Reunited

I had fallen in love with her the first time I saw her. And then the second visit confirmed it. I was besotted by her, but then we were parted. I moved far away, till the day came, and I was in Rajasthan again.


Rajasthan, how i fell in love with it when i travelled in 2007 (1, 2, 3). The people, the food, the color, the grandeur, the innocent affection, "ram ram sa" everything just captivates you. Rajasthan, today after visiting 6 cities, I can safely call it one of the most beautiful states in India. Infact if you haven't travelled in rajasthan, you haven't seen enough. The story of my third stint in rajasthan...


"When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."
I got a chance to go to rajasthan utilising my core leaves. Backpacking from Ajmer -> Pushkar -> Jodhpur -> Udaipur
Every city different from the other, still a common thread between them.


Ajmer feels like any other small town with dingy lanes, narrow streets and the small shops almost kissing each other. It was all about the streets. The streets near the dargaah, shouted to keep your shoes for a meagre amount, the streets wanted alms near the holy place, the streets stared at you as you moved with a camera in hand, the street smiled, giggled with you as you tried talking to them. Ajay-meru or Ajmer, the streets know everything, they go everywhere and nowhere.


Pushkar is a salesperson. It sells rajasthan, the culture, the language, the enigma, and if you are bored, it sells you to you. My best of times in rajasthan in the 6 days i spent were in pushkar, and it was short. Liked everything about the place. It sells india to the tourists, the india they want to see. Be it the 1000s of stories related to the gods and godesses, or the vermilion smothered cows, the unkempt mystics or the rajasthani color. Every place was covered with curtains of such bright rainbow colors. Took a long camel ride and ended up listening to the banjaras, their folk show only for me. Pushkar just wins you over and over again.


Marwaris have a taste for food. Jodhpur was a live example for the same. Had lunch with a family, who informed us of how throughout jodhput, there are places famous for certain kind of food. And people who have lived there, and know about these would never even think of going somewhere else. So, if you want to get the gulab jamuns you go to chatarbuj sweets, for makhaniya lassi and mawa kachodi, mishri ram bhandaar, for kachoris and samosa its shahi samose and for omelettes none other than the omelette shop (aka garib hotel).


If you need to travel to Udaipur, you need 3-4 days and keep it at the last. Its a perfect place to unwind yourself, relax and forget about other things. We sadly could not do that, as we had just 2 days in hand. But nevertheless this place doesnot claim to be the best city in the world for nothing. A horse safari, and a bit of town surfing later, we were on our way back.


Rajasthan!!! A state so colourful, so rich, so grand, so mysterious and yet so humble... you feel like returning again and again. :)
I shall. soon!!!

Singapore, Hongkong and the mutton biryani

Now now now... what do we have here? Finally am I going to write a blog on my first phoren trip? I have been wanting to do that, I really do. But somehow, the cosmos didn't want me to. Why else, and how else would you be able to explain my laptop, which was working just fine when I went off to Singapore, had conked off by the time i returned. I mean, how can that happen. A brand new laptop, at that. It took me a week to get it repaired. And by the time it was up and running (I mean working, not literally running.. dumbo!!!), my whole enthusiasm about sharing the story with the world had gone. You have all seen the pictures. You know almost all of the story. Still, if you want to know, here it is.

Singapore - Had fun. Old friends. Night clubs. Good food. a cosmopoliton place in truest sense.
Hongkong - WOW!!! Amazingly delicious and weird food and streets. Sky scrapers. Beautiful skyline. The great Buddha. A place on a must-visit-twice list.

Now for the meaty part of the blog.
All the travelling, photography, theatre etc etc etc... I hadn't got a chance to cook for some time now. Well, the cooking to keep yourself alive? Yeah that did happen. But nothing new. Nothing at the end of which you pat your back and say, well done!! This weekend was different. S said, "lets cook this saturday", and I said yes. S said "Mutton Biryani". I said yes. And that was the time when the idea was conceived. The result of which we all saw on saturday the 13th of June 2009.

Saturday the 13th of June 2009, started as a very normal day. Woke up. toiled around, doing nothing for a while. had last night's litties (oh!! yes, I made litties friday night. Biharis, you can go all hmmm and yummm over it. I really don't mind) for breakfast.

Went to the closest mutton shop, and after looking like a fool, when I actually said that one leg of the lamb looked older than the other, we got 750 grams of nice tender meat. Got all the ingredients needed for the recipe which my alter ego had noted down beautifully on a piece of paper. Came back home full of enthusiasm for what was going to come next...

