is in the safety of a bank locker, just like the ones for Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The internet is flooded with ‘guesswork’ recipes for the Tunday kebab. Some claim that at least 160 ingredients go into it, while others attribute the unique taste to sandalwood. The genesis of the Tunday story goes back to the royal patronage of chefs by the Nawabs of Awadh. It is said the recipe was created to sate the cravings of a toothless Nawab, who had offered a handsome reward for it. More than 50 kg of the kebab, with an overpowering taste of garam masala, are sold every day from the

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ately avoided giving any weight and measures you rather not acquaint yourself with a womas these are not available when stranded on an whose photo covers 3x3 inch of the inside shikar”? But look beyond the imperial titles of backcover of a two-volume cookbook? One both the cookbook, Cooking Delights of the who wrote the book in 1910 — 26 years before Maharajas — Exotic Dishes from the Princely Tarla Dalal was born and 63 years before MadHouse of Sailana, and its author, Digvijaya hur Jaffrey publishedSun-baked her first,treats James BeardOutside the ambit of Singh, and you might discover a man who’s winning cookbook. daily cooking, activities used to giving orders, of course (“always use Pragyasundari Devi, who singlehandedly like papad-making Gujarati yam”), and exacting to a fault [“serve improved my rusty Bengali-reading involve elaborate skills, is a preparations (murgh irani) when it’s almost cold”], yet not grandmotherly feeder of souls. and Theskill kind one paul noronha; (below) a entirely inflexible in his kingly ways (his ga- must always write about in present tense. still from Luv Shuv Tey ram masala includes 11 ingredients, but saf- Quick to admit whenChicken she’s uncertain Khurana, a [(roughfron is optional!). Like the conductor of an ly translated) “It’s hard to telltake exactly light-hearted on how family recipes orchestra, Singh is more head chef muchsecret water you’ll need for than home cook. An aesthete who pulao”], the implicit idea that loves music and art, tends to his not all meals are uniformly rose and cactusof gardens, and ‘dressgood, ormade that insome dishes greasy counter the Chowk establishment.

The Bandel cheese is not Bandel anyWhen I look at my es’Amost dishes with and rai- take ought to be celebrated refreshing and nuts light-hearted on more.

The only information available is thatfor it cookbooks, especially sins… Rubbed up against earlyis thethose their ordinariness runs ‘guarded-with-life’ family the secrets, 2012 that comes from a Kolkata factory. belong to Luv Shuv Chicken ’80s, when film the book wasTey first pub- Khurana. her 2,800-odd Bollywood Given the lackthrough of our own versions of thereciEnsimpler times, I see vi- not It tells the Omi (Kunal Kapoor), the lished, thisstory is anofobvious thing to HadAmerican she hosted TV show, glish Mrs Beetonpes. or the TVacelebrity people things who seeks lait-returned do. Not so Punjabi obviousman though is refuge in cook Julia Child,I Indian imagine the lebu’r (lime) recipes have long rehis ancestral houseontoserving escape nimcreditors. The mained lost among Singh’s insistence soufflés thatlore sankand wouldn’t be family cooking other behind his trip homeinis the reviv- traditions. Meenakshi ish, a reason milky, ephemeral dessert, whisked away and under the Ammal her Cook the closest to arefrain cooking al of Chicken Khurana, not a family “clay cups (sakroas)” silver.recipe that and See series come counter.

And the of biits The Calof sorts forbeSouth as hers does — made dhaba a nameact to reckon with. UnforCould its this be a minor of rebellion?

Or re- ble jingle would this Indians, maxim of “Who byBut Minakshie Das cutta Cook Book tunately, the man who created the verse snobbery?

A subtle stab at self-definition doesn’t want delicious food? just because Gupta,mean Bunny Gupta Jaya dish Omi’swith grandfather, loveven?—Check Uncle Jung. you want it, doesn’t you’ll get and it easily.

Chaliha in Bengal. These, ingly Daarjiand — isfervour seYet called the “flavour of a Maharaja’s Good food is hard work.” too, were nile and that ailing. personality” the book takes such pride in As if handholding young brides —published or in my long afterpasta the families Through a series of opaque as a subject of case, a novice who learnt makes Singh somewhat to cook before had always passedsets down trials and errors, investigation.

Unless one cheats and mines posto (poppy seeds) — Devi her handwritten reciOmi and child3,620 search results on Google. But where’s sights on a flawless meal, but takes the lowest pes from elder hood the funsweetheart in that? common denominator among herthe readers matrons.

Much Harman (Huma along. And when after a series of instructions he more obscure a writer, the greater the she arrives at the end of a recipe, like our thata Qureshi) finally sheepics lets out latitude discover the for se- audacity, for cooked trans- joyous “iha besh lage khaiteymetamorphosed (this is quite engressions.

Buxom authors holding out trays of joyable to eat)”. Sometimes,from their oral cret ingredient she’s near-lyrical come-hither cupcakes on the cover are all very — like when she says, sure you and rethat gave Chickcanregional wrap a blanwell, and dishy men with meat cleavers even ket around the vessel in which tellings into a TV en Khurana a disyou set curd in better.

But insofar as cultivating meaningful the colder months, but “rodey avatar since boro the tinct edge. doi jomaleo relationships with strangers in the kitchen, chomotkar hoye” (setting 1990s, cooking and curd under the winThe other bits they leave little room for imagination. Would ter sun can be magicalrecipes movedif from too). I wonder such the homestead a pubThe story of the Bandel poetic proclivity has something to doto with her lic Tagore forum orafter cookery cheese, a small but signifiuncle Rabindranath her husband became popular stalwart on TV. cant roundel of heritage, is yet Lakshminath shows Bezbarua, a literary another secret. Several cookfrom Assam. A post-liberalisation economy, families, books tell us that it was born in Women innuclear the Tagore familywell-travelled have always Indians itching to try different India, Bengal to be precise, unbeen more progressive than the average bhoOmi and childhood cuisines all added to the demand der Portuguese supervision. In dromohila.

But to embrace the idea of cooking sweetheart Harman for orcookbooks andso heartily, cookery 1579, Akbar granted Pedro Tafiringi (foreign) ‘Mughal’ food finally discover shows. Today, many vares the permission to build a suggests conscious choice.

Hadyoung Devi wombeen the secret ingredient en are chronicling their secret church and a town. That exalive and cooking today, at a death-defying 145 that gave Chicken home recipes into cooked family cookplains the birth of Bandel, a few years, jellies and stews in inKhurana a her aspic The books — think, Aparna Jain’s hours from Kolkata, on the digenous Icmic cookers would perhaps be lost distinct edge or Cooking Family Cookbook banks of the Hooghly river. By in airbrushedSood coffee table perfection.

Or she compilation of OdiUp A Storm, the end of the century, the town may have surprised us allaby taking to molecuya family recipescuisine

by Suneeta and became a hub of wealthy Portular gastronomy or nouvelle like hilsa guese traders, who lived in luxuto the PadmaSusmita river. Misra. But be warned… even today, many an about Indian her mother-in-law rious riverside mansions.

What I love most cookbook notare part with that of secret ingredient that The men who cooked for the European set- may though the listings sequences in which son’s heart a plateful of his fatlers came from the hill tracts of Chittagong. melts certainher foods must beover served, and seasons in food. theA fastidious would Known as Mogs, the tribals quickly learnt the vourite which to cookFood, them. reminder cook that things you, Seasons is magic.change.

Despite the of art of Portuguese cooking. And it was proba- tell perish.

Warsonslaught determine andcomes highway eating, a foolproof bly one of them who invented the Bandel Masterchefs where your food from.

And in this specwillf***ed always guarded secret, cheese, one of the few local varieties that India recipe tacularly up remain world, a“mondo lagey na” like the locked spice-box of incentive yesteryear’s can boast of. The hard, salty, pungent cheese, much (not too shabby) is a good enough to matrons. available in pebble-size packs, often accompa- major-domo cook something. nies pastas, salads and risottos. And only two soitysengupta banerjee is a Delhi-based food and travel writer shops in Kolkata’s beloved New Market sell it. aditi

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The more the merrier Storytelling adds to the flavour of cook-together sessions; (below) a family portrait from the author’s personal album all images by aysha tanya

Past forward All for one, one for all The vegetarian cuisine Sheherwalis — Jain settled in Bengal’s Murshidabad Learning a family recipe,ofor even the right waytraders to crackwho an egg without breaking the yolk, is more thaninducted 300 years agoa — is a marriage of diverse influences like being into secret society. Putting together a cookbook, therefore, is another way of preserving stories and memories

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t’s water chestnut time of the year and The Sheherwalis are devout Jains with roots with the products of its muslin weavers, bell hirty egg four cups of over sug- in the baskets atyolks localand markets brim watched theirbut mothers make this dishincountRajasthan who call Azimganj, Mur- metal showedartisans, me the right way to crack egg withsilversmiths, juteanproducers No, this isn’t a recipe a wonky shidabad with ar. this moss-green aquaticfor vegetable, less timesdistrict, in the home. old days, mutta re- and They speakmaala a Hindi out breaking the yolk, I felt like I was being inwoodcarvers. science experiment, the main studded whose spiny skin protects but the succulent mains strictly caterer’s dish. with aRajasthani, Bengali, and Urdu ducted into thrived, a secret It comfelt The settlers their society. wealth and for experimenting the classic Malabari white ‘nut’ingredients within. I enjoy with words; Theretreat are many reasons dishes likea munity mangoes with why the reverence monumental in the way pickingthese up a peonew burgeoned, andthat gradually Muslim (Mappila) dish mutta maala.

