Tibet in North India!

Tired of Chole Bhature and Chole Kulcha, I took to the Internet to look around for places in Delhi where I can find some nice Chinese and Tibetan delights. Now we all know of the magical potency of the Internet. Google churned out names such a Majnu ka Tila and Tee-Dee from its belly. And my friends and I were left with little but to explore the incredulous place called Majnu ka Tila.

The New Aruna Nagar Colony, aka Majnu Ka Tila, with its huge monastic gate welcomed us to a make-shift ‘little Tibet’. Refugee Tibetans settled here and flagged the place as their own town, Chungtown. Every inch of this place smells and resembles Tibet as we have seen in photographs and the few lucky ones who have been to Tibet. We walked through its lanes and by lanes to explore a shopper’s haven of clothes and curios and a foodie’s happy hunting ground of authentic Tibetan cuisine.

At the heart of the colony lies a Tibetan monastery, or gumpha as they call it, from which the lanes and the by lanes radiate. We walked further inside through the by lanes for another 7 minutes and TA-DA! we reached TEE-DEE, the holiest place in Majnu Ka Tila to taste Tibetan food that is authentic to a T. As history has it, TEE-DEE is one of the first restaurants that had opened its doors to guests to taste Tibetan food. Back then old Karchung, the proprietor, served cheley (Tongue fry), lowa (stuffed lung fry), shapta (stir fried meat), thenthuk (noodle soup) and tingmo (steamed bread) to his guests. Named after Karchung’s younger son, Tenzing Drukda, TEE-DEE has emerged as the favourite spot of foodies over these 24 years.

TEE-DEE is literally a step above other restaurants in Mjanu Ka Tila, as we climbed up to the first floor to enter the paradisaical world of great food and good ambiance. Smiling Dalai Lama and a meditating Buddha welcomed us to a warm and cosy informal setting and to a new world of shabhaleys, ghenthuk and thenthuk. The service boy gave us a yellow pad to scribe our orders, but we found ourselves lost in the Tibetan names. 

Tashi, the beautiful Tibetan woman who has been at the helm of affairs at TEE-DEE since her father-in-law passed away, came to our rescue and placed the orders on our behalf. She says cheley, lowa, pork ribs, shapta and tingmo are the specialties of TEE-DEE. 

Though service was tardy, food did appear hot on our tables. We gregariously dined on pork ribs, tingmo, beef shapta and sliced pork with mushrooms. The piping entree, pork ribs, took us to a height of foodgasm. Pork ribs were deliciously juicy and zesty, with a good blend of spicy and sweet. The steamy hot tingmo with its yeasty freshness is wholesomely filling. The soft doughiness of the tingmo is best complemented by the hot and tangy beef shapta. Loaded with shredded meat, the beef shapta is indeed a must try at TEE-DEE. Sliced pork with mushroom is another dish that shouldn’t be given a miss. Shredded pork and a variety of mushrooms are packed together in a mild and glistening buttery gravy that washes your palette just enough from the tanginess of the beef shapta. 

By the end of our food journey we were full to our brim. What appealed to us most is the economical price at which TEE-DEE offered us a whole course meal. We would, however, recommend a slightly more familiar approach and a little more customer-friendly attitude.

24 years and still going guns, TEE-DEE has a simple recipe behind it. While the Tibetan colony is mushroomed with restaurants and food joints, there is hardly any that offers purely authentic Tibetan dishes. As Tashi stresses, authenticity has been their motto since TEE-DEE’s inception. It stands up to its popularity with its informal charm, authentic flavours and quality food. Though the shy and introvert Tibetan service boys refused to talk much, Tashi endeared us with her smile and welcoming hospitality.

Intriguing as the name may be, Majnu ka Tila offers a special gastronomic relish as it leads one through the narrow lanes of its mini Tibet!

A Foodie's Paradise - Kolkata!

I am a rat! I sniff my way into a city to know if it can satisfy my hunger pangs. Not that I claim to have travelled extensively across numerous cities, but I have modestly managed to touch base of several Indian cities. And from the little sniffing I did, I know well where I can quell my cravings.

                                

Calcutta/Kolkata is the city every foodie must pin down on her/his map, in case she/he is looking for a haven!