...CHOP. Chop the onions. Chop the chillies. Chop coriander leaves. Chop mint leaves. chop... chop... chop... Chop and then grate raw papaya (which in my case wasn't raw enough, but it worked just fine). Chop ginger and make a paste. Just chop... chop... chop. chop and grate and chop and ...

I wish I could really describe the feel and the sensation I had while mixing the meat in the spices and oil. When curd, oil and other spices make the chunks slip through your fingers. The feeling that a child would have had, when he first plays in the fresh rain water mud. Or maybe the feeling when you move your fingers in the long and silky tresses of your love. The different aromas arising from the mix and increasing in strength as you move your hand inside it. And if this was not enough, you taste the marinade to check if its right. Wish I could find a better word than the cliched "orgasm" to describe it. But I guess there's really nothing.

Cooked rice till half done. Left the marinade for 4 - 5 hours in the fridge. It was all mechanical after that... UNTIL.. the last part came. Layers of meat, rice, spices and herbs, rice and spices were arranged, covered with the lid and sealed with dough. Next was the most difficult part of the whole process. We had to leave it on the stove for the next 40-45 minutes without touching it, without even looking at how the flavour seeps from one layer to another and then back, bringing into shape and color and flavor of one of the marvels of a human kitchen. After just a few minutes the aroma from the pan starts coming, making your wait even harder. Thank god!!! I had Hitchcock to give me company while the biryani cooked.

But as I say, even gods fail sometimes. Hitchcock is only human. I went and uncovered the pan after 30 minutes, only to find that the biryani wasn't done. Have you ever regretted anything in your life? I hadn't till this moment. Sealed it again and left for another 20 minutes. And this time when I removed the lid, We weren't disappointed. The Biryani was done. Done to perfection.

Sir Jack Daniels on rocks, Mutton Biryani, us and Hitchcock. Can you really ask for anything more than this on a saturday night?

Had heard someone say, you really are not a good cook, till you have cooked biryani. I am patting my back, right now. :)

Bliss

(Finally found a pic for this place. Went to singapore and Hongkong and looked for pics, but nothing fit. Finally, I found the pic in my own kitchen)


For the people who know me:

I AM GOING THROUGH A PHASE OF DIET CONTROL.

If you weren't shocked by the above statement, dude, you really are far far away from your ultimate enlightenment. For you oh-so-eager-to-unravel-the-neeraj-mystery people, I have one thing to tell you. Here's your first lesson.

I LOVE FOOD. There is something alluring, something naughty, something enticing about food. Something that calls you and asks you to just devour every bit that is there on the plate. What is more exciting than eating food is knowing the story behind it (Ofcourse, there is a story). Every morsel of the food, tells you something. It talks about the skill, the excitement, the passion of the person who created it. Mixing different flavors together, different colors together, adding some of their own ideas, innovations, experiments, a chef creates magic.And that magic is experienced in your mouth.

In 'Cheeni kam' Amitabh says, cooking is an art, every other art caters to just one sense of your body, but cooking it caters to three. I couldn't have agreed any more. A masterpiece gastronomical art has to look delicious, the aroma should be intoxicating and when it touches the tip of the tongue, it should create a plethora of feelings run through your mind.

Now the question is, why do I love food? A few days back, I was actually trying to think about it, and I could not pick any one reason for this. Everytime I think of it, a different reason comes to my mind. A good preparation is sometimes a mystery. I love taking the first bite and trying to figure out what exactly is the reason for the way it tastes. I love food because its the only place where I have seen two very contrasting flavors mix so well and create something unique. I mean had I not tasted it, I wouldn't have known about the chocolate with chilli in it. Evolution of food tells you more about history than anything in this world. And food never lies. It tells you about the culture of a place and how it evolved with time. Its the real symbol of the so talked about globalisation in this world. Food, has calmed me down sometimes, when at others it has gotten me excited and ready to do anything. It has left me dumbfound at one instant, and has been my company over the best of conversations that I have ever had at others.

Food is like a religion, and the more you explore the more you understand it. Its one science which has continuously worked towards global harmony and personal bliss. If I wanted to encapture all that I feel about this wonderful bliss that has been provided to us, I guess I'll have to summarise all that my life stands for, has ever stood for and is ever going to stand for.