Thisthem ‘egg sommelier paniphal (to use the local name), using mutta maalashows are nowine; longer at the of ple and theirfingertips vegetarian skillofor the learning new language makes you deserta made the river-fed fertile garland’ anmeats, integral part of aevery Mappila in salads is and throwing handful into food, every while Mappila cook. For one, there’s matmaintaining rigorous Jainthe laws of Murshidabad feel. Like I hadplains accesstheir to ahome. part of culture Inmy their statecelebration. The sunshine-yellow threads of no Asian-inspired stir-fries, serving them wrapter root of tediousness separating 30 ly vegetables —orcarefully spices (onions, garlic, that is slowlymansions, slipping away. riverside they lived by Jain dicyolk,in simmered sugar food, syrup,and is a dropping fixture at ginger), ped bacon asinfinger yolks from the whites is no joke.

Then there is tates of austerity. But they were far from frequently features native Bengal proAt home everywhere feasts,into and is just steaming as firmly entrenched every them clear broths. Butinmy fa- duce the issue having right jackfruit utensils. and A ladle like of potol (waxthe gourd), its insular, and interacted with the local Bengalis Mappilaavatar heart: aisprospective groom comingsato seeds, vourite the Sheherwali paniphal made from coconut shell is used pour(bel) the and plantain (kaanch kola), woodtoapple I’m ashamed to admit that when I first started the extended household of the Nawab. visit? Ghee rice,golden-crisp mutton currytriangles, and muttawhere maa- and mosa: dainty yolk water in thin strands into bubbling vat of cooking, it was Presented chestnuts.

Theythe make crispy latkes, andBengal’s airy, light-aswith yearla are likely to beofon menu.replaces A wedding the subtle crunch thethe paniphal the generous sugar. Butuse as I of stood to my aunt, while she a-cloud soufflés the next Bengali fivethat interested rather round abundance of me vegetables function forpotato 1,000 guests?

Mutton biryani and spice mix paanch phoron, black customary mash filling, and the familand fruit, they swiftly introduced mutta maala are samosa what every iar North Indian spice self-respecting cocktail of cu- mustard seeds and mustard oil; these into their kitchen, modifywedding host willand serve. min, asafoetida aamchoor is given an but they also freely raid the Naing traditional Rajasthani reciInspired by the And to bring it full circle, thestamp naming unexpected, stridently Bengali withcerethe wabi spice cupboard for the frapes to include them, and also Bengali’s famed mony richness for a newborn will also most likely in- grant heat of cinnamon, sweet of coconut. adopting Bengali and Nawabi sweet tooth, soon volve mutton in some variation I love preparing these moreish paniphal cardamom, cloves and pepper. they were patronising spices and cooking methods, as the local moira and, of because course, mutta snacks of themaala. symphony of taste and long as no Jain dietary rules were The perfect blend (confectioner) and Considering the importance of is heighttextures they offer.

And the pleasure broken. Inspired by the Bengali’s also creating their this dessert celebratingthat all the ened by theinknowledge I’m preparing A raconteur par excellence, Siddfamed sweet tooth, soon they It felt monumental in own versions of monumental events in our famfood that’s been created by the highly-evolved harth’s spellbinding stories ilwere patronising the local moira the way that picking the pitha ily life, you would think that the culinary tradition of Bengal’s Sheherwalis, a lustrate the remarkable (confectioner) and also creating up a new skill or enthusiastic of cooks of the Mappicommunity wealthy Jains who had settled business acumen and cultural their own versions of the pitha learning a new la families in the state.would have this recipe that marked the She(thin rice flour pancakes scented languageadaptation makes down pat. encounter However, surprisingly, My first with Sheherwali cuisine herwalis’ early, glorious history with rose water) and nariyal katli you feel mostatMappila cooks are not fa- Siddharth in Murshidabad. It’s a tale that was the home of the Dudhorias, (coconut fudge). miliar with making mutta maala. and Sangeeta.

That splendid meal, and several begins some 300 years ago when some Jain They borrowed elements from the Bengali Not the women in the family whowith food in- families of Rajasthan took up the invitation of Babu’s wardrobe and developed a unique diasubsequent interactions (always spend their days elabovolved!) hosted bycooking this couple have helped me the Nawab of Murshidabad to come settle in lect. Gradually, this small community rate meals, the Masterchef-watching, learn aboutnot Sheherwali history, and itsfood re- Azimganj and Jiaganj, twin towns situated on morphed into a culturally distinct group and blog-devouring 20-somethings who are com- either side of the Bhagirathi river. They trav- came to be labelled Sheherwalis by Jains living markable food practices that seamlessly fortable in the kitchen The truth is elled across the breadth of the country to pro- outside Azimganj, the term referring to their bine Rajasthani, Bengaliotherwise. and Nawabi elements that besides a few women who have vide financial services in a region prosperous urbane sophistication. within the matrix of older Jain strictures.

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Paniphal ka tarkari (Stir-fried water chestnuts) Serves 6 water chestnuts the500g ingredients of a great family cookbook, in 1 tsp cumin you seedsbetter understand a family that it helps 1 tsp heeng (asafoetida) through the food they cook.

Wide angle 1/2 tsp turmeric powder Chhaata ka dahi khichdi Nothing prepared me for the journey of dis1 tspyour red own chilli powder Know (Rice in yoghurt) covery at that first fabulous meal. I had expect1 tsp coriander powder Serves 4 It turns out that it(dry is possible to better undered, I realise later, Marwari food with a twist.

1 tsp aamchoor mango powder) stand even through the process of Instead, a steady march of texture, flavour and 1 cup rice 1 1/2your tsp family salt 1 cup yoghurt writing cookbook with them. We set up a aroma, awed the senses. Everything was new, 1 tbsp aghee 1 tbsp besan (gram flour) committee to take charge of collecting and oryet hinted tantalisingly at something familiar; 1 Wash and peel the water chestnuts.

1/2 cup chhaata (lotus seeds) ganising thethin recipes.

One of the biggest chalwe could recognise a spice or an ingredient, Slice into pieces.

1 1/2 cup water lenges wethe faced when compiling but only for a fleeting second as the sauce or 2 Heat ghee in a pan.

Add therecipes cumin is 1/4 tsp heeng that evenand within a family, there are several verthe cooking style would be something we seeds heeng.

8 almonds (soak and grind) As you like it Cooking mutta maala, a classic Mappila author’s sions.

Which to include?

My grandmother hadn’t experienced in this combination.

San-dish, at2the 3 Once theone cumin seeds have browned, tbsp ghee family kitchen in Kannur add her the fried sliced chicken water chestnuts, turmeric made with onions, and so geeta guided us through each item.

Salt to taste powder salt. Cover cook that’s howand my mother andthe allpan my and aunts make Starters included flat round kachoris, exactGrind together for the masala powder: low heatmy forgrandmother’s 15 minutes, stirring tspthe cumin seeds than food that I kochuri grew upineating.

That are1 at However, sister hated ly likethe the Bengali peas appearance table, sharing a meal with them. The it. on occasionally.

1/2-inch sticks by a few family didn’t change until quitewith recently when and my recipes onions in her fried chicken, and that’s how her and crispness, but filled cucumber arepiece oftencinnamon accompanied 4 Add the red chilli powder, coriander 3 cloves extended decided with to compile family stories children it to this day. hung curdfamily and redolent the richa garam and photographs to give you context. powdermake and aamchoor powder. Stir on 2 small cardamoms, powdered cookbook. wenawabs. were putting list While we argued and minutes. recipe-tested masalas ofAs the Lunchtogether featureda the One of my favourite family cookbooks is Olmedium heat for five Now our add way 2 1/2 tsp turmeric powder by Rawia Bishara, who potol ,to inbe a gravy fragrant with cinnaLemons & Za’atar of the recipes included, listening to the ives, through the list, we also realised that meahumble tbsp of water and sauté on high heat for 1 tsp red chilli powder five minutes.

Serve but they ka daal, lau left her childhood home in Nazareth and set- surements mon and roasted jeera.and In lauki elders discuss curries appams hadn’t were not hot. something most home 1 Cook the rice.with Beather thefamily. yoghurt (bottleingourd) anditchana daalclear (Bengal in Brooklyn Hertobook is a cooks feel compelled to use — more often than eaten decades, became thatgram), there tled remove any lumps. Mix in the besan and everyday fare of oninformation the Bengali platter, was a wealth that wedonned stood toa celebration of Palestinian dishes she learnt to not, seasoned cooks eyeball ingredients rathwater with the beaten yoghurt to get a lightifcloak of Rajasthani spices collect including mother back Nazareth, lose we didn’t systematically andasare- cook thinfrom liquidher consistency.

Heatinthis mixture, and er than use precise measurements. My aunt Kachche aam launji foetida and red chilli. of miles away from her Razia cord.

It became clear why this family that usu- which, says that shekakeeps track when she cooks stirringthousands continuously.

(Raw mango maariya, ricesecrets starch would water, hometown, Inguarded another dish, with a add the ally recipes like state bychutney) remembering the number of 2 Once theprovides mixture her starts boiling, Serves 4 times she stirs a dish. For examground masalas, salt turmeric powder. typically eaten in rural Bengal as no-frills highconnection to and her roots. want to put their minds together to come up lasting boiledimagine, chhaata and cooked nutrition food, was transformed dish fit It 3is,Now as add youthe would with a cookbook — to ensure thatinto the ayounger ple: add the sugar to the milk and 250g raw mango rice. Simmer over lowand heat.

100g sugar stir 100 times, which to someone dal away (red gram) for kings by adding to arhar with nostalgia childgeneration, even asitthey moved from tinged 4 Heat the ghee in a pan. Add the cumin tsp salt who learnt to cook from cookMy aunt Razia1says richly scented masala in carry wholea hood memories. families to startwith theirgaram own lives, could seeds, heeng, cloves, small cardamoms green chillies thatand she keeps2track and powdered form.them.

