Charminar - Hyderabad ki shaan ... old city ka "charm"...

Its been ages since I ventured into the crowded streets leading to the four minaret monument; and only ventured as it was a sunday and mistakenly thought that the buzz of trading would be lower and we would take a leisurely stroll through Laad Bazaar - jewellery stores and churi wali gali..

No such luck, we only managed to drive through the crowded street leading to the monument with one hand shamelessly and in true hyderabadi tehzeeb pressed hard on the horn - this IS the discipline here .. "horn maaro yaaron... nahin tho kayko sarakte miyan.." (honk if you want us to move!)

Something stirs in me when I see any ancient buildings and I like to believe I once was royalty, probably a princess in some previous life..  these majestic buildings, monuments, temples and forts bring back memories of some childhood lost :-)

The pukka shops I am told have become Tourist savvy, accept credit cards and forex and drive a clever, hard bargain depending on the colour of your skin of course!

The roadside carts were selling everything from blingy chappals and 'khada dupattas' to hot n spicy mirchi bhajjis n gooey sweet 'khaajas' and here is where you will get a great bargain if you can speak 'hyderabadi' - a wondrous mix of urdu-hindi-telugu-marathi and english .... "light lelo yaaron"....Dil pe nakku le!

until the next time ... paanch minat mein aatun...

Melting pot of world cuisines

Master Chef India 2 started today …am a great fan, I try not to miss a single episode  of the Australian ‘original’ …the challenges set for the contestants are amazingly innovative, the participants cope well, the hosts and judges are so natural,  genuine, well informed, friendly yet firm, suave and sophisticated, most of all the production quality and editing are superb…..in stark contrast is the ‘desi’ version ….the master clock framed in a glitzy foil covered tyre? ! yeeks... totally 'Sadak chaap' !

I wasn’t disappointed though… its come a long way from season 1 which was hosted by Akshay Kumar which in my opinion was a total debacle

We are a sub-continent of diverse cuisines, dozens of them ,  internationally acclaimed and much sought after and yet we want to ‘copy cat’ in an effort to get ‘trendy’ ? … are we embarrassed about our payasams, kormas and murambas ?  that we need to call them ‘Mousse’ , ’sauce’ and ‘compote’ L… it felt like an insult to the wonderful world of regional, traditional and grandma’s recipes which have been passed down  generations for hundreds of years

What is probably more annoying is the Hinglish spoken by the hosts and the star chef whose claim to fame ( excuse my ignorance, but who is he?) is that he immigrated from Amritsar to New York; the silver lining to this grey cloud is that people from the far corners of India are indeed going global in their thinking, working, speaking and food choices!

I have always preferred authentic recipes, I cringe from wedding menus which are ‘multicuisine’ – starting with papdi-chaat and kebabs, moving onto naan and chicken makhani, hakka noodles with manchurian gravy, an au gratin and of course the curd rice; all aromas over powering and blending into each other, enhanced of course with ‘tasting salt’ which is nothing but MSG.  Believe it or not,  let me tell you a secret, except for the very health conscious restaurants and caterers, every cook and chef worth his name in salt swears by this chemical the infamous MSG or Ajinomoto, they add it to every dish, it is no longer an ingredient limited to Chinese cooking.

Check out Bharat Vijay Hindu Hotel - Veg, Non-veg, Chinese, Punjabi and South Indian!!

I have resigned to the fact and grudgingly accepted that the Indianised version of every possible international cuisine is here to stay; starting from the road side vendor to the five star caterer who serves you chowmein chaat, spring roll dosas, ‘baked dish’ and mini gulab jamuns with an exotic ice cream frozen inside an orange!  Three Cheers to Fusion food and innovation!!

Anyone game to try tonight’s winning innovation by Shipra - Yam mousse with an apple & aam papad compote garnished with caramelised lotus root chip?!

Bon Apetit!… Live to Eat J

Last frontier?!

This was taken by an acquaintance in Mana village on the Indo-China border!

Last chance to buy "made in china" goods on Indian soil? :-)

reminded me of the "last chance to shop Duty Free"...

