Roadside Mirchi Shops

It was a cloudy afternoon. Rain was in the air. As i was walking empty stomach towards my home, an aroma tingled my nostrils. Turning back, i saw a heaps of deep fried savories. Pakoda as you would call it in India....Bread pakodas, Aloo bondaas, Gram cutlets and my favorite Mirchis. Looking beyond my eyes popped up. He was frying Jillibis. i had no option but to retrace my steps and stand in front of the shop. I had a wonderful lunch of hot Jillibis and even hotter Mirchis.

I was first exposed to the "Mirchi"s almost a decade back in Hyderabad. Mirchi is made of big Green Chillies coated with Bason and deep fried.

There is definitely something special about these roadside pakoda shops and the tea stalls in India. The energy level with which these shops are bestowed with is something special. The agility and the multi functioning activities that the shop owner shows while handling different customers, frying the mirchis, serving tea and managing the cash all by himself is something awesome. The business in these shops are run by the words of mouth. There is no calculator, no bill receipts, no computers.

Almost all of these shops in rural India are similar in looks. It will have one big bowl in which few fried Mirchis will be piled in open air. There will be a big Kaday with hot oil on an open Burner (rather a Chulla) on one side of the shop. Beside that, the shop owner will sit with one hand busy frying Mirchi and the other managing Tea and Cash. And there will be the customers standing in front of the shop busy in chit chatting and enjoying hot Mirchis and tea. With all probabilities, the tea will be served in small clay cups. However, in modern days cups made of glasses and plastics have made an inroad. And of course there is different dialects depending on the location. For example, in Mumbai, it may be "Ek cutting chai" and in Delhi it may be "Ek batta Do chai". In West Bengal it may be "Ek Half tea"....

Although the glamor of these shops are threatened by sophisticated food joints and the supernatural advertisements of the soft drinks of modern days, but people in India still flock to them. People may complain about these shops being unhygienic and a poor quality oil being used..... But who can resist the delicious spicy Mirchis, sweet jillibies and a cup of tea there?

Negotiation skill

It is said worldwide that we the Indians are good at negotiation skills. Its because we have to negotiate everywhere, everyday. We negotiate while traveling by auto rickshaw, we negotiate while buying groceries, we negotiate at the fish market, we negotiate with the hawkers on the footpath. We grow up seeing our parents and neighbors negotiating in their everyday lives. The better we negotiate the smarter we are called. But this tendency to negotiate has created an air of disbelief in almost all of us. We cannot believe the shop owner, we cannot believe the auto rickshaw driver, we cannot believe the hawkers. While staying in Japan, i noticed that we did not have to disbelieve people. Generally they are honest and we can believe them without any loss. Does it mean that this negotiation skill have made us smarter or simply cheaters?

In Gita, it is said that a person by nature is full of faith. It is said that whatever we do without faith is fruitless because it is an untruth (Asatya). A child believes everything till his/her thought processing is polluted by external forces. Does it mean that we are living our daily lives in untruth while negotiating in every step?

I have a dream... the importance of dreaming...

Nazriya - a poem written and recited by my wife Reema

It's all a matter of Nazriya - how we look at certain things - the perspective.

There is a fundamental mistake in the thought processing of our leaders. They think people in distress look forward to availing of subsidies. However, I think it's not the subsidies they look for, they look for a leader who will make them capable of dreaming - dreaming of a new India, dreaming of a new era, dreaming of raising their families with dignity, dreaming of making a Home out of their Huts. There is fundamentally nothing wrong with being poor, however, it's an unpardonable sin to stop dreaming. Even during the British Raj, there was poverty, illiteracy, poor health system. But one thing had united all the people of India. It was the dream of a free India. People got united to follow that dream. We had leaders who helped us see that dream. It was the dream of "Jonathon Livingstone Seagull" which made him immortal. It was the dream of "Iqbal" which made him wear the blue jersey. 

So it's all about a dream that will make our country a better nation. People don't need subsidies, they want to dream. A dream of a better Bharat, a dream of a free nation, a dream of a dignified life. 

It would be nice to see a leader starting his speech with 

"I have a dream"....