Outdoor@Indoor.com

That’s a case of liberty taken by a writer when he writes Indore as Indoor just to ensure the title is catchy but still relevant to the story he wishes to share with you today.

It was my first official visit to Indore so I sent a text to Hemant, a longtime friend, who hails from the city, “Going to your city.” “Welcome to the Cleanest City,” was his immediate one line response.  A second message was sent to the office colleague working there, Himanshu, informing him of my travel plans. Pronto came his response as well, “Welcome to the Tasty City.” My plans other than those that were official were mentally chalked out…to screen the streets and taste the food of Indore.

The problem with such plans is time…one day flying visit with the Maharaja Airlines grounding you for over two and half hours at Mumbai before takeoff leaves you gasping especially when there are back to back meetings lined up including in-city travel. Moving from one agent to another, one broker’s place to another however convinced me that we are idiots living in so called metropolis like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore…Indore has some of the best infrastructure and the best and broadest roads. Even the old part of the city which usually is crammed and dingy is blessed with good roads. No where will you find any filth or even plastic bags strewn across the road or sidewalks.  So I asked Himanshu, how is this possible?

“Sir, the civic administration is very particular about cleanliness. The ‘Halla Gaadi’ or the noise car is seen everywhere and is named because of the loud blaring sounds it makes to announce its entry and picks up kachara round the clock. If they find litter at any place, they will fine the person whose shop or home is closest. People are so fearful of the fines that they constantly clean the place near their residence and work even if they have not dirtied the place themselves. No one wants to be fined and hauled up. This has been going on for some time, now it has become a part of attitudinal change in the inhabitants of this city…cleanliness is next to godliness.”

Himanshu narranted a personal experience of his. He said since both his wife and he go out to work early morning, they had a problem in the halla gaadi coming to their vicinity to pick up daily kachara at ten in the morning. “I called up the helpline and told them of my problem and since then the Halla Gaadi comes at 8am every day at my place.” I was completely choked for words…if one common man’s complaint about timing of the pick-up truck is taken so seriously here, no wonder the city can claim to be the Cleanest City in the country if not the world.

Texted Hemant, who I always knew to be an honest man, that today his city had passed the cleanliness test ….Welcome to Indore. So the first test the city had passed with flying colours. Now it was time to test the Taste.

My first taste with the food left me pretty much confused. Since we did not have enough time to savour the best of the city’s food, we landed ourselves for lunch at Ginger Ganesha…are you confused and bemused…yes I too was with the name. I was told that the place serves vegetarian South Indian and Chinese. How on earth could someone mix up aginomoto with curry leaves and tamarind? No wonder the taste of Smokey Hakka Masala Dosa did not augur well for the second certification that I was to do. More than the food was something which must be said about the way you make payments in the digital world here. I gave my debit card to the waiter who most diligently took it to the payment counter from where the man who had swiped my card shouted, “ Sir number bataiye!” “What!! PIN number who shouts out in a place full of strangers? That’s supposed to be secret.” My colleagues told me that at Indore this style of openly announcing your PIN is in vogue. I politely refused and walked up to the payment counter to key in my PIN much to the amusement of the luncheon friends and hotel manager.

By the time my various meetings and reviews ended it was almost 8pm. Options of going out were two. The first preference is what all tourists and visitors do…go to Chappan Dukan. This is a must visit place for all types of namkeens, sweets and snacks. The day here starts at 6am everyday with Indore’s breakfast Poha being served everywhere and goes on till 10pm, it is forever crowded. Chappan Dukan literally means 56 shops which was the number of shops when it was originally started. Now things have changed from small to big ones, owners have changed but if you count the number of pillars between shops, you will see there are actually 56 shops.

Much against the wishes of my other office colleagues, I chose to go to Sarafa Bazaar that night for the real taste of Indore. Sarafa Bazaar is a jewellery market at day time (till 8pm) and converts itself into a street food court at night which goes on till the wee hours of the morning. After a quick shower, hailed a cab to reach Rajwada with two office colleagues. Rajwada was the official residence of the Holkars who ruled Indore and Malwa in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Indore was founded by Malhar Rao Holkar who was commander of Peshwa Bajirao 1 in 1739. His daughter-in-law, Ahilyabai moved the capital to Maheswar in 1767, however with the defeat of Holkars in 1818 in the Battle of Madhipur, the capital again shifted to Indore.

As you enter the small galli, passing by the Masjid, you see a buzz of activity over 500 metres away. You can see the closed shutters of the jewellery shops which have done their business during the day. Beyond a point no vehicles are allowed inside as gastronomy reigns. It is love at first sight with sweets and snacks everywhere…garma garam gulab jamuns kept beautifully in a huge pan full of chashni, lying beside is equally enchanting pan full of malpua…we could have been brim full by the first few shops itself and so we controlled ourselves…controlled our cravings and I can tell you it is sinful here.

