Trip to Kolkata for Durga Pujas by Mumbai-Howrah mail via Nagpur

I had joined HAL Nashik in April and decided to visit Kolkata during October for the Durga Puja celebrations. Yes, I was getting a bit homesick and felt that a trip to Kolkata would act as a booster and be just what the doctors would have ordered.
The year was 1967 and railway reservations could be had 10 days in advance – the quota from Nashik Road was six, if I remember correctly. I had to be in queue at the railway station in time. I was staying in Deolali and getting a bus early in the morning was difficult because people of Deolali were late risers – hence, I went to the station the previous night and stayed at the station till the reservation counter opened at 8am.
I was fortunate enough to get one of the six berths and, on the scheduled day, I boarded the Mumbai-Howrah Mail via Nagpur at around 11.30pm. The compartment was reserved and meant for 75 passengers only. When I woke up in the morning and, whenever the train stopped at the scheduled stops, the people waiting on the platform would not dare to board the reserved compartments. It was taboo.
The train had a dining car attached to it and the waiters kept coming at regular intervals with their wares - tea, crispy snacks, breakfast (bread-butter-omelet) followed by lunch, more tea, more snacks and finally dinner. Since most of the waiters in this train were Bengalis, they took special care of me and other Bengalis like me who were traveling to Kolkata for the Pujas. I ordered for a plate of chicken curry and chapatis – and, thanks to my waiter, there was the leg of a chicken.
By the time I woke up next morning, the train was arriving in Kharagpur and one look out of the window revealed that I was in Bengal – the people milling around on the platform talking in Bengali, the posters of Bengali movies, the advertisements on the walls in Bengali.
And, then, the local vendors got up with their unique Bengali products like vegetable chops, shingara, sweets, jhal-muri and, of course, green coconuts.
As the train left Kharagpur and proceeded on its journey towards Kolkata, a distance of around two hours, the dining car waiter came over to collect the money towards the meals. After he finished collecting from the passengers, he came over to me and confided that he, like most young Bengalis, was a poet in his spare time. He also said that he stayed in north Kolkata, in Shyambazar and gave me his address. He wanted to meet me and exchange thoughts as man to man and not as a passenger and a waiter.
Well – as the train rolled into Howrah station, my eyes began to search for my brothers who had promised to be at the station to receive me and I began to dream of how I would spend the holidays. (to be continued…)

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The world of pakoras and wadas in Nashik

Once in Nashik, I was forced to get used to snacks that were totally different to what I had been used to in my days in Kolkata and Kanpur. In fact, I had to reset my taste buds and learn to appreciate different variations of fried stuffs like the pakoras. To me pakoras were concoctions of vegetables that were dipped in a batter of besan and deep fried. The vegetables that lent themselves to being transformed into delicious mouthwatering snacks were could be slices of potatoes, brinjal, or finely cut onions, or cauliflowers. The first three had many takers in Kolkata while the fourth one was a rage in Kanpur.
Anyway, in Nashik, I came cross other varieties like the sabudana and fries made out of pulses. Here the generic name for all such fries was wada – therefore batata wada meant a fry where the potato was the main ingredient. Potato in Marathi was batata. Similarly, there was the sabudana wada and the urad dal wada.
Incidentally, the sabudana wada and its khichdi version were meant usually for the days of fast. Yes, the local Marathi people observe fast on certain days of the week and on these days, the eating joints would serve these snacks.
Of course, I cannot forget the bread pakora – it was nothing but slices of bread dipped in the batter of besan and deep fried. The frying would not be uniform – some would be over fired making it more like biscuit. Others would be under fired – the end product would be soggy.
It was most unfortunate that the culture of rolls (egg roll, chicken roll, mutton roll), which is the delight of Bengalis, had not invaded the kitchens of Nashik. Neither did the north Indian culture of chats and golgappas . The nearest to chats was the bhelpuri – a sort of mixture that was popular in Mumbai. It was similar to jhalmuri of Bengal where fluffed rice would be mixed with a number of unique ingredients and a dash of mustard oil and served in paper cones or packets.
But, alas, the vegetable chops, mutton cutlets, kabiraji cutlets, fish fries and other fast food delicacies unique to Bengal were nowhere to be seen. (to be continued …)