Unlike Olives, Lemons & Za’apiece of home with books that are precise down to red chilli powder. Pour over yoghurt rice 1 1/4 tsp of paanch phoron when she cooks by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s The Sheherwalis have have reinvented Family cookbooks carved the out Bengali a niche tar, half a minute, is a bit unnerving. and mix well. tbsp mustard oil remembering1 the khichuri into a dizzying number of flavourful for themselves in the food world over the past Settler’s Cookbook focuses on the Although family cookbooks, 1/4 tsp heeng (asafoetida) number of times she forms. or Onso.this occasion we had khichuri recipes that her family concoctdecade 2 bay leavesespecially the ones with very trastirs cooked yoghurt, besan (gram flour) and ed onthe moving away from India with pungent heat of the mustard oil in a dish Somewith of them are heritage cookbooks ditional recipes, may seem su1 Wash andperfluous, peel the raw they mango. play Cut intoan peas, infused withhave the complex, settling in East Many which they had beenAfrica. roasted. share recipes that been partmulti-layered of the family and 1x1 inch cubes. Wash and slice the green aroma of several mustard thethis recipes, have dollops their of aam ki was which eaten with for decades, whilespices. othersTempered are eclectic collec- of All important role in preserving chillies into thin slices. a Ben- roots a sweet-sour mango launji,in seeds of gave the cucumber salad India, provide a chutney clear that was a tions traditional recipes that(raarhi) sit alongside history and provid2 Heat the one’s oil in family a pan; add paanch missi rotis gali touch while the recently of have flavours in the travels, and ones that have more made it into the map of theirstarburst socialand commentary. phoron, baying leaves heeng. Cook on trickedrepertoire. us into thinking ‘Rajasmouth — the fennel-dominant been modified to include local East African infamily One of the reasons recmedium heat for a traditional minute. Addheirloom the chopped raw phoron, asafoetida, than’ surprise the palatecookbooks are gredients —paanch plantains withwarm peanut curry; ipes Theonly mosttoengaging of these get a bad repmango, is that salt theyand are turmeric considered to posho fiery green chilli. We finished bepowder. the ones that give you a peek into the everyday time-consuming and tedious. Yes, it does Sheherwalis haveand rice.

Add sugar themutton raw mango is malpoa,a amemoir, Bengali mishti Although technically it has the all not3 make with life of the family, and make you feel like you senseonce to cook in a terracotta reinvented the cooked. Cook on medium heat until the Sheherwalis love. vessel over a wood-fired stove for most people, Bengali khichuri into sugar melts.

The meal was served on gleambut recipes can be updated while still staying a dizzying number of ing kasha flatware — the dull true to their essence. flavourful forms gold-hued bell metal that the Another setback faced when cooking reciwealthy of Bengal have tradition- pes that have been around for decades is that ally eaten from. We were sur- they food often in theinvolve public antiquated space. Sangeeta has that trained utensils are rounded by exquisite silver no chefs at ITCreadily Sonar,available.

Kolkata, in the distinctive longer However, with a artefacts and framed photographs that little principles, preparation, andtopresentation ingenuity, it is possible improvise. Inofa muttaRecently, maala that I mentioned earlishowed men and women in elaborate formal pinch, family the dishes. the five-star hotel can be made by drizzling the yolk of a wear. Sangeeta, a textile archivist, jokingly er hosted a Sheherwali food festival andout a numbag. are now options for a banquet. grumbled how most of her winter is spent piping ber of dishes The greatest benefit of incorporating more emptying steel cupboards of ancient robes To ensure that the treasure trove of recipes recipesthe into our meals is that it is made of the finest muslin and silk, sunning traditional are documented, Dudhorias also supportsurest way to eatofsustainably. them and then putting them back, making the ed the publication a coffee table book on As the world rediscovers sustainable eating, sure she has changed the folds in order to pre- Sheherwali cuisine and culture (Sheherwali: by Regal Vegetarian Cuisine of Murshidabad it becomes obvious that this is the way most vent stress tears.

Pradip families Chopra, have 2012).eaten Theyuntil are also Indian quitemembers recently.

Tender, loving care of the Murshidabad HeritageonDevelopment Our kitchens relied heavily local, often Society and, produce amongstand other have theinitiatives, dishes changed Like the fabric she works so hard to preserve, homegrown started the on Heritage Walk around Azimganj, the season.

In our attempt to Sangeeta is aware that her family’s cuisine is a depending which feature a fullofSheherwali localmay andsoon seasonal, the food our ancesprecious, but vulnerable heirloom. Realising eat spread for strongest participants. is our ally. that it’s imperative to take the cuisine outside tors the purview of private homes to reach a wider tanya is aisKannur-based food writer arundhati ray a Kolkata-based food writer audience, the couple has worked to place the aysha Different strokes Even within a family, there are several versions of a recipe

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Here to stay (clockwise from below) A Sheherwali thali ilead kolkata; pitha, one of the traditional Bengali sweets the Jains took to shutterstock; a vendor carries a basket of water chestnuts reuters/danish ismail

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Tried and of tested Anatomy hateat home AGENDA

A new breed of home-schooled chefs — those who earned their chops in their family There is— a core economic to the current ‘intolerance’. The formula is simple: India kitchen are stirring the angle F&B pot needs to get richer to become more tolerant

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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hefs could be broadly categorised ominant liberal thought modern into three types: Those in who were democracies affirms thatinstitute; religion ‘born’ in a professional and politics should alwaysbusiness/ stay septhose born into a family This and is naïve: are — tradition ofarate. cooking; thosereligions who are ‘born’ and always have been — political movements. at home!

In Today, fact, the world’s major religions are the more and more chefs are emerging most successful political and parties of all time. from the third category creating ripples, of Hinduism, Islam or as if Think not waves, in the world of Christianity F&B. They are politicaldriven parties, started bordering by the respective largely by passion, on insanprophets, evolved centuries ity.

I shouldwhich knowhave as I belong toover this group. into trans-national, I must confess, thehyper-political path is strewn entities, with as now called religion.

Also, think ofwith a 20th-cenmany potholes and mines, as it is laurels turybouquets. political movement Maoism, which and And while itlike is not an easy ride, can evolve over one. centuries into a it is asimilarly thoroughly enjoyable trans-national religion, particularly if China For a home chef, the biggest critics are right becomes thefamily dominant country as of also the 21st there at the dining-table, the century,cheerleaders. as it is on course be. can, at times, biggest Theto barbs In the history of the world, yesterday’s drive thelong chef-in-the-making to contemplate politics is today’s religion, Itoday’s is abandoning the kitchen... did, a politics couple of tomorrow’s soentrenched forth. Therefore, times, only toreligion, becomeand more in the the impermeable of themy church kitchen and ended“separation up abandoning jourand theand state” is a red herring. nalism filmmaking career. In the world’s two democracies India and thefood, US — Mylargest forte today is south—Indian coastal an eminently permeable membrane sepabut decades ago, as a schoolboy, my experirates religion fromthe politics. ments began with oven and baking. UnforBoth the Hindu India,‘sank’, and the Christunately, my first right cakesinnever and the tian right in theencouragement US, are active andfrom mainstream overwhelming my fampolitical players.

Their hatred of the ‘others’ ily pushed me to become its official baker.

The (fundamentally an essential cooking bug wellMuslims) and truly isestablished, my wedge that triumphant right-wing journey towards chefdom began. politicians from Narendra Modi to George have A couple of decades ago, whenWweBush married, usedwife en route to power.toItmanage is no coincidence my and I decided the house that the any current spate help. of Islamophobia Inwithout domestic That meant in lookdia after comes around the same time as the elecing the kitchen too. tions Bihar. passed on to us a diary with a My in mother Post 9/11,ofthe rabid Islamophobia these collection simple recipes.

Both of usoftreated politicians andand theirfollowed supporters issingle also a step, sign it like the Bible every of the success of political Islam: the Taliban, especially the measurements.

Al-Qaeda or Islamic State’s caliphate The sudden discovery thatglobal one can create dreams need Muslim victimhood in what pluralist good home-food, or at least that’s we democracies.

India, Modi’s government is thought of it,In was a great feeling.

But along unwittingly doing its to help thethe likes of came the potholes — best friends loved food Islamic State their cardinal theory of but critics inestablish the family were not going to be

Under attack From the poor villager Mohammed Akhlaq, to Bollywood’s biggest superstar Shah Rukh Kin do The author Khan, no one is spared (extreme right) with the bile and bigotry of his culinary skills the Hindu right mob team aruanangsuaudit roy chowdhury

generous. From downright “What is this?” to right consistency, smell, taste and colour.

Muslim be victimhood.

From the missing”, poor villager “Could better, something the vulnerable the Hindu right’s aggression.

After twoto years, and alongside a steadily inMohammedwere Akhlaq to Bollywood’s biggest su- creasing comments enough to drive one to order But there is also athe core economic to repertoire, erissery finallyangle got the perstar Khan,born, no one is spared the thumbs-up in.

But aShah chefRukh was being and it was one the current ‘intolerance’, whichtable’ most of Indifrom the ‘high during bile and of the Hindu who was bigotry not willing to give up.right mob. The Onam. an media blithely ignores in its analysis.

The What was involved those two years message to Indian coun- of From fellow chefsMuslims who havefrom beenthe through rapid economic growth of the chef last two gestation for the home-born was decfree try’s rulers is training, this: eat what weheard want you eat, training, professional I have thatto there ades has resulted millions of Indians finally passion,inand a complete audit.