 If Delhi is our national capital, and Mumbai our cultural capital, Kolkata is definitely our food capital. Don’t judge me because it’s my hometown, but when I say that Calcutta’s gastronomic affair is by far the most democratically pluralistic one, I mean every word of it. The city is like an egalitarian wok that offers an array of global cuisines to its people. From the elites to the proletariat, Kolkata has afforded all sections of its society to enjoy a foodie’s appetite and cravings. It is one of the metros, and one of the oldest ones, which still affords its public the cheapest and the most economical living in India. Momos, noodles, thukpas, chop suey, dosas, dahi-vadas, chats, puchkas, kebabs, rolls, biriyani, burgers, pasta, fish cutlets, sizzlers, pastries, puddings, custard et al, are available not just in the plush interiors of lavish restaurants, but also with the local street vendors and within a range of INR 40 –80. What better way to keep your folks happy than through her/his stomach!

All Kolkattans are foodies, irrespective of their class, creed, sex, colour and religion. And I am serious!

That all Kolkattans are foodies bear proof in the fact that every nook and corner of city has a food joint that sells its own deconstructed variety of a principal dish. The variety available for your taste buds to relish on is just mind boggling — from Mughlai to Middle Eastern, from Asian to American. What, however, makes Kolkata the heavenly abode of Foodies is the easy availability of these delicacies, both in the street joints and the luxurious restaurants. 

My stay in Delhi, over the last two years, is deeply marked with much disappointment at the limited offers that are available for everyday snacking.  North Indian Cuisine is so heavily vetted there that to satiate a sudden Thukpa craving you might have to go all the way to Majnu ka Tila! And also let’s not forget the taboo of non-vegetarianism. Mumbai has been way better, though when it comes to choices and variety, you need to remember that in an elitist society ‘beggars can’t be choosers’! Chennai is however too full of itself to bother about other cuisines. It regales in its own magnificent cuisine.

The Bengali cuisine looms large over Kolkata too, but it’s definitely not an all consuming shadow. While delicacies like Alu-Posto, the Awadhi-styled Biriyani and Rasogolla are indeed quintessential of Kolkata, it also boasts itself of the rare Anglo-Indian dishes like the Mulligatawny soup and Kedgree, with Kolkata being the home to a large number of Anglo-Indians.  If it’s Puchka today, its’s Kabiraji tomorrow and Nachos the next day. If it’s Biriyani from Arsalan today, then it’s sweets from Balaram tomorrow and Chinese from Tirettti Bazar the next day.  If it’s Pasta from the university campus food joint today, it’s Chicken ala Kiev from The Steak Factory tomorrow and Japchae from Asia In Box the next day.

 When in Kolkata you are a Foodie and variety is the word that will dominate you plate.

Women and We

The issue of women’s liberation and empowerment has become a seminal topic in almost all discourses. The 20^th century has germinated the seeds of women’s cause that were sown a century or two back to full growth. Women gained suffrage, equal pay rights, reproductive rights, education and a lot more, and still a lot remains to be achieved.

                       
 We’ve come off our stereotyped roles, and we have been relentlessly trying to push the social margins further and further. For independent women like you and me, women’s empowerment and liberation is our cornerstone. So, every once in a while my girlfriends and I deliberate over such movements like ‘no-shave armpits’ and ‘free the nipple’, and join a few others to show our solidarity.

                        
 But then one day I met three middle-aged women on a trip to Agra. They were homemakers who enjoyed their dependence and loved to dominate the measured world of 2BHK. But now that their husbands have withered and children have moved out and need their care little, they decided to enjoy their lives travelling. This was their first trip alone and that they were nervous would be the least to say. I felt piteously sorry for them who have been now become useless to their children and husbands. I felt terribly sorry for them who had clipped their wings early on in their lives and had never ventured outside the protective male gaze. And so, while I pitied them, one of them caught my tone and remarked, ‘It is by choice that I am a homemaker. I chose to lead this life.’  Soon, I realized how horribly ignorant I was! I wondered how vainly liberated did I feel against my mother who chose a life for herself – to have a family and not to live alone in an unknown city for employment? How much powerful do the sons and husbands feel when they queue up a pre-paid taxi booth and ask the women to stand under shade with the luggage? These same women travelling alone does all of that and may be much more!

I realize how vain I was. My myopic vision prevented me from realizing that feminism is not in pitying women in a situation which you don’t find favourable. It is in realizing and acknowledging her choice, her will and above all her ability to lead her own life in her own terms. My mother is a homemaker and she chooses to spend her life travelling because it is what she wants to, not what she is left to do!

Rainbow's Landline!

