DELHI'S COFFEE HOUSE CROWS

 Crows are usually considered to be lowly creatures who peck around in the dirtiest of places. In Western countries this black creature is viewed as a bad omen. But they have a friend in Krishan Katyal, about 70 years old. You can see him on the terrace outside the ‘Indian Coffee House’ on New Delhi’s Baba Kharak Singh Road, earlier known as Irwin Road carrying on a conversation with the crows who flock around him in a semi-circle. A proper meeting they hold with him every afternoon.

Krishna Katyal 

Like the crows, Katyal is dressed in a black t-shirt, black trousers and a black cap on his head with a blue-black bag slung around his shoulders. When I return to the terrace to wash my hands after lunch, Katyal is still there but the crows are gone. So, I ask him about the crows and he is soon calling them back. All he does is to reach into his bag and take out some pieces of chicken that he flings into the air. As if by magic the crows return as well as a kite that dives to dextrously catch a piece in the air. 

‘Indian Coffee House’ is no stranger to meetings of all kinds. Till about half-a-century back itfunctioned from an open park across the outer circle of Connaught Place from Regal Cinema. Office goers of all varieties, government and private would gather there under a huge tent (tambu) after work before catching busses back home. Popularly known as the ‘Tambu’ Coffee House, it gained notoriety in the years leading up to the Emergency. Many conspiracies and machinations including political ones were fine-tuned over endless cups of South Indian filter coffee and sandwiches. It was representation of Juergen Habermas’s famous ‘public sphere’ in Indian democracy that was just about stumbling along at that time. Not surprisingly, ‘Tambu’ Coffee House fell to Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s ‘baate kam, kaam zyadaa’ (less talk, more work) slogan of the Emergency. To put an end to the ‘zyadaa baaten’, ‘Tambu’ Coffee House was shifted to a far less accessible second floor of Mohan Singh Place between Rivoli Cinema and Hanuman Mandir where it became plain ‘Indian Coffee House’.

HOLI - A SPRING HARVEST FESTIVAL

HOLI AND ITS COLOURS

The Holi Bonfire

JUST LIKE MARCH EVERY YEAR IN MOST OF NORTHERN INDIA, IT IS TIME FOR 
SPRINGTIME FESTIVITIES IN THE WAKE OF WINTER HARVESTS. THE BONFIRE 
(above) IS LIT ON THE OCCASION OF HOLI CELEBRATED OVER MUCH OF THE
COUNTRY'S NORTHERN HALF. TIME FOR WOOLENS ARE DEFINITELY OVER AND 
SOON ITS GOING TO BE SUMMER - THE TYPICAL HEAT AND DUST TYPE. PEOPLE 
SIT AROUND THE FIRE ALL NIGHT TO THE SOUNDS OF MUSIC UNDER THE FULL 
MOON. THE EMBERS ARE GOING TO TURN INTO ASHES BY EARLY MORNING AND  
PEOPLE SMEAR IT ON EACH OTHER AND CONTINUE PLAYING WITH COLOURS, 
WATER AND SOMETIMES MUD. LATE IN THE AFTERNOON IT IS TIME FOR A BATH 
AND A THOROUGH SCRUB.

This is how the holi bonfire is set up 

THIS IS WHAT THE BONFIRE LOOKS DURING THE DAYTIME WHEN IT IS SET UP
WITH LOGS OF WOOD AND STICKS. SOME PEOPLE WORSHIP WITH OFFERINGS OF
FLOWERS AND STICKS OF FRESHLY HARVESTED WHEAT AND GRAM - CROPS THAT AREGROWN IN THE WINTERS. 

Girl selling flowers, grain sheafs and cow dung cakes that keep the fire going

                                                                            

HIMALAYAN DEVELOPMENTAL BLUNDERS

Originally the term 'Himalayan Miscalculation' was used by Mahatma Gandhi in 1922 when the first Non-cooperation Movement turned violent. In later times 'Himalayan Blunder' was used to refer to the 1962 Indo-Chinese conflict and the mistakes of Jawaharlal Nehru that led to India's humiliating defeat to its northeastern neighbour. However, there are other kinds of blunders that can be committed so far as this mountain range is concerned, blunders that can affect the lives of millions of people. A glance at the story (link below) will show how. 

https://tatsatchronicle.com/risky-rides/

BANARASI TOMATO ‘CHAT' AND 'ESPRESSO MALAIYO’

What do you think about Kashi?

IF you think Banaras is only about the journey to the other world and things spiritual, you are way off the mark. It offers its fair share of goodies for the pleasures of this world too particularly gastronomical delights for those more materialistically inclined. This venerable city serves a variety of mouth-watering street food prepared with great care and expertise to meet every taste. It has something for those who like it hot and spicy as well as those with a sweet tooth. 

                                                                    

Nai Sarak

While tour guides of Varanasi are apologetic about the rather untidy nature of their city, particularly with respect to European and American tourists, the fact is that the real charm of the ‘centre of the world’ lies in its crowded alleyways that lead to from the main streets above to the ghats on the banks of the Ganga below. Some may find the going ‘dirty’ in the narrow lanes but these are the very lanes and by-lanes around which the culinary delights of Banaras are available. 

