Sunday 19 June 2016

Shahjahanabad Shooting Diaries: Iftar Walk with Delhi Food Walks


Since Ramzan at Shahjahanabad is such a special month, we decided to Video document some of it through Iftar and Sehri Walks with Delhi Food Walks. Chawari Bazar Metro station was our meeting point. The two groups of people (those who had registered with Delhi Food Walks and those who had registered with Sahapedia) had all arrived, totaling to almost thirty in number. The big group now had us worried, as it was extremely crowded, we were already sweating in the hot and humid weather and to carry such a big group around Shahjahanabad, needed special skills. Anubhav Sapra (Delhi Food Walks') was unfazed by the crowds.

Anubhav led us from Chawari Bazar to Jama Masjid for Iftar. As it was a Saturday, the Nai Sarak-Chawari Bazar stretch was extremely crowded. The entire group walked in rows of twos and threes following Anubhav, up to Jama Masjid, crowding the bazar even further.

It was already 7pm by the time we reached the mosque. One girl from the group was wearing a short dress and was not allowed inside. It would have been extremely sad to leave out a group member during Iftar in Iftar walk.  At first, I offered my dupatta as a wrap skirt but the sleeveless dress required top covered as well. Both my Sahapedia colleague and I, rushed to the Gate no.3 (Dariba side) from Gate no. 1 (Matia Mahal) to look for gowns they usually offer to foreigners. There were none at Gate no. 1, only lungis which was offered to a foreigner wearing shorts. The guy who had gowns decided to act difficult and refused for some reason. I named the person I knew who had given us the shooting permission and it worked! She finally entered the premises wearing a long gown over her dress.

But in this running around, we forgot our camera people. They were getting harassed by authorities for carrying cameras and moving without shooting permission! Finally things got sorted and we started shooting as Tufaila (Delhi Food Walks) explained to the group the significance of Ramzan and benefits of fasting.

Anubhav had ordered water bottles and small boxes from Kallan sweets of mince samosa-paneer jalebi, along with dates and different kinds of pakoras. The courtyard of the mosque was filled with families sitting with their dastarkhwans spread out with delicacies waiting for the time to pass. The last minutes are the hardest, as we spotted people distributing Sharbets, samosas, dates to the Rozadars'. People selling water got taunted for being too commercial and selling water to Rozadars!

The most interesting is the announcement of iftar! A man stands at one of the small Minars and signals with a green flag then the cannon sound goes off! And entire Jama Masjid gets lit up. At other mosques time for iftar is marked by a siren sound but Shahi Masjid continues the tradition from Shahjahan's time! After Azaan, people get ready for Maghrib prayers, we finished some of our food and made our way to the Matia Mahal lane to start our food walk.






We started with Aslam located on the Matia Mahal lane, well known for its butter chicken. All the three floors were completely full. We shared our table with a Vegetarian couple and kept extending our sympathies to them(as we could not share our food) while finishing off our chicken and kebabs! We did not even touch the salad, and neither did they, not even paneer!
We should not have eaten as much as we did here (hindsight: but it was too tasty).  From here we went to Taufiq Biryani where we tasted a few spoons of his achari Biryani and then went to Shabrati's Nihari. Here also everybody just tasted the nihari topped with butter, brain and bone marrow, with Khameeri roti. ()Taufiq's biryani and Shbarati's Nahari we had previously covered in our Breakfast walk with Anubhav).
A few steps ahead  from Shabrati's shop, we had sweet khoya filled samosa at Ameer Sweet House. From Haveli Azam Khan we walked towards Chitli Qabar where we tasted different kinds of breads from Flora Bakery. For Ramzan, bakeries sell Coconut, Butter-Jam, Dry Fruit breads. (Coconut is personal favorite). By now, we had started to feel quite guilty for the vegetarian couple, here they finally had something to eat.
 From Chitli Qabar we walked back towards Sui Walan for Al-Suleman's shakes. We tasted date and Injeer shakes (injeer was better as date was very sweet).  
 We again walked towards Matia Mahal for Pyaar Mohabbat Maza drink. The name intrigued us all. The shakes were heavy but the name of the drink ensured that everybody tasted it. It was milk Roohafza with water melon chunks. We made a few jokes about its name and moved a few steps for dessert.
We were served Shahi tukda with mango ice cream. Some people preferred the combo, some only tasted the ice cream and kulfi. Mango ice cream was actually very good.

 Anubhav offered to take us to an exclusive Date shop where the variety of dates from around the world was fascinating. The owner explained about the various dates on display and specifically about the Ajwa' dates' (most expensive) health benefits.