A sayalways what awe want topoint’, hear, obey orders, or is ‘turning from our something as great breaking thetopoverty school be in. trap and moving into else! It’sas a message pushing the Indian simple getting that the is right consistency of theNow, lower-middle-income bracket, making it what happens when this home-grown Muslim to the brink. scrambled eggs, to making a smooth white chef the predominant income bracket the coundecides to step out from theincosy little Imagine up onein day, as a southsomeIndi- home sauce... thewaking perseverance mastering try. A key characteristic of professional, the lower middlekitchen and into the coman lady or gent, reading that of hon- mercial world of thing simple that,and in fact, is a process class is that its constituents are restaurants?

The initial expenorth Indian politicians ing and perfecting your skills. have highly insecure about falling rience can be nerve-wracking. banned the sale uttappam in thein my case They had theirofinstructors, but intodaypoverty, I remember back the first I walkedand intothey the country, and lynch mobshad are to attackthe dining table at home be conquered. commercial kitchen look atIthe and marginalwaspoor supposed to take ing anyone who simple dares eat it. Or And one of those dishes that helped In the long history ised asof their competitors for over.

The magnitude everything rattled me. of the world, imagine about the erissery. me in thiscomplaining was the humble pumpkin scarce resources.

The ranges were large, roaring and spewing yesterday’s politics flames squalor of north Indian cities, only In Kerala, erissery is a common In alike 1993aessay titled ‘Modern dragon.

The pots is today’s religion, and to beand toldalso thatan you are anti-national dish integral part of Hate’, Chicago University ladles seemed made forPolitia gitoday’s politics is ant’s andfestive a Pakistani Imagine the mealagent. or sadyas — it al-your cal Science home. professors The sinks Susanne were as tomorrow’s religion large patriotism questionedatevery most is the touchstone a meal.time Sounds and asLloyd Rudolph tubs. My kitchen wrote could simple but is simply because youthe were born the easiest thing to If that turns out right, rest of about thein mobs that freezer. demolhave fitted the walk-in south Indian in muster. a north What Indianisma- get wrong, especially the food passes ished the Babriwas mosque.

“They The dishwasher like a drivejority country.

Over Itthe past few when your mother, the erissery all about? is yellow the educated inare carwash.

No, I didunemployed, not run back weeks, that is how Indiawith has been pumpkin boiled, mixed a sister and aunts are at tonot the poor andhome illiterate,” the comfort of my kitchtreatingcoconut its Muslims, encouraged simple chutney, a tadka by a prime they wrote. “Frustrated the lack of good en… insteadbyI plunged right in the table minister who haswith madebrowned only lukewarm noises jobs and opportunities, and garnished they areinstinct victimsand of and — with the sheer about tolerance. grated coconut... sounds simple modernisation, seeking to victimise others— —I passion cultivated at home not blame thetoHindu butBut is let theuseasiest thing get right alone. like ‘pampered’ Muslims.” slowly tamed the ‘monster’ into a India’s left-liberal, secularyour political parties wrong, especially when If Modi had been able domestic pet. to deliver on his have a lotsister to answer too. In haste to milk promised mother, and aunts aretheir at the table. acchheitdin, are that inSoon enough, waschances like working at the home. theFor Muslim vote bank, they played almost two years, at have everyoften Onam and And tolerance debate would out not like havethe become so the food too turned kind you to the regressive and promotVishu, whenever Muslim I boastedgallery of hosting a tradi- get ugly.at Faster growth would have meant lessdeliechome.

Simple, uncomplicated, ed thesadya dregs community towas promitional forof thethe family, the erissery con- cious, onomic insecurity the majority lowreflecting thefor familiar smellsHindu and tastes. nence. From Rajiv Gandhi’s insidious stand on er Today, stantly a letdown.

The avial may have been middle-class andtwo lesstables, of a one fightprofesover straddling the Shah case to sellingand outpayasam Taslima Nasgreat, theBano sambhar, pachadi too, sional economic the cow. we beandresources the otherlike at home, theTill latter rerin and who were brave BUT the Salman erissery...Rushdie, either the pumpkin was mains come aareal middle-income economy, intolervaluable ‘testing ground’ — concoct, enough to speak against regressive Islam, In- set overcooked/ undercooked, the coconut chutance fuelled by insecurity willreactions. be a regular it on the table, and look for It india’swas secular governments their variably ney not smooth enough,have, or thewith browned feature of our political landscape. varies from silence, a little noise of aphypocritical stands, fed theeither right-wing Hindu proval, coconut garnishing was not brown The formula simple:appreciation.

India needs to get to ispure An resentment of brown.

Muslims. The secular skulldug- honest-to-goodness enough or too richer to become more tolerant. skills audit. gery over notallchanging most Perfecting of this is the where theregressive skills are kumarmitra tr is Master Chef isofthe Zeaside, specialising sambuddha mustafi founder of The elementsfrom of Muslim personal law has only honed... choosing the ingredients, the arun home-style coastal cuisine. He is based in Delhi t@some_buddha Political Indian made Muslims more and ghettoised method of prep,poorer, the cooking, gettingand the in

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Few things are as synonymous as festivals and food. This Diwali we celebrate not just the meals we love but the recipe books from where it all began...

The handbook to survival A single-lined notebook with six recipes and the free pamphlet accompanying a new kitchen buy took care of student life in the US

ContentsM

y first recipe book was an unimpressive production. No soft-focus photographs of strawberries dipped in molten chocolate. No nostalgic foreword about pickle-making parties on the terraces of sprawling houses. In fact, it was a hastily scribbled affair, oil-splattered and a bit bloodstained. It was a basic – Aysha Tanya Scholar notebook — 100 pages, single-lined — with a malevolent-looking teddy bear on its battered cover.

This recipe book boasted a grand total of six – Aditi Sengupta recipes: rice, dal, dahi kadhi, a dry potato bhaji, chana and a generic chicken in brown gravy. It was, in short, more survival handbook than – Kathija Hashim & Aysha Tanya treasure trove; more a guide-on-how-to-jumpback-after-tossing-green-chillies-into-hot-oil than how-to-create-mouthwatering-masterpieces. To me, however, it was as valuable as – Deepa Bhasthi anything else in my bulging bag. Without it, I wouldn’t have a clue about how to tackle the fiddly pressure pan. Or distinguish between the little packets of spices. Or crack the mys– Soity Banerjee tery of the perfect tadka.

I was heading to the US for my Master’s degree, in an age before email and instant communication. Letters took at least two weeks to – Arundhati Ray make the trip and phone calls were crazily expensive. So it made sense to arm myself with recipes. After all, I was going to be living in an apartment, and would have to cook for myself.

– Arun Kumar TR There was, however, one problem. I was no dab hand in the kitchen. In fact, I was never in the kitchen. So two days before I got on that – Shabnam Minwalla flight, I reluctantly took a tutorial and wrote down six recipes in a new notebook. Truth to tell, I was planning to subsist on glorious junk food and spend hours wandering the precooked section of the grocery stores. Who on – Abid Haque earth — faced with tantalising conveniences, aisles of cereals and flavoured yogurts — was going to waste their time cooking?

– Snigdha Manickavel I figured the answer to that question soon enough; as soon as I met my flatmate, a bright and sensible Bengali girl from IIT Kharagpur.

Gopa squashed my suggestion that we head

p8 - All for one, one for all

p10 - The aroma of secrets p12 - Eat, cook, love

p14 - Horn, OK, feast

p15 - Cookbook chutney p16 - Past forward

p18 - Tried and tested at home

p19 – The handbook to survival p20 – Turkey in Hyderabad

p 21- How the internet taught me to cook

to Taco Bell for our first dinner together, and The American potlucks were relaxed affairs — instead announced that we would cook. It was usually Sunday brunches with bagels and Philcheaper and healthier. And between her suit- ly cream cheese. But the Indian potlucks were case and mine, we had a treasure trove of Indi- serious business. The girls wore smug expresan spices, one pressure pan, one pressure sions and unveiled pav bhaji, gulab jamuns cooker and three recipe books (My Scholar and chapatis. The boys were fabulous cooks — compilation, a pamphlet that came free with especially the South Indian contingent that arGopa’s brand new Prestige cooker and a Ben- rived on American shores with copies of Sagali cookbook that involved scary spices like maithu Paar Part 1 and Part 2 by Meenakshi kalo jeera.)

Ammal. We could not take our nameless chickWhat more did we need? A quick trip to the en dish or three-minute dahi kadhi to this au42nd Street Market in LA and we marched into gust gathering. Mercifully, the Tarla Dalal the kitchen to make dal and rice. Well, hello! book had arrived and we had even managed a Two Indian girls cooking their first meal, and passable cabbage rice and vaangi bhaat. Emwhat else do you expect? Gopa knew how to boldened, we decided to make paneer makhancook. Well, kind of. At least she knew we had to wala from scratch. On that fateful Saturday rinse the rice thrice. Then she reached for the morning — instead of tackling heaps of class rice recipe in my cookbook assignments — Gopa curdled the and got busy. I tackled the dal. milk and tried to squeeze out the And five minutes later, I manliquid with a tea strainer. It didn’t aged to blow the pressure work. Desperate, I rummaged cooker safety valve, which in through my cupboard and pulled I was planning to turn set off the fire alarm. By out a favourite red mul dupatta subsist on glorious then we realised that we had and used it to strain the liquid. junk food and spend forgotten to buy salt, but were This worked magnificently till we hours wandering the too exhausted to do anything pre-cooked section of spooned out the paneer and found about it. it a garish shade of pink. While we the grocery stores So we sat down with our saltexamined the pink mess, the volufree dal and rice in our rather minous dupatta caught fire. Then brown apartment in downthe smoke alarm went off. A futown, gangland LA, while merious security guard arrived and nacing police helicopters had conniptions when he saw bits hovered overhead and the genial drug-ped- of charred dupatta floating around. Then we dler across the street hid his stash in a gutter. had conniptions when we realised that bits of And we actually enjoyed our meal. Within charred dupatta had floated into our gravy. weeks we were organised. We bought salt. We Mortified but undefeated, we camouflaged figured out that supermarket tortillas worked the pink paneer in a rather-too-red gravy with well as chapatis. We inherited a few battered a mysterious smoky flavour. Then we graciousvessels from an Indian student who had grad- ly accepted the compliments that evening. uated. We begged our mums to send 10 presBut we had learnt our lesson. Never again sure cooker safety valves — by then it was clear did we stray too far from our trusty Scholar I was a serial safety-valve blower. We requested recipe book and Prestige freebie again. a Tarla Dalal cookbook, which arrived after ages. And for six months, at least, we managed shabnam minwalla is a journalist and the author of The Strange Haunting of Model High School and The very happily.