One of the recent books I read is Rainbow Rowell’s best selling novel of 2014, Landline. Adjudged as the Goodreads Best Book of 2014 in the fiction category, Landline marks Rowell’s return to adult fiction after her two best selling young adult novels, Eleanor and Park (2013) and Fangirl (2013). Landline is Rowell’s take on marriage, love and mature relationships.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

               

                  Georgie McCool is a successful scriptwriter who is very much aware that her marriage is in the rocks. Her husband, Neal, is a stay-at home dad who looks after the kids and patiently waits for Georgie to commit her time for them. He has increasingly grown distant from her and is discontent with a sterile conjugal life due to her endless work. She drives the last nail in the coffin when she chooses to soar high in her career and ditches her husband and kids on celebrating Christmas together with Neal’s family at Nebraska. However, just after Neal and the kids depart for Nebraska, Georgie begins to crumble. She worries if her marriage is over, having realised that perhaps this time she has pushed Neal a little too far away from herself. She begins a journey to rediscover herself, her feelings for Neal and to achieve a full understanding of the conjugal relationship she shares with Neal.

                        Rowell explores the themes of travails of marriage, midlife crisis, work and parenthood adroitly through a psychological study of her characters and the deft use of the instrument of magic realism. Georgie attempts to fix her marriage by starting afresh her conjugal relationship with Neal. She attempts to talk to Neal, but the Neal she keeps talking to from her teenage bedroom using the old yellow landline is the young Neal, one that she had fallen in love with. As Christmas draws near, Georgie travels between past and present to understand her own feelings and her relationships. She is left to consider if they should stay together, if they are enough as a couple to make each other happy.

                          Beneath the sparkling narrative lies a subcutaneous tension that Rowell has adroitly captured. Once again Rowell proves herself as a master storyteller in her ability to narrate a heart-warming story that dissects a modern marriage to talk of the problems of modern life and relationships. At the heart of her story lie the imperfect characters - Georgie and Neal.  Georgie is a far cry from a perfect lover, mother or wife. Neal is a quite brooding man whose stolid passivity and resigned acceptance constantly conveys Georgie her inability to make him happy. It is also interesting to note how consummately Rowell has reversed the gender roles in her story. The man patiently waits for his wife’s attention and time as he looks after the house and kids. But Rowell falls back to her young adult strain and gives into that idealist and escapist nerve. What rubs off against me is the forced reconciliation of the story. Somewhere in the end the characters seem to give up their free will to resolve Rowell’s plot. The author manipulates her characters to script a happy ending that is at once affected and fake. However, Rowell’s lucid language and swift narrative, evenly distributed with humour, make Landline a page turner. It is indeed a good read that combines the pleasures of a young adult novel and the plot of an adult fiction. 

10 Situations that People with Small Feet Know Best!

Who do you blame when you grow up to see that your body and mind had developed and grown both in size and matter, but your feet haven't? None, but your genes and indispensable fate! Here's a few curated situations  that only people with short feet will familiar with. 

1. Your feet are so awkwardly small that finding shoes of your size is a rare thing in your life!

 Most shoe brands don't make shoes of your size. You are one of those who believe in couture items!

2. Buying shoes online is a serious joke to you!

Nothing can be more sad than to see your friends buy shoes online. Your is size is just unavailable. You comfort yourself with kids' shoes.

3. You have to live with the shame of buying shoes from the kids' section throughout your life, may be even after you become a mother!

You walk into the kids' section and pretend to nonchalantly look for shoes for your nephew or niece. Be careful to avoid the salesmen before sneaking your feet in the little shoes to check the fit.

4. You follow the latest trends in kids' shoes.

Nothing can be more disappointing than to know that latest trends and styles in foot ware can add no colour to your life. You've got to follow the kids' trends!

5. You have to give every shoe sale a miss!

You can't help! There's hardly anything you will find that will fit you. You can't express your fetish for shoes even if you want to!

6. Insoles are your real friends.

Can't find a size smaller or bigger? Insoles are there to rescue you. You know them best - brands, types, sizes, uses. Just everything about them!

7. As much as you like weddings, you dread the day you will get married. Where will you find stilettos to fit your size?

It's a nightmare every time you think of the day you have to go shopping with your in-laws for your wedding.

8. When normal socks don't fit you, you have to wear baby socks.

When kids' shoes are near at hand, how can baby socks be far away?

9. You have to unquestionably bear forever in your life the wondrous look of people when they say 'You have such small feet!'