Our first stop was Joshi’s shop enjoying Dahi Vade and  Bhutte ka Kees. Seeing the quantity being served the three of us asked for one plate of each of the items. The Dahi Vade was made beautifully with Joshiji chucking the plate up in the air, catching it like a trained juggler and then filling up the same with handful of dahi and vade with topping of sev and multiple spices. Butte ka Kees is grounded corn mixed with masala…don’t ask anyone about what masala they use…they will all tell you it is a family secret preserved over centuries. The taste was better than anything we had tasted before. Getting to know Tasty City better now…

Opposite Joshi’s shop were colourful looking ice creams. A closer look revealed these were ice-paans with names like Butterscotch, Green Apple, Orange, Litchi, Strawberry and, of course the current favourite of children, Chocolate paan.

As we walked past alu tikkis being fried and fruits charts beautifully decorated, we were lured by a small shop selling sweets. We picked on a plate full of rabadi which was not too sweet and tasted so good that we could have had a couple of plates more. My eyes then fell on a pan where ghee floated and beneath it was some brown coloured substance. “Is that moong daal ka halwa?” I asked in amazement and Himanshu said yes and this, too, is a must eat. A plate of this halwa , not just soaked in ghee as you would find in the northern part of the country, but drowned in ghee here was better than anything I have ever had. Felt like packing some for home but then knew the ghee would definitely leak out and the stain and smell would remain forever.

“Now what is that? Looks like jalebi but is huge!” “That is jaleba, the big size jalebi.” Let me tell you that this was not big size but huge. How could anyone have one of these was my question. These looked delicious but I told the shopkeeper,”Chotta milega kya?” And our man quickly made me a chotta jaleba which was 20 times the size of the normal jalebi. No matter how much you tried, the sweet liquid will sprinkle out of the hot jaleba like a shower and soil your clothes. By now what mattered was the food , cleanliness took a backseat for us now. The three of us tried hard but failed to finish one Jaleba. Himanshu has invited me again in January in the peak of winter when he says all you need to drink is one big glass of milk that has been sweetend and condensed over hours on the fire with one jaleba…you will not feel the cold any more. I told him, “Zinda rahe to thand lageygi na,” ( After eating so much will I  hardly feel the chill as I may not live after the gorging).  In all decency we wrapped the remaining jaleba and dropped it in a bin after a while. Surprisingly even in this busy street food court, cleanliness was not forgotten. Every vendor had a bin and not a single plastic bottle, tissue paper or wooden spoon could be seen on the road below.

Having had our quota of mithai, we went on to a side lane when we saw Aadesh Parantha Center. Long time since I had a real good parantha so I asked our man, “Special kya hai?” he suggested Shahi Parantha and I went along with his choice. Saw the man mixing the dough with a handful of mashed potato, a thick layer of paneer and two handful of Sev or mixture…nothing is complete in this city without Sev. The parantha was put on a big pan and once properly cooked was almost covered with a couple of spoons of ghee with grated cheese on top. I am sure the Shahi Holkar’s would have ruled a couple of centuries more if they had not been eating all this stuff and used the time better to improve their martial skills. Here’s the parantha plate as we were to eat.

If you think this was all a man could have on a single night, you are sadly mistaken. Himanshu took us to another small thela wala who made for us sabudana khichadi. For those who think you eat this when fasting will realize how wonderful this is. The man not only gave us the khichadi but put on the side potato chips, lots of dhaniya and pudina and a handful of masalas. Eating this makes you wonder, why shouldn’t we create our own KFCs and McDs with Indore’s famed street food…are any of the venture capital givers listening to this one big Make In India idea?

There was no more place left…honestly we had over eaten and it was well past 11 pm. The crowds were now beginning to come in. The place comes to life post midnight…we were early birds. So on our way we felt really heavy and we saw lemon soda being made in completely desi style. The man would add lemon to the water kept in a bottle, shake it well before putting it inside a metal tube which looked like a small sized bazooka and did something which I couldn’t guess but when the bottle was taken out and the contents poured into a glass, it produced the biggest and best fizz for a drink which led to a number of awkward sounding grunts and belching which was certificate enough that the food was real good.

Indore Stamped…Tasty City.

Next morning we had to leave early for Bhopal and I made sure that my breakfast included the famed Poha with Jalebi…you just can’t visit this city and avoid this staple diet. It is like visiting Rome and not seeing the Colosseum. Someone said that many people make poha but the taste of poha at Indore is different and is the best…it may be because of the water there. Someone at Mumbai opened a shop selling poha using Indore water that they would procure but he still failed miserably. There is something special about the city which just can’t be explained.

Now I am waiting for my winter travel to the city of Holkars, Hemant and Himanshu…of Royalty, Cleanliness and Mouth Watering Taste.

SS