Till one day we were invited to a potluck. Shy Supergirl partha pratim sharma

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Challengers to the throne

dipankar

The seasoned duo of Lalu and Nitish have run circles around the BJP in an election that will prove to be a turning point in the national political discourse

Turkey in Hyderabad Cooking a grand Thanksgiving meal in India can be a jittery experience, fraught with all kinds of anxieties

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t’s hard growing up as a second-genera- ing down a list of NRI-geared grocery stores, poor thing’s wing propped the door ajar. tion immigrant in America; everyone we were finally ready: turkey, stuffing, cran- Things were cooking, but it did not look like chooses: more-Indian and less-American berry sauce, cornbread, sweet potato pie, an episode of Masterchef… or even Masteror less-Indian and more-American. So beans, and mashed potatoes would be made. chef Junior. I decided we had come too far to while some days are more dal chawal, others Then began the true test of my commit- abandon the meal; especially since I had given are mostly burgers and fries. And while I am ment to this dinner: grocery shopping. I went the cook the day off and there was no back-up happy toNitish eat Hyderabadi biryani days of from store to store seeking crucialprocession) ingredients The icing Kumar is the face of the364 campaign, the dulha (bridegroom) of a baraat (marriage pti meal or fund to pay for takeout. I told myself the year, I, like many of my fellow Americans, whilst desperately showing the store clerks that as long as everything was cooked, it must have turkey on Thanksgiving. So every images of the items I wanted, many times to would be fine; they didn’t have high expectafourth November, mycrowd ritual outhas ter no — avail.

TheKumar. turkeyThe wasfact easily t isThursday late in theinevening but the tions for the meal right?

Nitish that located, socialistsbut of mobilisation andanyway, invoking sentiment. He been side the same.

Comb Road the newspaper good quite small in Congress comparison to its American 10 Circular shows no for signs of all My fears unfounded.

The turkey was hues and the are coming together knows whatwere connections to make and what Blackthinning.

Friday deals, feign interest in and football, counterpart; stuffing,is becoming corn (for stroncorn- memories Khadi-clad politicos ven- shows cooked to perfection; heaventhat thethe opposition to evoke; forthe thestuffing benefitwas of his rustic and then the minutes I can gorge bread), andthe potatoes (to be mashed) supporters dors count who trade peanuts until and roasted cha- ger ly; the vegetables as good as vegetables in beans, arguably most politically-savvy as well were as a group of English-speakmyself on a the traditional Thanksgiving were easily found, the cranberry sauce na discuss respective prospects dinner. of their province can journalists be, and I was incredibly proud myself. in the Hindibut heartland.

For Modi and ing from Delhi. He has of seized on By ainstroke fate and (good andBJP, sweet potato proved leader the bigofhouse the airfare rival BJP,deal), whichI the My grandmother even made one success inpie Bihar is justimthe kind of am- RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comments about foundshown myself an in Hyderabad around Thanks- munition possible tothat find.is needed to counter what they reservation toofcounter has intimidating resoluteness her famous pies, so what heapple believes is the giving last year, and I was determined to recre- largely I arrived exhausted and propaganda BJP’s time-tested through the campaign. whilestrategy I was initially about viewhome as elitist/left/liberal to createsad a HinduateAsthe American football, more than a bit wetradition, walk in — sans the guards barely botherfor to against not having sweet potato pie, it them.

BJPfrustrated Presidentbut Amit Shah has Muslim divide during elections.

I strongly we badmas my extended family.

Myatmosphere idea of cooking an contemptuously ready to cook without further check the invasion — the suddenwas hai notyeh missed.

LaterSab that evedismissed the rising chorus believe “Bahut BJP wala.

HinduThanksgiving American mealYadav was stands received obstacles.

As I beganbeef to ban, lay out ly becomesThanksgiving lighter. Lalu Prasad in against when family intolerance, threatchoose to India’s Muslim karnening ka kosis karmy raheentire hain (The BJP of is year after ascunning. it is 20-plus withmiddle wide eyes and light laughter.

My greatthe ingredients doublethe of his courtyard in a white dhoti syncretic culture asand a needless campaign con- year very They areaunts, trying uncles, to dividecousins, Hindus the most in line with aunt proclaimed that American was too fined checktothe recipe, my uncle’s hitched up to his knees and afood trademark and grandparents surrounded the rarefied precincts of and Muslims),” he tells us, as he Indian culture bland for undershirt.

Indians, “spices you strong”, cookLutyen’s appeared and asked what sleeveless Aftermake a punishing day of the the dinnerhow table, I felt zone in Delhi. describes Nitish andahedeep are and, initially, mypublic cousins wereand sceptical but had to bewin done.

I then rememcampaign, eight rallies countless sense of happiness pride in A poll in Bihar will prove countering efforts and to commusupportive. Turkey not a common meat in that beredthe cooking America is difinteractions, Lalu is is still not finished. He spots not my work alsoMusmy massesinare still behind nallyonly polarise their but voters.

A victory in Bihar India, and the of spending several thou- the ferent fromthey ‘cooking’ forinmany us standing in aidea corner and gestures, recognisto support leader elected 2014 translates into revival family’s lims are willingness lined up behind them sanda colleague, rupees on “Aa a bird that was, jhagda as my greatpeople in India.

Back homeismost ing gayee dobara karne and (and dining project. ‘religious intolerance’ just but eat) theymyhave been warned of hope for the aunt re-emphasised, “guaranteed families did of everything from scratch.

Here, (you’re here again to fight with me).” to taste the Of all the American holidays my parents carping a few pathologiagainst wearing burqas and secular camp on the bland” was not particularly attractive.

After cally manyanti-BJP have the luxury of being dele- could The hangers-on are dismissed for some to celebrate, I strongly intellectuals.

It will able tonational skull caps when they go outbeto front have picked promising some Indian thethe turkey gate the grunt of cooking and simply su- lieve we choose time and we sit down forspices a chaton with age- strengthen Thanksgiving year after year thework ruling party’s efvote.

The Mahagathbandhan’s (which I am proud who to say I “forgot”), I hadhis to forts pervise.

Afterlegislative spendingbusiness what was the cook’s as it is the most ing Yadav chieftain has, together with in has linebeen with to Indian culture: to push effort trounce the convince my family that my Britisha cousin and in monthly salaryand on just the turkey, comrade Nitish Kumar, turned provincial immediate and extended Parliament improve on I was hesi- you gather your BJP’s alleged endeavour to polarI were capable of cooking anwith entire American tant tostrength have herinexplore her turkey cooking family, cook ise election into a war of nerves Prime Minis- their a heavy (read as unhealthy) meal, the biennial the Hindus one and diminmeal in IndiaModi. by ourselves; the main concern elections abilities when weUpper had no back-up I gave ter Narendra and spend evening together for the House next bird. year. A side ish caste an identities.

Althoughfilled thewith BJPold is was ruining the expensive bird. her the and isinstead goingre-elechome simultaneously Whichever way Bihar turns this weekend, it effect stories and laughter.

And even though I celeof day this off, victory Shah’sof certain wooing different caste groups Soon, however, myasundying optimism won, early,asshe to watch and laugh my am- through will be remembered an inflection point.

For tion brated Thanksgiving in India, it didn’t feel too BJPstayed President this winter.

He at is serving the individual appeal of its allies Jiandrather my cousin andchristened I found ourselves shortlist- the ateurish cooking the grandly Mahagathbanddifferent.

I was surrounded by people residual termskills. of Rajnath Singh as the rul- tan Ram Manjhi, Ram Vilas Paswan andI loved, Upening items thatjust werea to be served at for dinner, hours of cleaning and chopping han, it is not comeback trail the ingAfter thereKushwaha, was a turkey the table for the party President and a setback in Biharvegewill dra itsoncore vote and, is still with the rest ofLalu, my family chiming in with the tables, I was finally to directtomy attention scam-tainted the ambitious Nitish Ku- give first time, there were some kebabs and white a handle to hisable detractors start lobby- upper-caste voters. occasional or Congress. question.A“Maybe to the turkey.

By to thedeny timehim I was readyterm. to mari- rice mar and thesuggestion battle-scarred victory ing positioned inconspicuously with the RSS a fresh Lalu stands with the bulwark in of the his corner electowe’ll find a turkeyinto at Reliance” (we didn’t), and cook it, I realised my uncle didn’t in Bihar translates revival of hope for the nate for any of my familyhim who—had had 16 their of Sipping oversweet tea with Lalu, these ab- ral support behind about perfill cent “What is stuffing?” (food to front. stuff It inside thea stract have asituations built-in oven like the one back home.asI Muslims secular camp on the national will see Thanksgiving become tangible.