You just learn to take it in your stride with a pinch of salt.

10. However, you ace it all when you say,'None of my shoes go missing because none ever fit others!'

Who would dare answer to this? Everyone's had their share of the 'lost shoe' experience.

Four Women and an Ancient City

Our history makes for our present. There's nothing more enriching than taking a trip to a historical city that will help us reconnect with our country's and culture's roots. What’s another popular city, close to Delhi, that is historically and culturally as rich? You're thinking of Agra, right? So for a visit to a historical city, my friends and I did something courageous—we took an an all-women trip.

The best weather to visit Agra is early spring, for it gets a little too hot a little too quick, and also cools down to a chill and makes for very poor visibility. We didn't manage to visit in spring, so we chose early winter. The weather neither gnawed a cold bite nor scorched our skin.

Plenty of buses ply between Delhi and Agra throughout the year. Trains like Shatabdi also makes for a good comfortable travel. However, our last minute plans left us with little choice but to be the adventurous bus travellers. Armed with volvo bus tickets, four of us set out to explore the ancient city of Agra.

We took an early morning bus from Sarai Kale Khan ISBT. Crowd was decent, interior was clean, and most importantly the bus halted at proper stops. Clean washrooms and fresh food were available at the stops, as against our fears. Following a four-hour ride on the highway we reached Agra ISBT. Entering the city we saw nothing of the majestic grandeur that the city boasts of. All that we could see after reaching the city were the jostling crowd and wayward traffic. Perceive the city through time-tinted glasses and you will see the chaotic confluence of heritage, decadence and modernity.

Most of the hotels and resorts are located further away from the city. Tajganj and Fatehbad are the places to look out for, with hotels and resorts lining its sides. We had already booked ours from https://www.booking.com for ease on arrival. It's also advisable to rent a car to travel around the city, however, public transport like auto and electric rickshaw are available in plenty too.

Of the several ancient structures that stand to bear witness the height of Mughal architecture in Agra, the Agra Fort is one of them.

It is a complex of courts, palaces, gardens, pavilions and mosques. The fort is carved mostly in red sandstone, which is perfectly complimented by the marble palaces it houses within its confines.

The Agra Fort also happens to be the fort where Emperor Shah Jahan spent the last days of his life as a prisoner to his son, Aurangzeb. Guides flock the gates of the fort in plenty. The best way to avoid people from duping us for our gender is by taking the services of government appointed guides who have fixed rates for the services provided.

The holy city of Fatehpur is a must visit when in Agra. You will be swept away into the pages of history as you'll step through the grand city gate of Buland Darwaza. 

As the legend goes, it is believed that Emperor Akbar came here on foot to seek the blessings of Sufi mystic, Sheikh Salim Chisti, to have a son. Akbar’s prayers bore fruit and he built the city of Fatehpur to honour the Sufi saint. Within the inner walls of Fatehpur lie the Royal Mosque and the tomb of the Sufi saint. Pilgrims visit all round the year to offer prayers.

 The Taj Mahal has come to be eponymous of Agra. The magnificence of Taj looms large over Agra, to the extent of almost consuming Agra’s individual existence. It's magnificent grandeur is beyond words to describe.

 Vehicles leave you 2 km away from the Taj. Battery cars and camel carts are readily available to take you on pillion. Carry your id cards and buy your tickets if you want to take a closer look of this grand monument. Latticed gardens and pristine blue pools adorn the Taj like a foyer, as the monument rises from a red sandstone base. The double dome, the slender four minarets materialize in front of your eyes. As you enter the dark dome you see Persian verses decorate the walls and a marble inlaid enclosure, within whose vault lies the cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahal and the casket of Emperor Shah Jahan.

The architecturally exquisite Taj is much more than its twin ‘Bibi-ka-Maqbara’. At the end of it, you leave the Taj with wonder in your eyes and a mesmerising awe of having seen something so beautiful and so grand built to epitomise someone's death!

Now, when in Agra, peetha must not be missed. As word of mouth goes, peetha from Panchhi store is the best that Agra has. It is one of the oldest petha stores of Agra, established in 1926 and selling a large variety of pethas. From Angoori to Kesar, Panchhi petha is popular all over Agra, so much so that its duplicates criss-cross the market.

Agra, like Delhi, was the seat of Mughal governance and eminence. It's indigenous culture, architecture and heritage makes it a perfect city to know more about our royal past.