By 11pm the bazar was still crowded. We all had a very filling experience (pun intended!). The stomach was confused with the onslaught of various foods and drinks, after the day long fasting.
It took all of us a lot of effort to walk back out of Shahjahanabad towards Turkman Gate with such a heavy stomach.
Link to Video-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq3vtotd4X4

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Mohabbat Mo'tabar hai


Mohabbat Mo'tabar* Hai
Koi ilzam nahi
Jo mathe par sajaya jaaye
Koi ehsan nahi
Jholi me giraya jaaye
Khairat* ka sikka nahi
Jhuk kar uthaya jaaye

Dastan dil ki
Dastan dard ki
Jo kahi nahi
Woh suna karo
Jo suni nahi
Woh kaha karo

Dunya se ladna
Bahut asaan Jana
Sabse mushkil magar
Jung Khudi ki
Jeetna bhi khud se
Harana bhi khud ko
Uthna bhi khud se
Girana bhi khud ko
Samajhna bhi khud se
Samjhana bhi khud ko
Roothna bhi tum se
Manana bhi tumko

Rishto'n se aetbar uth jaaye
Yakeen wa'don se jaaye
Gehre ghup andhero me
Ek maddham kiran
Kahin chupke se aaye
Gum karde tareeki*
Ujale raste dikh laaye

Mohabbat Aezaz* Hai
Mohabbat Mo'tabar Hai
Koi ilzam nahi
Jo mathe par sajaya jaaye
Koi ehsan nahi
Jo jholi me giraya jaaye
Khairat* ka sikka nahi
Jo jhuk kar uthaya jaaye

*Mo'tabar - High Esteem/ regard
*Khairat- Charity
*Tareeki - Darkness
* Aezaz- Honor

Monday 13 June 2016

Trip to Kasol- 2











































Continued from the Link:  http://uzmaazharali.blogspot.in/2016/06/trip-to-kasol-1.html 


The trip so far had looked 'almost' perfect.  
I got friendly with the farm animals, including the three dogs. They had unusual names(Kali/ Bhaloo/ Tiger) and gave me company while I ate. I inquired about the probability of dogs feeling sense of identity loss with names like Bhaloo and Tiger but the owner laughed it off. As he also shrugged off Kali's aggression, when it tried to bite me with the excuse  of old age and lack of biting teeth! 
I wanted to explore the place a lot more and decided to travel local after a days' rest at the resort.

Next morning after the horrible omelette and bad tea (how can anybody go wrong with those two basics?) I decided to take a walk up to Manikaran.
There is a gurudwara and some hot water natural geysers there. I had no intention of going any further up! Manikaran was almost 3-4 kms from Choj. The road is bad but walking along parallel flowing river makes up for everything. Many cars from Punjab come this side, so there is heavy traffic on this very narrow road.  A few small roadside dhabas selling tea, water, maggi, snacks, so travelers can stop and take a break.



   It had started to drizzle when I reached Manikaran. It is unlike any other Gurudwara that you would see, not just in terms of architectural design but also in terms of its philosophy. As I asked an older Babaji at the Gurudwara about the presence of various Hindu Gods and Goddesses (even Sai Baba!). He sounded upset about it, but from what I understood it was to make it inclusive for the local population, as there is negligible Sikh presence here.


On the ground floor is the hot water cave where the floor is blazing hot, so hot that it is difficult to walk bare foot. But, since one has to take off shoes at the entrance, you either walk or hop (your choice depending on your body's tolerance level to the hot floor)!  There was also a hot water tank where people (mostly men and children, no women) were taking bath. The hot water tank over the freezing Parvati river waters was quite a sight in itself. Like all the Gurudwaras, here too the kitchen was a busy place as it catered to hungry travelers.




From Manikaran, I took a bus to Bhuntar, and from Bhuntar changed another bus for Manali. It was a four hour journey. The weather was overcast and the journey with river flowing on the side of the road extremely beautiful.

Manali was too crowded and too commercial. With the number of cars and a crowded market it felt like I was at Delhi's Karol Bagh! I bought a few souvenir gifts for friends and family and tried a couple of restaurants for food and coffee! At a restaurant in the main market, tried local grilled fish which was average in taste but expensive in price! The only decent place was this German Cafe where they had live music (guy singing on a guitar) I had a very good coffee with sweet cheese cake and bought few bottles of Apricot Oil from them.

In an hour and half I was done with crowded, touristy Manali! I took a taxi back and saw my Delhi-Mercedes bus walas driving badly on the road, and decided then and there I would take another bus back!


We encountered traffic jams at a few spots but the drive on this Manali stretch is extremely beautiful with river and mountains running parallel to the road.