As, for my beginning sentence of this blog. I am not on a diet control for any known reasons. Its just that I am preparing myself. Preparing myself for the days to come, when I would need my tum the most, when I should be able to take even a nuclear blast inside if need be. And I guess I'll be ready for the experience, the experiments and the fun.

A wise man(woman) once said, "The way to every man's heart goes through his stomach". Mine, you can touch the soul. Ciao'.

Past 2 weeks I (Sharavathy Trek)

A small initiative from my part (I replied to a mail) would result in something so beautiful and exciting, I could have never imagined. Now I could have given you the exact dates for when the mail arrived, when did I reply to that (which was the instant I received it), how were the arrangements made etc etc., but I am sure you won't be very interested in that. So, let me just jump to the meatier part. THE TREK.

12 people, most of them did not know each other (I for one did not really know anyone), started on friday night in a tempo traveller. And in a very small time, it was made clear, that we are going to have a gala time with each other. It didnot take a lot of time for the ice to break, and by the time the wheels reached the boundary of oh so glorious Bengaluru city we were all singing and laughing together.

A night and 350 kms later, we reached kargal, a small town in Shimoga district of Karnata, where the organisers had arranged for our breakfast and the morning routines. And then they came. Round fluffy sweet and devouring... the mangalorean buns. If you have ever tried to touch heaven in the morning, this is the way you should. Buns are deep fried poori kind of bread, prepared from a mixture of maida, ripe banana and curd. That with the perfect cup of filter kaapi. The journey had just started, and I already got half of the money worth.

About 20 kms ahead from there was a forest, where we were supposed to trek. Unlike other treks, where the paths is well established and even then if you miss it, you can just follow the cigarette butts, the chocolate wrappers and half the back pack of a person, this was a nice surprise. Completely unexplored (even the guides got confused a couple of times), nothing on the ground seemed out of place, it gave us a chance to try and fight the suddenly popping branches, the thick bush, the slippery and steep decline of the area, and move forward. We slipped, we fell, we got bruises, we got cut. We laughed, we sang, we were hushed, we chattered. The sun found it difficult to reach the interior (though it still managed to :P).

Then we heard it. Yes, the sound of water. We ran towards it, falling even harder, slipping even more. A small waterfall, but big enough for 12 people to go under and get wet. The trek continued. After that we followed the trail of the river, exploring the jungle around us. The trek ended, and soon we were moving towards the vehicle.

The lunch was arranged at a local's place. Sitting cross legged, with large banana leaves spread infront of us, we eagerly waited for the food to arrive. And it came. First the rice, followed by sambhar, pickle and papad. The thatched roof, the mud walls, the earthern pot cool water, everything added to the ambience and the flavour.

If we thought this was amazing, I can only begin to describe what lay before us for the rest of the trip. A small stop over at the almost dry jogfalls and then we moved to the destination (or the next stop in the journey). We were taken to a bank of the sharavathy river, the camping was to be done on the other side. What bewitched us, we were not sure... was it the expansion of the river, or the wind hitting the face, the chill in the air, the red sun or just the breathtaking view infront of us. We just stood, some shouting at the view, some just staring open-mouthed. And the cameras clicked. The dropped jaws reclaimed there place and as the dusk thickened we went to the other side in coracles.

Night was bonfire, singing, dinner on paper plates, drinking kashaya (a local specialty, a herbal tea which resembles a lot with the kashmiri kahwa) one at a time sharing the limited containers that we have, and after all this a long walk on the island. We were asked, not to go into the woods, so we remained near the water. Every stone, every stout on the ground looked like an animal ready to pounce. The river was covered with its own army of wooden creatures. The silence of the night adding to the eeriness of the whole setting. But even then, the night wind soothed us, inviting us to keep moving forward, and we did. We got back to some dead logs in and around the camps and met our deaths under the open sky, beside the burning logs while the camps remained empty.

Next day was water sports, we remained in water for hours, coracle riding, kayaking, still water rafting and just floating. :). And then it came like the icing on the cake, gulab jamun after heavy indian meal, lichi with icecream and we drenched in the rain. After the lunch we returned, all tired, sun burnt, bruised and yet satisfied and rejuvenated.

I felt alive. After a long time.

Thank you people for making this happen. Varun for organising this. Sidharth, Amit Jain and Singhal, Amol, Milan, Richa, Ankit, Pragati, Barath and Deepak for being the perfect travel partners. NASA for arranging and managing the awesome trek. Looking forward to what lies next.