Cynical and foods. over 15 per cent Yadavs. Not bird).challenger After an entire morning startedhardened to panic, but my cousinpoliticians appeared with new for the throne of of vetting Delhi initems 2019 most mainstream are, many among his voters deserted him even abid haque is a Washington-based forthe theform menu, recipes, and narrowa portable oven barely fit the the during in of looking another up three-term Chief Minis- Lalu has still not that lost his instinct forbird; political the Lok Sabha electionswriter last year when

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the Modi wave swept Bihar; Lalu retained 20.46 per cent of his voters even if it translated into only four Lok Sabha seats. He is, as the Grand Alliance’s lead strategist, Prashant Kishore, describes, the “cake” for Nitish Kumar’s “icing” in Bihar. Nitish could retain only 16.04 per cent of his backward/most backward and Dalit constituency in the Lok Sabha elections, which is the main reason for him bridging the gap and aligning with Lalu to trounce the Modi-led BJP. Accordingly, Nitish does the ‘icing’ job in the campaign, doling out data, statistics and never straying from his elevated perch to resort to invective. It is a clever strategy marked by two different types of campaigns by the two allies — the rabble-rousing has been left to Lalu, who has come up with the ‘Narbhakshi’ (cannibal) title for Amit Shah, while Nitish mouths the more sober spiel on development Fire and brimstone Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shifted gears from the promise of big development to and his vision for Bihar. They have set up Twitinvoking fears of the ‘Return to Jungle Raj’ in Bihar ranjeet kumar ter/Facebook accounts and dish out smarter repartee online than the entire BJP apparatus promise of big development to invoking fears The exception is the Congress, the only pocan muster. Lalu, the convicted scamster who of the ‘Return to Jungle Raj’ in Bihar, mocking litical entity impervious to the rigours of the has not won a significant election in the last 10 the rival coalition as a congregation of ‘three Bihar campaign. The Grand Old Party remains years, presents Nitish as the face of the cam- idiots’ and, finally, making barely concealed true to its defeatist self with Rahul Gandhi abdipankar paign, the dulha (bridegroom) of a baraat efforts to polarise the voters by accusing the senting himself from much of the campaign; (marriage procession) populated by Muslims Mahagathbandhan of directing quota bene- taking time out instead for a padyatra in Karand Yadavs. With a staggering 242 rallies that fits to Muslims. Amit Shah’s acto the ing how tonataka cook. and My writing kitchenletters was always covered all constituencies but one in Bihar, La- cusation that “crackers will demanding category crowded. I PM had gangs of special food bloggers lu has notched up more miles and crowds burst in Pakistan” if the BJP losfor Andhra leaning Pradesh.back All this perched on status my countertops, on than anyone else, in the busiest election since es is an episode in this series. while Lalu Nitish addressed my sink, watching as Iand burned, spilled, misRegardless of the Theybetween the Lok Sabha polls last year. He is clearly the Regardless of the outcome seven to 10 rallies a day, judged. walked me through those sticky outcome offirst thesteps. They most sought-out and entertaining campaign- of the respective campaigns, in their of strength as easedown my areas troubles with soother in Bihar, thinking up impromptu one-liners what has struck me through- respective campaigns, well asbegan, in constituencies ing sentences that “Don’t worrycrucial if…” what has struckI learned me and doling out locally flavoured invective. out the Bihar elections is how for their allies.

Nitish Kumar, for from vegan bloggers and bloggers throughout the Bihar “Dhan ka roti tawa mein, Modi ud gaya ha- hard each battle has been instance, campaigned for Lalu’s who drowned everything in butter. Those who elections is how hard on cooking wa mein (Modi has been swept off the Bihar fought. The shrewd strategist sons Tej Pratap andpot Tejaswi thrived with one andimmethose each battlewho has were alldiately campaign)… Hamara baraat ka dulha hai Nit- in Amit Shah has found himto polling reabout prior finishing a mealin intheir 10 minbeen fought ish Kumar. Inka kaun hai (Nitish is the bride- self pitted against an equally spective constituencies. utes flat. I met bloggers who melted chocolate groom in our marriage party. Who is the BJP crafty adversary in the LaluNitish’s aghast Iat the bars and bloggers whoaides boiledare ketchup. came fielding?” he asks, in rally after rally. Sample Nitish collective. The organisaCongress’s nonchalance, an indeacross homesick bloggers whose recipes for the challenge, delivered in quintessential Lalu tional behemoth of the RSS/ cipherable indifference to what is lemon rice disintegrated into moving essays style: “Jab tabla bajega dhin dhin, to ek pe pade- BJP is matched in fervour by arguably the most talked about on their grandmothers and solitary engineerga teen teen (For each of their voters, we have the native cunning of the Bihari socialists. election since in theScotland Lok Sabha polls.

But as and one ing students who weighed three),” he says, to the approval of the crowds.

It has been sound bite for sound bite — an measured walks up to histheir residence in the and quiet, both ingredients theleafy finspent most of my twenties working very ma, Asaram Bapu-Narendra Modi video for Nit- ished a very sensible friend pointed outa that lane in Lalu’s neighbourhood, the sense and products.

Tweet for tweet hard on not learning how to cook. I lived cooking ish Kumar-Tantrik visual, Twitter replyItfor has nothing to doa with gender. is a strategy in the Chief Minister’s There was theBihar palpable sadness of a camblog The BJP hasfor countered this blitzkrieg by the alone long stretches of time, once or life-skill Twitter barb a masterful mimicry that and anyone who eatsLalu should learn. of that paignnobecomes He ison. accommodatone everapparent. commented There were PM’s twice powerhouse performances in a series of Modi’s in houses that had kitchens and announcement regarding a megaAnd so I tried. I bought a cookbook and, the ing the Congress, blogs allocating as many 41 innumerable run by robotsasand rallies where he has shifted gears from the since fridges filled with food and cupboards laden package forno Bihar worth of crores.

I had idea whatthousands I was doing, I chose there seats were to a party thatwere barely managed to win ones that trying to sell you evwith spices and, yet, I resisted. Instead, I ate the one with the prettiest cover. Though I have erything four in the lastaprons assembly elections, because it from to cutting boards to pertoast and chips and biscuits dipped in jam. I since learned to love this book, I will admit sonality is a critical ally at the national level. development. was that single person buying those ready-to- that in the beginning, I nearly boiled it. Like From timeofNitish parted waysinto from Today, the I think how I have settled do-a eat meals, paying way too much for the com- many cookbooks, it worked on the premise mesticity Modi-led BJP years ofcat a largely peaceful likeafter a fat17 orange on a sofa and fort of being able to take this food home and that the person holding the book already how coalition, he has resurrected hishave secular my 20-year-old self would diedimof eat it in front of my laptop and not have to talk knew many things about cooking. I stood in shame. age, made peace Lalu and hunted These dayswith I brew my own gingerdown beer to anyone in between. front of my stove, spoon in the Congressand to create a platform could sometimes bake that just to fill I had no patience for sensible people who hand, frowning at the cookbook, well turn outmy tohouse be thewith principal opposition the incredible fratold me to stop wasting money, that restau- wondering what in the world against the BJP in the I have watchedI grance of future. chocolate brownies. rant food was overpriced garbage, that pack- “splatter mustard seeds” meant.

Nitish gain in confidence since the start ofmothe have learned to enjoy that These days I brew my aged food had no nutrients. I listened in Like many people in the world campaign asking including mentheofwas silence at aall, dinner table own ginger beer and when horror as my well-intentioned landlady ad- today, I put the book away and Arvind Kejriwal, to join him.isLike Modi, Nitish when no one talking because sometimes bake just vised me to go to the market on Saturday turned to the internet. I was not has a point to prove in Bihar.

The former Chief they are too busy eating.

I have fito fill my house with mornings, buy vegetables and then cook and disappointed. Online, I found Minister of Gujarat humiliated what him inallthe Lok nally understood those the incredible freeze five dishes so that I could then re-heat enthusiastic people ready to Sabha Nitish has been lickingwere his Masterchef contestants fragrance of polls and and eat them over the week. I have to admit help. People who had the time wounds ever blubbering since. He hasabout to prove thatlove he was — that can chocolate brownies that I was flattered that she thought I knew and patience to photograph the right in disinviting Modi for that now famous flow through food. where the market was and also that I would exact hue that roasted urad dinner in the summer of 2010, justas asthe he year was In the days to come, know what to do with a vegetable once I was should be. Kind souls who could right in dumping BJP when windsthe down, I will they trawlprojected websites alone with it. I imagined what my face would explain all the things you were Modi as PM candidate. for ‘easy Indian sweet recipes’. I feel like staring into the freezer every morning too embarrassed to admit that you didn’t will Heinexpertly snatched Modi’s strategist, Prashant make poll these and share them and I was sure that no money saved could be know — how to peel garlic, how to wash rice, with Kishore, and installed him inknow. his own the neighbours I hardly Overhouse. time, worth that chill, the sadness of fingertips on how to cut an onion. ran a personalised campaign, stakingWhen all to IHe believe, we will not be such strangers. frozen plastic.

I dived into unknown links, opened multi- we emerge theother BJP’s alternative in Bihar.

Lalu crossas each in the hallways, our eyes Thus, I fumbled along. Spending too much ple tabs with aplomb and made notes that will has aided himwith for recognition his own benefit his light up and and we will money, being vaguely poor and hungry most eventually became oil-soaked and mysterious. smile son’s future.

With the We Congress junior partat each other. wouldashave shared of the time. It felt like the right thing to do. I Alone in my kitchen, there were no awkward food, ner, India’s shrewdest have put and laughed over politicians the fact that no one was running away from domesticity, from the territorial skirmishes with my mother. Even could their best foot the forward trounce the BJP.then, identify sweettoI had made.

