India Like This Only

If you are the sort of person thrilled by daring culinary experiences, you have got to pay a visit to the Mohammed Ali Road area in South Mumbai during Ramadan. This is undoubtedly Mumbai’s most iconic destination for Mughalai street food. Mughlai cuisine is the food of the Mughal empire, the dynasty from central Asia and Persia that ruled northern India from the 14th century until the advent of the British. Mughal royalty were known for their opulence with regards to art, music, poetry and food. The royal nawabs battled for bragging rights of having the best kitchens and those same culinary masterpieces are on display here during this holy month. Streets are closed off to automobile traffic, allowing patrons to uninterrupted access to engorging themselves shamefully. This event draws an estimated 40,000 people per day during the week, and around 100,000 on weekend days. Every evening, the raucous noises of the market turns to an eerie hush as the sun starts to hover over the horizon. ...

  Being the cultural melting pot of a city that it is, Mumbai is known for its opulent and extravagant food scene. However no restaurant can capture the warmth, authenticity and love of a home cooked meal. One of my most cherished memories of my Mumbai trip was a true Sindhi dining experience, thanks to the gracious invitation to dinner by my Sindhi school friend, Deepak Choithramani.  The Sindhi people originally hail from the province of Sindh, an area of great historical significance dating back to the Indus Valley civilization of 2500 BCE which is now in modern day Pakistan. This was a thriving community the country’s Independence in 1947. The partition caused the displacement of hordes of Hindu Sindhis, who were forced to flee to India to avoid persecution, forced conversion and genocide. They settled in many parts of northwestern India, primarily Gujarat and Maharashtra, and started their lives from scratch. In just a few decades of that happening, the Sindhis  esta...

  For most desi immigrants, travel to India happens primarily  over the Christmas vacation. The work cycle and demands of the school schedule make winter pretty much the only time to visit family back home. There is one huge drawback to visiting India during this time period. You miss out on feasting on the true king of fruit; the Mango. In India, mangoes come into season Mid April and are available until the end of June. Mangoes are the true indicator that summer has finally arrived. The down side for the Desi who chose to immigrate is having to say goodbye to the pleasure of this summer delight. It was a family emergency that brought me back home at this time of the year. Being my first time visiting India in summer in 24 years, you bet I have a lot of mango catching up to do! Many will argue till blue in the face about which mango variety is the best. The Goans insist it’s the Mankurad variety while the residents of West Bengal swear by the Himsagar. But a true Mumbaikar ca...

The crescent moon was sighted on April 2, 2022 in Mumbai, kicking off the Holy month of Ramadan. It is conventional Islamic belief that the Quran , the holy muslim text, was revealed to the prophet Mohammed in this month circa 610 AD.  To commemorate this event, for the next 30 days, every able bodied practicing muslim will observe a strict fast, abstaining from food and water from sunrise to sunset. This holiest of months teaches the Muslim people about self discipline, self control, sacrifice and empathy for the less fortunate. Eid is the festival to mark the end of this 30 day period of abstinence, and is celebrated with much pomp and vigor across the Muslim world. Ramadan was always very conflicting for me. Even though my father practiced Islam, I was raised roman catholic, following the religion of my mother. It must have been a sensitive decision because I sensed uneasiness every time I asked why. But as a result, I experienced Islam as an outsider.  I was not obligated ...

  The receptacle in which the chai is served truly makes all the difference in the experience. In someone's home, tea would be served in a 'proper' manner, in a cup on a saucer with sugar and milk on the side, a throwback to the times of the British Raj. On the streets of Mumbai, it's usually a glass tumbler (though now, I realize the age of disposable paper cups have taken over, sadly). But in certain places in the north, if you can find it, you can partake in the tradition of the "Kulhad Chai". A Kulhad is an earthenware tumbler with no handles. It is made from raw fired clay without any glaze. The tea takes on a slight earthen flavor the longer it sits, and the aroma is nothing short of divine. I didn't know about the existence of Kulhad chai until I moved to Delhi in my late teens for work.As part of my training, I was being sent down to Bangalore's Windsor Manor Hotel, and I was booked on the Rajdhani Express train. It leaves Delhi station at 8:45...

Air travel is often accompanied by exciting and adventurous experiences, and often, by rather unpleasantly harrowing ones. t was ten past one in the morning, as the airplane taxied down the runway when the flight attendant broke the news over the PA system. Flight attendants have this uncanny ability to deliver bad news with delightfully cultivated smiling voices. “Welcome to Mumbai, the temperature outside is a balmy 82 degrees F and due to unforeseen circumstances, some luggage has been left back in Amsterdam. Please check with the ground crew for more details. Thank you for flying with us.”  Oh groan!!! That meant in addition to the customary one hour visa processing and customs clearance wait time, I would have to wait for another two hours to file the report for my lost luggage situation. This was a bad time have checked in my carry on items. Now I don’t even have access to the emergency change of t-shirt and clean pair of underwear and socks. After being in the air for 20 pl...

It's springtime!!! This is when when Indians all over the country celebrate the curious festival of Holi. This is when children of ages 5 to 95 get out on the streets and partake in a literal explosion of spraying color and water. Holi encourages you to connect with your inner mischievous child, which is probably why it is celebrated with such vigor, irrespective of religious affiliation across India. Everywhere you look, you will see clouds of red, green, pink, yellow and purple, erupting all over the place. The 'Puchkari's' are brought out for this occasion, which is basically India's answer to a Super-soaker. Into this hugely overgrown syringe is suctioned colored water, which is then sprayed on the unsuspecting participants of this childish ritual. Kids spend hours the night before, filling little balloons with water, and gathering them in buckets to declare war on the neighborhood, not much different from a snowball skirmish around Christmas. From the bonfire c...