Tomato Chats Served Hot & Spicy

                                                                      

Out of all the foods available on the colourful streets of Banaras, four stand out and must-try-out for every visitor. I will relate them in the order of my preference. The first place goes without hesitation to ‘tomato chat’. It is available at ‘Deena Chat Bhandar’ on ‘Nai Sarak’ or the new street of this oldest of the world’s cities. The chat is a mixture of a number of vegetable ingredients the dominant among which is the American fruit called tomato. The sting is provided by fine

'Espresso Malaiyo'

ly chopped green chillies. It is served on a plate of leaves sown together with twigs. 

The second is a milk espresso snack called ‘malaiyo’ which is flavoured and sweetened milk worked up into a thick froth with a light-yellow colour, filled to the brim of an earthen tumbler. It resembles the better-known candyfloss. The third delicacy is the ‘lal peda’ a delicious sweet meat that can be purchased at Rajshree Sweets in the cantonment area. 

The last (not by any means the fourth) is the Banarasi Paan, or green betel leaf rolled up into a triangular shape and available virtually anywhere in the city. The best, in my opinion, is the ‘saada’ or plain one, not the sweet paan as the real flavour of the leaf can be tasted only in a plain paan. A paste of red kattha (catechu powder) and chopped betel nut is applied on the leaf before it is rolled up and stuffed into the mouth whole. The combination leaves a characteristic red colour on the inside of the mouth and red pan stains in corners of stair cases and on walls is a ubiquitous sight everywhere in India. The real Banarasi paan just melts in the mouth leaving no fibrous remnants.

Banaras wisdom: 'Birth Is a Matter of Fate but Death is a Matter of Time'

 

Chopped wood is stacked up in several neat piles waiting to feed the pyres at Manikarnika Ghat, the cremation ground on the banks of the Ganga in Banaras where the pyres burn day and night. It is a unique cremation ground where the customary Hindu rule of cremating bodies only between sunrise and sunset does not apply. The special blessings of Lord Shiva himself, the lord of the city ensures the liberation of the soul. 

Burning Pyres at Manikarnika

 

As I lean on the railings of the terrace of a temple at the Ghat in the afternoon watching the flames and smoke rise from at least half-a-dozen pyres below, I am joined by a Buddhist monk in the characteristic maroon gown. “Everyone should pay a visit to this place to keep the ego in its right place,” he opines. He is accompanied by an elderly white lady – maybe European or American – who too, perhaps has come to Banaras in a search for the meaning of life – or is it death?

Bereaved waiting for cremation

As I trudge up the narrow alley from the cremation ground to the main road, the hustle and bustle around continues. Several funeral processions wind their way down to the ghat chanting ‘Ram naam satya hai’ (taking the name of Ram is the only truth). The Ganga meanwhile flows serenely down towards the sea carrying the ashes of the dead.

Words of Wisdom

Not that the belief is universal. I find a sceptic in a tourist guide and an old-time inhabitant of Banaras. How is it possible, he asks that ‘moksha’ is assured just by being cremated at Banaras regardless of merit.

Ganga Cruise

 

BENARAS CRUISE

Cruising along the Ganga at Banaras is at once a spiritual journey and one that offers the beautiful shimmering reflections of a medley of multi-coloured lights that play in the rippling waters. The Uttar Pradesh Tourism launch M.V. Sam Manekshaw glides softly upstream 

Manikarnika cremation ghat of eternal pyres

Ganga Arati

Sunset at Malaviya Bridge

starting from NAMO Ghat, among the latest to the added to the famed 84 Ghats, sites on the left bank the Ganga for the holy dip and other religious rituals. The cruise covers all the ghats from Ravidas Ghat to Raj Ghat and can be booked online at – https://alaknandacruise.com/Home/Booking_new

The eternal journey of life (and death) can be viewed from the launch. Vibrating life is evident in the Ganga Aratis in which the river is worshipped as the source of life for one of the world’s still living oldest civilizations. Priests blow conch shells, chant sacred mantras and sing hymns accompanied by bells and swinging huge brass torches. Thousands gather on the steps surrounding the Ghat or sit in boats anchored on the river front to watch the proceedings with reverence.

But barely a hundred yards downstream comes the reminder that life is not all song and dance and the human journey is a mortal one. This is the Manikarnika Ghat where cremations are carried out day and night. In fact, legend has it that the pyres have burned there continuously for centuries without a break. Hindus believe that though the body is cremated to return it to the elements, the soul attains ‘moksha’ or freedom from all earthly ties if the cremation in carried out in the Kashi of Vishwanath who helps them along with the ‘Tarak Mantra.’

 

 

 In Defence for Nature: The many hurdles of forest dwellers in Uttarakhand - Indian Ruminations

This is a story of the result of arrogance of so-called civilization and the know-alls who refuse to acknowledge that the have-nots may have something from which they can learn.