And women on TV selling laundry detergent and the slenderest doubt could be instantly clear- just If like thisthat, is not then it issweeter, difficultthe to lifeenough becomes a little cooking oil. I would not cook for people and I ed up with Google. I learned to relax. I over- heart fathom whathappier. will be. a little would not be judged on how that food tasted. came my fear of pressure cookers. poornima joshi snigdha manickavel is a Chennai-based writer Speak easy Lalu Prasad knows what connections to make and memories for his rustic English-speaking journalists ranjeet kumarof learnAtwhat some point to onevoke, this journey of supporters melodra- as wellIas never felt alone on this adventure

How the internetQ taught me to cook R

Gangs of food bloggers, perched on my countertops, told me how to peel garlic as well as overcome the fear of pressure cookers

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Heaven and earth The Throne Verse (Ayat Al-Kursi) in the form of a calligraphic horse, from 16th-century Deccan wikicommons

THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Keepers of ancient peace 400, not forgotten Then and now (Top, left and right) Chilla Nizamuddin and Kilokri tomb as they were when Japanese historian Matsuo Ara visited them 55 years ago; (bottom) their present-day facades photos courtesy naoko fukami

rohit gupta

In modern scientific discourse it is considered anathema to discuss religion, yet it is from religious speculation that science has gained much In Delhi, a group of intrepid Japanese researchers are taking a roll call of the medieval legend goes that when the Persian “...heat, previously considered to be a material Prescott Joule stated in 1847 the spiritual immonuments were mapped bythan a fellow countryman-historian poet Sadi that of Shiraz visitedpainstakingly the flour- substance, is none other an irregular mo- plications of the new law:more “Thus it than is that order ishing temple of Somnath in the tion of the most minute particles of a body, is maintained in the universe — nothing is dehalf a century ago 13th century, he was astonished to

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see an idol that moved in response to prayers.

It dawned upon him soon that the priests had e meet at 9am automaton sharp. The cheated by hiding a mechanical team of five Japanese explorinside it. ers arerecount ready — with waSeveral historians this cap, episode bottle by andSadi wet—wipes — in from Bustan (Theter Garden) a popular the lobby Sumitra inn, located in the back subject of of illustration in the Mughal period. lanes of Thapar Delhi’s Safdarjung Development Romila even suggests that Sadi Area. may Two are bespectacled students ofZoroastrians Hindi at Jahave confused fire-worshipping waharlal Nehru University. is an aswith idolator Brahmins, butThe wethird can never be sistant professor of architectural and sure what transpired — since Sadihistory himself is the fourth Sounreliable Yamane, professor at Osaka known to beisan narrator. NevertheUniversity’s School Language and less, it wouldGraduate have been great of sacrilege to turn Culture.

Yamane and Ipuppet get talking.

Or more your deity into a mere who dances to precisely, reels out phrase the pull ofhe strings.

What kind ofafter Godphrase moves in at most perfectly-woven I stare the whim and command ofHindi, earthlyand priests?

If open-mouthed.

Hiswould speechnot is that the haveit were a real God, the of whole Unilis of move Lucknow, wheretopigeons flutter inWill? the verse according his omnipotent corridors, ittar lurks in the and tehzeeb The anecdote above is air interesting to isusa way of life.

Moved by the ghazals of Mir Taqi mainly because it resonates with the central Mir, he started learning in his twenties dilemma of science in theUrdu 17th and 18th centuand has been teaching it forTo close to 20A.years. ries.

In his book From Galileo Newton, RupHe even writes his the ownconundrum couplets and has recitert Hall describes thus: “… if ed them at the Jashn-e-Bahar. the universe is annual wholly mushaira mechanical God has no This in interaction in the lobby providesthen the propart it; if God controls the universe it is logue to the kindnor of day I am about to have.

It not mechanical governed by laws.”

The wouldand makedevelopment Indiana Jonesofproud.

It is ascience day of birth modern tracking, exploring and chronicling, as rich in happened in the Christian world, and it was adventure asaituniversal is in discovery. natural that law — such as NewtoI accompany the four nian gravity — would beJapanese seen as aresearchers, manifestaled by indomitable Naoko direction of the divine will. Almost everyFukami, new scientific tor of the Society for the Promotion notion wasJapan simultaneously analysed fromofa Science, Cairo, a monument hunt. Armed religious point on of view. with only 55-year-old map created byby a cerAfter theamacrocosmic orbits defined the tain historian named Ara, the team force of gravitation, theMatsuo attention shifted to inaims to map medieval phenomena. monuments ofCarlo Delvisible and 400 microscopic hi over twowrites years. in Their project — awkwardly Cercignani his biography of Ludwig titled ‘Urban Development andTrusted Heritage PresBoltzmann, The Man Who Atoms:

which collide one against another. This mo- ranged, nothing ever lost, but the entire mation cannot be observed directly, because the chinery, complicated as it is, works smoothly particles themselves are invisible…” and harmoniously ... the whole being governervation Delhi: Re-evaluation of edThis In 1819,of theHistoric French experimental physicists obliteration of heritage by the sovereign will of God.”is a poignant Mission for Indianand History and Archaeology, Nicolas Clément Charles-Bernard Des- reminder of the importance of Fukami’s work.

Religious ideas are indeed prototypical University of Tokyo, in 1959-60 andheat: 1961-62’— ormes imagined a universe without “Not models In India,ofwethe cast nary a sideward glance at our universe, and should be subject has a would simplethere mission. wishlife to see the to only be They no more in how this discultural inheritance. get Espebullthe same scrutiny asMonuments scientific ideas.

400 monuments have over time.

In- cially mal universe... but alsoevolved movement of every dozed,the stepwells sealed, are deschoolsare that denyhammams the existence of tach is also helping them the process. kind would have ceased oninEarth.

There would God molished.

To catalogue and document 400 altogether share something in common Ara, Japanese historian ofno Indian HistonoProf longer be an atmosphere, rivers, no with monuments an exercise only in God dilimodernisscience.

Islamnot holds that ry and South Asian History, passed away in gence but also seas; motionlessness and death to acknowledge and cannot be depicted inmemoriala human 2008. Fluent in Urdu, he visited would be everywhere.”

Heat Delhi 55 years ise what was.form, Ara’s detailed map is not just asan a reasonably sound ago and created that a detailed was something couldmap not that provided individual’s sumption research project, but rather it is considering the intertheseen, location monuments. be and of yetthe it was universal There were al- also like a pop-up which stellarbook heavens areconjures too largeup tothe be Religious ideas are history so from detailed forofeach — the ownership, — the notes warmth human medieval of the Fukami’s controlled by city. a creature withwork only indeed prototypical function, status, matetouch to the firefeatures, that raged in payslimbs. heed to Delhi four Orthe thestructures Vedantic school models of the rials,Sun, statetoof the preservation the oxidation and of hasMimamsa, little timewhich for. By tracking of speculated universe, and should date. Fukami and“the her oil team use blood, which was in the down the each of themof with the sinabout existence only a perbe subject to the Ara’s of documentation as comflame life”. cerity of a hound a hunt,God, her sonal (and not on cosmic) Built during 1191same scrutiny as pass and lodestar to track each Instead of the pure, geometgroup literally brings monuamong the many colourful varie1526, some ideas of these scientific of those 400 monuments. ric movement of the planets in ments back from the dead. The ties of Hinduism. edifices have now The task is rather monumenpristine curves — the movepetite historianthe says, “In Japan, Or consider philosopher become homes, tal, as of many these structures ment heatof from one body to you wouldn’t find 400 medieval Boethius, who wrote The Consolacomplete with TV have been obliterated, another revealed that energy enin monuments, but in 523, India not of Philosophy in AD which sets and clotheslines tion croached upon,was or rendered unthe universe always conserved, even greatly influenced many people are interested in medieval Christian recognisable.

Some ofone these though it changed from form to another. thought. He their heritage.” wondered about the possibility structures dating backoftohistory, the one of the that mankind could By a strange—coincidence In two we set liveautorickshaws in peaceful harmony Delhi sultanate havewas named af- if only it emulated pioneers in the (1191-1526) science of—heat off forthe Kilokri bestars. tomb, “If you located wish to disnowthe become complete withIntelevision ter Persianhomes, poet we met earlier. his work cern tweenthe thelaws wideofspan the Mathura Road and theofhigh and mighty God,” sets,the clotheslines a engines, scooter parked out- wrote on efficiency ofand heat Sadi Carnot the carefully neighbourhood Boethiustopiaried in his last days, even though of in side. While apeople prove of the aMaharani uncovered principle of helpful nature most that would Bagh. warm prison — “... lookWith up toathe roofsmile, of theYamane highest time,assume they can turn irritable when strangers later cosmological proportions — un- heaven. approaches chaiwallahs kabariwallahs to There the stars, and united by just agreetramp through their doorways, says leashing an entirely new variety of Fukami. religious ment, find out the the location of the tomb.Thus His impeccakeep ancient peace… the muEven as the project is underway, the find- tual speculations. ble Hindi immediately warms people towards love governs their eternal movement and ings date are grim. discourse Hundred it and twenty the In till modern scientific is considthis motley We walk through narrow war ofcrew. discord is excluded from but the eightanathema monuments have been all but ered to discuss religion, and demolyet it is bounds well-cemented gallis, past shops selling keof heaven.” ished, the including oneofthat cannotspeculation be located babs and rotis. Kyota Yamada, with a PhD in Infrom fountain religious gupta explores the history of science fromscience the map.