It was around 9pm that I reached Choj. I went for dinner, and when I came back saw that a group of people from Mumbai had come and had set up huge speakers outside my cottage.
 I finished some work and then decided to make my objection official by 1 am! I was tired and hoped for an early start next morning.
 Kasol/Choj is a part of Parvati Valley where famous "Malana Cream" (a strain of Cannabis Hashish) can be found. This group here had come to "party" and were in their 'zone' with the psychedelic music!
The leader of the group offered me to shift to another cottage, 'the party will continue till morning', he said. I took the offer, as there was no point in arguing with these folks who were already in their 'zone' (I was outnumbered and though the group was civil not threatening, it made sense to shift for the night. The new cottage was bigger and better.

Early morning next day, somebody knocked on the door. I thought the party got over and probably its those guys. But, this was a new group who had just arrived and had mistaken the first cottage they saw as 'Reception'! It was around 5 am, and I thought I should go and check my room. They stopped the music when they saw me, wrapped up their stuff and then went to sleep to in their rooms, and I got my cottage back by 6am!

I was up now, decided to go for morning walk up to Kasol, had  stuffed parathas and tea there for breakfast and came back to sleep some more. After clearing my account, I ordered Maggi again from the same cook, but it was horrible this time! 
Suddenly there was water and electricity problem at the resort and especially affected my cottage.
I had packed my bag, I felt my luck on the trip was running out!
The boys from the Resort helped me carry my luggage across the bridge.There was a Bus to Delhi from Manikaran which left at 1 pm and crossed Choj.  I boarded the bus, took the front seat again for the view and said my "goodbyes" to Choj and the boys! Day journey meant I could still see the beautiful river and the hills, the Volvo bus at night would have robbed me of "my goodbyes to the hills".

There was a long traffic jam at Kasol as more people were coming in for the holiday. It looked like a wise decision to leave before the weekend.
The bus was a Himachal Tourism Bus, which usually gives a free tour to its passengers of the smaller towns of Himachal, Only I did not know that!
It looked like that I was going to see more of the hills than I expected. The bus took an interior route and locals kept boarding the bus for shorter journeys as it kept stopping at local bus stops.
By this time I was regretting my romanticism for local transport, and not going for a Volvo bus direct to Delhi, as we moved from one hillock to another of Himachal saying "Hello" to most of the house owners sitting in their balconies on the way! I tried to spot interesting local sign boards to bide time (like "Paan Banarasi Elaichi Liquor" etc.).
From 1 pm till 8 pm (seven hours!!) we were still in the hills! By now, it was an overdose of hills and an extremely over-stretched "Goodbye"!
As I  mentally composed my "Letter to the Hills" (Dear Hills, you know I love you, but you will have to let me go now, so I can return soon!) I knew I was completely losing it!

In all this, a fellow middle aged passenger started acting weird! He first kept staring and then came and sat on my three-seater seat. (The only consolation I had till now was, I could stretch myself on a three-seater seat which I had shared only for an hour with a mother-son duo). I told him to go back to his seat, on which he started arguing but left. To irritate me further, anybody who boarded the bus now on wards, he helpfully suggested my front seat as the 'best available' seat! I was tired, hungry and angry and since I was having such a great day, I decided to just ignore and postponed killing him!

Finally we reached plains of Punjab and stopped at a dhaba for dinner around 9.30 pm. Lack of sleep from previous night helped, as I started feeling sleepy post-dinner and spread myself as comfortably as I could on my seat (Thank God for small mercies). Bus stopped again at a dhaba around 2 am for tea. It was hot and humid, dhaba looked shabby. Most women from the bus did not leave the bus and some just got off to take a stroll to stretch their legs like me.

Finally, we reached Delhi at 5 am. I took a taxi from ISBT for Greater Noida the taxi driver overcharged, but I just badly wanted to reach "home".

My experience of solo trip would have been a lot better if on my return journey had taken a better bus back and not done everything on a whim!
But lesson for future trips Inshallah!

Link to Trip to Kasol-1-
http://uzmaazharali.blogspot.in/2016/06/trip-to-kasol-1.html

Saturday 11 June 2016

Trip to Kasol- 1


 I just could not decide on a place as I kept planning "someplace" to visit! When I finally found a week when I could leave the hot city weather for the cool hills, it started raining! A traveler friend suggested Manali as all other places on internet searches showed nothing available (train/hotels, June is a bad month for traveling, when families travel with kids' in their summer holidays). To Manali I could travel comfortably in many available Volvo buses and there are many places to stay at Old Manali & Vashisht, as per the advice of wise friends'. Also, could visit Kasol which is small, more quiet, with mostly Israeli tourists, no desi families. 