Raghunath from Ratanagiri

While the guardians of our democratic rights continue to grab headlines with their ongoing arguments on who is poor (enough) and who is not... who will benefit from the sops - where they should spend the tax payer's money....

.... here is an inspiring story of a person clearly APL :-)

Many of you will connect with a monthly allowance (pocket money) of Rs 25/- or a princely 'stipend' of Rs. 800 p.m. on their first prestigious jobs

Not many would guess the monthly earnings of Raghunath in his humble and quiet existence outside a barely noticeable "hole in the wall" shop

I observed him for a few days, took some photos from afar first, then having established that he wasn't a mean/ drunk/ abusive or depressed sort of person, I went up to talk to him and take his permission for a few close-ups

Soft spoken, shy and simple Raghunath hails from Paushi in Ratnagiri; he has been operating this "paan-supari-beedi-gutka' shop for 25 years. He is grateful to the seth who let him build this window in the compound wall of an industrial unit

His daily collection or 'galla' on a good day is anywhere between 1200-1500/- of this he estimates his profit is a clear 400-500/- per day... that's a clear 10-12000/- p.m. not counting weekends or his poor maths!!

He is the only earning member of a 4 member family, looks after his parents and wife, has no kids, pays  Rs. 2000/- rent for his kholi, buys and sells against cash, has no overheads

Isn't that an exciting contrast to the gajra seller, who is hanging between APL and BPL?!

Tanaji Pawar - gajra seller

I have been busy behind the lens and talking to the "sadak chaaps" .. who are quite pleased to pose for a snap - it seems to be the bright spot in their otherwise monotonous day!

... 'cause the scenes of street life surrounding them that motivate me to step out of my air-conditioned comfort to start clicking hold no interest element for them; what does bring a smile to their faces and of those watching on is the 'aunty' who jumps out of her car to talk to the hard-working 'mumbaikar' on the road !!

Before I go onto telling stories of these amazing Indians who make a living off the streets; I would like to share an article which featured in the September 24th edition of DNA

"Montek's Indian about town, he spends a whopping Rs 57/- daily ...."

And so he is NOT POOR??!

For the full story by Akshay Deshmane .. click the link below

http://www.3dsyndication.com/dna/article/DNMUM222973

I am in utter shock and disbelief (like the gajra seller Tanaji Pawar) at the Planning commission's definition of "poor"

See the picture story captured by Rajendra Gawankar

do-die-do

Hanky seller

My tiny digicam is always handy (just one of the many things that add to the shoulder tugging weight of my handbag) ... this afternoon as I was driving past the oh-so-terribly crowded and chaotic road outside Andheri station... I was enamoured anew with the life on the streets of Mumbai

Awed and inspired, I had to ask my 15 year old how to create a blog, I was given a 'D-uh ?' look and asked to check online ...its simple and a few clicks later here I am with my own blog!

Its called Sadak Chaap for obvious reasons ... for the non-Indian reader - 'Sadak' means road and  'Chaap' literally means stamp, the phrase 'sadak chaap' is commonly used to describe a 'street-smart' person but rather derogatively; here I am however planning on posting images and stories of people who make a living on the streets... and where else but in the Maximum city - Mumbai of course

My next move and hope you will be back to read about it will be an attempt to interview these amazingly entrepreneurial people who live and make a living on the road

The lady in her mid-fifties or could even be sixties...had set up "shop" on a manhole ( this one was actually covered) with four bricks to elevate her basket of wares - hankies in plastic packets, what caught my attention was that she was actually sitting in the middle of the road - about 10-12 feet away from the entrance to a building, away from whatever little footpath existed, bang in the middle of traffic!

As I watched in astonishment, auto-rickshaws, scooters, cycles, motorbikes and even some smaller cars came to a halt just behind her back - amazingly she even had her back to the traffic, manouvered their vehicles to avoid her and went on ...why was she selling her hankies in the middle of the road? Didn't she fear being run over? especially by a monstrous bus turning the corner ... it was right outside the station and bus stop for godssake! I want to go back and ask her.... I will be back