Twenty are inharvests. ruins, swalthat has gainedthree so many An- rohit do-Dutch architecture (he has spent as months t @fadesingh lowedmajor up either by urban sprawls or nature. other figure of thermal physics, James Compasswallah in Nagapattinam, Colombo and Kochi), no-

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10 Things I Hate About You Diwali might be the favourite season for many people, but not for those who have whiskers. Here is the list of all my pet peeves on this festive day

Losing out The nala in Taimoor Nagar, along which the team traversed looking for the Kilokri bridge recorded in the dated photo below (left)

1

The tired old box of soan papdi that goes from neighbour to neighbour, friend to relative, un-opened. Uh, bring me cupcakes and madeleines.

2

The emergence of dowdy winter clothes. Guess who’s got his muffler out already?

3

Those cute but scared dogs that hide under beds quivering at fireworks.

Grow. Up. Already.

4

Tell all So Yamane

Speaking of animals, where are the and Naoko Fukami lizards? Gone hidingstop in winter to ask time, my sport and pastime? residents for

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directions to the

monuments Handing out bonuses while receivnandini nair ing none. Box of soan papdi from anyone? tices the tiled facades of the 2013 houses and realis- the blueprint, even while standing. They con-

cient bridge. A stench rises, the sun beats es it is a sign of recent prosperity. We continue clude that this Islamic complex consists of a down, water bottles run dry. I ask Yamada if fat uncle claims domed to havemonument, the tomb of Sai- these conditions make their work hard. He andown the alleyways, stoppingThe to unfurl the who medieval never played patti but wins ev- and a new mosque. While swers with Zen-like fortitude, “It is not more map and show residents the original photosteen yid Mahmud Bihari ery hand.

There goes your bonus ha! of the monument. After 15-20 minutes we hit the original arches have been demolished, the difficult than working in Japan. It is just differour destination — the 700-year-old tomb. shapes (square base, octagonal drum and ent.” The juggi jhopdis thin out and open into The rustling of silkdome) saris.and I miss Immediately, Fukami and Yamada get down thethe petal-shaped kangura (motifs) a bramble-filled vacant lot, where a few Jat feel of comfy cotton.

You know silk is women cut wood for fire and young men gamto work. They take detailed measurements of remain unchanged. onoriginal. my fur. A Even though much of the original structur- bol under leaking water pipes. Fukami stops the structure and compare ititchy to the trained architect, Yamada effortlessly draws es might have vanished, the complex is well- to examine each brick along the way, but mutHumans who smell of naphthalene maintained because of the efforts of Abdul ters sadly to herself, “Not old, not old.” balls. Don’t you know it Haji is a dangerHaziz Sahib. The gracious caretaker tells Our next destination is Chilla Nizamuddin, ous addiction and a health hazard? us, over little cups of chai, that four genera- north of Humayun’s tomb. We locate this tions of his family have looked after the com- monument rather easily as it is just a short And the smell of plex. potassium in thecontributions from the walk from the Capital’s premier landmark.

Using air from all the crackers.

It rides up neighbourhood he has repaired parts of the Chilla Nizamuddin is easy to find yet visited my nose, makes me sneeze disturbs tomb,and sourcing iron from the loonly by devout worshippers and my beauty sleep. Is this they called While this kabariwallah. calwhat wandering felines. The Delhi Wal‘Death by breath’? might not please historians, it la, the city’s favourite blogger, safeguards the building against writes, “the chilla, or retreat, of The gracious The shopping, the theofgold the sales, vagaries time. caretaker tells us that Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya is Deldigging…stop it!With Sweaty hi’s most serene monument.” I themasses recce complete, the four generations of rushing to malls to pick upmakes tacky gifts. couldn’t agree more. The group team its way to Taimoor his family have Me, ah, I prefer bespoke. sets to work at once, measuring, Nagar, past the Meerabai Instilooked after blueprinting and comparing. tute of Technology, in search of the complex XOXO, They find the building has been the Kilokri fort and bridge. A whitewashed and a new grill Grumpy Cat hookah panchayat appears to be shutter added, but the original in session in Taimoor Nagar and structure remains. And the damthe men of the community take a breather from their inhalations and exhala- age to the chajja (sunshade) at the east façade tions to gawk at the adventurers. They huddle has been repaired authentically. Everyone around Yamane’s printouts, which show the pauses a few moments to observe the numerbridges as Ara had found them. The eagerness ous cats purring in the nooks and to ask the of the elders does not match their knowledge. resident fakir about the many rings on his They point to the black-and-white drawings hand. It is early evening, but work for the day and exclaim that they remember playing un- is not done.

The group has so far documented 234 monder the bridges as children, but are unable to uments that still exist and 23 others that are in offer any more information.

A fetid drain choked with plastics, home to ruins. Over a hundred monuments across Delpigs, and dark with flies runs along the length hi still await Fukami’s visit so that they can of Taimoor Nagar. The historians however re- once again be brought into reckoning.

See and draw Prof Kyota Yamada draws the blueprint main undeterred and walk along it to make of structures within minutes doubly sure there are no remnants of the an- nandini nair

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n keeping with the rest of the Diwali issue, this quiz is about food and drink and the places they are served.

here,there & elsewhere

Magic cookies

An epicurean life

1

The Singapore sling was created by Hainanese-Chinese bartender Ngiam Tong Boon in the early 20th century and is now a staple around the world. In which iconic establishment was it first created?

2

Victor Bergeron created the mai tai rum cocktail and also set up a chain of establishments serving his signature dishes and cocktails. What was the brand name of his restaurant chain?

3

Which iconic Asian restaurant is named after the fifth largest city in Uzbekistan, also known as Numijkat or Bumiskat?

4

Which dish was first popularised in the US by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker, who sold it at half the price of his competitors at Coney Island, NYC, at the start of the 20th century?

5

With which city would you associate the Indian dessert qubani ka meetha, made with dried apricots?

6

The chef Escoffier was one of the most famous personalities of the 20th century who created classics such as the peach Melba and the fraises a la Sarah Bernhardt, named after opera star Nellie Melba and actress Sarah Bernhardt respectively. In which iconic British establishment did he create these dishes?

7

Which chain of restaurants and dessert products was started by PL Lamba from Connaught Place in Delhi in 1940?

8

Which character in American television history was inspired by Al Yeganeh,a New York street vendor, who was extremely rude to his customers?

9

Which cut of beef and steak recipe was named after the French Ambassador to England in the 1820s?

10

Which street food item gets its name from the slender sticks of bamboo which the Nizam’s restaurant in Kolkata used to cook its meat since the 1960s?

Answers 1. Raffles Hotel, Singapore 2. Trader Vic 3. Bukhara 4. The hot dog. While Viennese and Frankfurters both claim it originated in their cities, Handwerker popularised it in the US 5. Hyderabad. It is a staple at local weddings 6. The Savoy, London 7. The Kwality’s chain of restaurants and ice cream.

He also started the Gaylord chain of restaurants 8. ‘The Soup Nazi’ in Seinfeld. Jerry Seinfeld and the production team arrived there after the episode aired and were greeted by a rant on how the show ruined his business. Not surprisingly, they were not served.

9. Chateaubriand, named after the Vicomte FrancoisRené de Chateaubriand 10. The Kathi roll. ‘Kathi’ is the Bengali name for thin bamboo stick

joy bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup t@joybhattacharj

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Reach us at blink@thehindu.co.in. Follow us: t@Ink_BL f facebook.com/hbl.blink www.businessline.in/blink

ne of the major events around these parts is the Tunbridge World O Fair (TWF). This is an extraordinary spectacle which I would never expect to attend, never mind enjoy. Why? Because it’s devoted to something about which I know nothing: agriculture.

The TWF involves hundreds of farm animals, their owners, the owners’ relatives and thousands of tourists from miles around. According to Wikipedia, it has been held every year, around the middle of September, for 138 years. It involves rides and foodstalls, competitions and carnival-style attractions, all in the open air, with tents and lights and music. Grace and Peter say the children look forward to it all year round. When someone outside the family circle asked one of the children if they’d ever been to Disney World, Grace answered, “Oh they’ve never heard of THAT — after all, they’ve got something a million times better right here in Vermont!”

Our expedition to the Fair involves two cars, with Grace and all three children in their pick-up truck while Peter, Birk, Bins and I are in our skyblue hearse. Birk is driving. I am in the front seat. Bins turns to Peter and says, “You know? I’ve been wondering if you’d like a bite of one of these

cornerstone

excellent hash cookies. They’re made from my own home-grown hash. All the way from Pondicherry.” He says this as if handing out hash-cookies is something he does every day, even though this is the first I’ve ever heard of their existence. I hear Peter say, “Oh! Really? Hmmm. Well — sure, why not?”

And then I hear myself say, as I turn around in my seat, “Hey, I wouldn’t mind having a bite of one too!” I’ve never been fond of hash. I don’t like getting high. But I am extremely partial to cookies. Any kind of cookies. So I grab the thing and chomp down on it, telling myself it can’t possibly be very

strong. Ten minutes later, however, the car grows silent and I realise I was very wrong. I can feel the individual hairs on my scalp vibrating like tuning forks.

When I turn around to look at Peter and Bins, I see that they are grinning like a pair of rainbow-coloured lunatics.

Birk is the only sober person in the car but he’s never been to Tunbridge.

Peter knows the way but he can barely talk. We miss the exit three times. By the time we get to the Fair I can no longer walk straight because I’m levitating whilst also cackling like a hyena. We go to watch the famous Pig Races, where young porkers trot around a tiny course, wearing racing silks. It’s so hilarious that I fear I’m going to burst apart or wet my pants.

Bins is standing very still, pretending to be a tree. Peter is smiling very sweetly, with his eyes crossed.

We see little girls with shining ponytails getting their goats to perform tricks. We see bulls the size of elephants. Pumpkins the size of cars. Winged horses. Unicorns. It is beyond amazing. I am dazzled and breathless by the time we leave. Can’t wait till next year. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column