Take a Volvo from Paharganj (lots of buses available at frequent intervals), get off at Bhuntar (airport town) then take a taxi/bus to Kasol, were my instructions. I had to remember all the names (Bhuntar- Bhutta, Kasol- Kajol "j" replaced by "s"). I finished my work a day before and decided to pre-pone my trip by a day. I had not booked online ticket, I checked the buses which still showed vacancy, so I decided to take a Mercedes Benz bus. Boarding point was near Paharganj and my cab was late. But, there were so many options that I was not worried.
The bus was about to start when I reached, I spoke to the driver, who was sweet enough to give me a front seat with another woman passenger. There was a list of people who had booked and paid online, I had not, the driver "negotiated" with the company list guy and told me to pay in cash later. I tried haggling and he agreed to my quoted price! (My money went in his pocket, but I got a comfortable ride). 

The front seat meant great view but also involuntarily listening to the conversation between driver/ substitute driver/ conductor and then my fellow passenger joined in! She was a Punjabi and so was the driver and now we were listening to the stories from their Pind (village, they shared same district). 


We were provided with a blanket, a water bottle and a silver colored polythene to puke in! Some women had puked in their blankets on the previous night, so there was shortage of blankets. There was a stop over around mid night at a dhaba. The bus was comfortable but the horn was taken from a local truck, and it was so loud that it could wake up the dead! This meant no sleep as they kept honking throughout. The older driver post stop over took the wheel. A couple of men again stopped the bus for bathroom break and Uncle ji forgot his way as he kept chatting and sharing his stories with us. He asked the way from Punjab Police and luckily for us, this actually led to a shorter route. (But it did not stop him from cursing the guys who had stopped the bus!) They had a DVD player as nobody was sleeping we asked them to put on a movie. The movie started with a smooching scene and all the Aunty jis and Uncle jis in the bus, shouted at the staff to stop it. 
There were no "family films" sadly! 


We again had a stopover around 4am when the younger driver took over the wheel as the mountains had started, and the sun was breaking through. 

For breakfast, we stopped at a hotel and were given keys to a hotel room where we (just the three women, who sat on the front seats) could freshen up and were spared the dirty public toilet. The friendship with the bus staff helped us.

I paid my money to the driver sahab and promised I will take the same bus back as he gave his number for any 'help' needed. I avoided sharing my number. We were in the hills now, and had reached almost an hour before schedule. At Bhuntar, with few other bus passengers we shared a cab to Kasol.
The road to Kasol is bad and very narrow, almost an hour's drive from Bhuntar, thankfully the driver was experienced. He stopped at a couple of "good" spots for "photos/selfies". We finally reached Kasol. I checked into the first place I saw in the market area, haggled for a single room and got a decent one.

  For lunch I went to a cafe overlooking a stream. I could eat only half of the generous portion of well made Spaghetti. Post lunch, I went to explore the market, which resembled the usual hill station markets.
The river ran parallel, there were streams all around Kasol.




I met the group with whom I had shared the taxi and we decided to trek along the river.

After walking until sunset, we had dinner at a small dhaba place. The food, arguably was one of the best I had ever had at a dhaba. It was fresh, home-cooked and delicious.

I had to regularly update friends' and family who were worried that I was safe and alive from time to time!
Back at my hotel room, I realized that the nearby rooms were all full. There was a big group of loud men drinking in the balcony outside my room. I almost heard a few knocks. The owner, a young girl very politely expressed helplessness and herself complained against the bad behavior of these men! I decided, I had to change my hotel.

A friend had mentioned about a property three kms from Kasol. I called him for details and made a reservation there for the next day.  After having breakfast, I left Kasol for Choj in the taxi.

It was gorgeous. The river was flowing by the side of the resort' and a bridge connected with the road. It was around half an hour walk from Kasol. It was the perfect place to relax, with apple trees, less humans and more farm animals goat/sheep/ cattle/ dogs.
There was a staff of four young boys including a talkative Nepali, who had traveled almost all over India, and shared tips on solo traveling!
I had the best Maggi here with zeera and vegetable masalas made by a young boy.



But, the dinner turned out to be very bad and so was the breakfast!
I decided to eat my meals at Kasol.

At night, the lights made this place all the more beautiful under the star-lit sky, the sound of the flowing river and the psychedelic music! Yes, people come from the city to "party" here, so the bar area plays loud music, but that was far from my cottage . I could sleep in peace.

It felt like the perfect holiday that I had hoped for! From Serendipity to Serenity, unplanned things could throw up pleasant surprises, until..

Continued.....
Link :  http://uzmaazharali.blogspot.in/2016/07/trip-to-kasol-2.html

Beedi Peeti Aurat

 बीड़ी पीती औरत   अंकुश लगती है घूरती निगाहों को समाज नकारता है कुढ़ता है उसकी बेईमानी पर   उसके कर्त्तव्य याद दिलाता है   ये उसका हक़ नहीं   इ...