Local body polls to be litmus test for parties

Punjab municipal polls early next month is set to test the political parties of the state again and determine the political discourse in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Being held three months after the results of the Assembly elections, the polls have the potential to make or break a few careers of those in the political arena, particularly in the Congress.

Four municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala will go to polls on June 10. Elections are also being held for three municipal councils and 29 nagar panchayats on June seven.

As Congress lost the January 30 Assembly elections, making the dubious record of not being able to defeat an incumbent Akali Dal-BJP government since the state was created, this would perhaps be the last chance to redeem itself before the 2014 polls. But redemption may not be that easy, particularly for State Congress President Capt Amarinder Singh who has been battling a score of dissidents ever since the party lost the Assembly polls, the results of which were out on March 6.

It is clear that if Congress does well, Captain Amarinder stays. If it doesn’t, he goes. The central leaders have already made it amply clear that the party will take a call on the new PCC President after the polls to the corporations and the local bodies in Punjab. Not even the staunchest supporter of the Captain would have any doubt on that. I don’t think any party would be able to digest two consecutive defeats, if it indeed happens, and would definitely look for scapegoats. There are not many who can replace Capt Amarinder and keep the entire state unit along, but that is the way politics plays itself out. He will have to vacate the chair for someone else in case of a comprehensive defeat.

For the Akali Dal-BJP, the stakes are seemingly not that high even though it will like to be in complete control of every centre of power in the state. More so, when the municipal corporations of the four cities have a substantial budget and clout too. The alliance has already created a history by coming back to power in Punjab and is enjoying what is called the “honeymoon” period of politics in which as per the public perception you cannot do any wrong. The ruling alliance has made all preparations to ensure that its election winning habit does not come to an end. A series of transfers have been effected with an eye on the polls, before the imposition of the model code of conduct. Rejection of the nominations of some Congress supporters has already led to an uproar with the party likely to approach the courts for remedy.

After the assembly polls, there has been hardly any political issue for the SAD-BJP government to tackle except the case of Balwant Singh Rajoana, assassin of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, who was supposed to hang in Patiala jail. The Akali Dal government dealt with the emotional issue deftly and managed to get the hanging postponed for an indefinite period, giving much needed respite to the state. After the government was sworn in, there has been no unpopular decisions and no indication that the support base of the party has been affected.

For the Punjab BJP, which is playing the big brother in these polls, the million dollar question would be to see whether its urban base is intact or not. If the assembly polls are taken as a barometer of popular will, the urban base of the BJP has shrunk considerably as it won only 12 of the 23 seats it contested. This was seven short of the 19 which the party had won in the 2007 Assembly polls. Riding on popular support and carrying forward the support base of the assembly polls in the municipal corporation and local bodies polls of 2007, the BJP had an impressive show last time round which it will be struggling to retain this time.

The third party or rather a coalition in the fray would be the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP). It played the spoilsport for the Congress by getting over five per cent of the anti-incumbency votes in the assembly elections early this year. It is again the fray this time and now the party President Manpreet Singh Badal is claiming that his party was aiming for 15 to 20 per cent votes in the civic elections.  PPP has stitched an alliance in which BSP, CPI and CPI(M) have been included and it is set to play a spoilsport again.

Though these elections are being fought on local issues – sanitation, water supply, sewerage, parks or the lack of it, power supply, civic amenities etc., the issue of petrol price hike has been brought by the SAD-BJP to corner the Congress. They are also targeting the party on alleged scams but that may not be working as local factors affecting a colony and a street are the actual issues and not macro issues affecting the country.

But the underlying tone and tenor of the elections are clear. The results have the potential to change the political discourse of the state and set it for the next big battle which is the Lok Sabha elections of May 2014. If the Congress halts the victory march of the SAD-BJP combine, it could hope for a good show in the 2014 polls but if the juggernaut of the ruling alliance continuous, it would be ominous signs for the grand old party. Congress would at least be hoping to share the honours as that could prevent its cadres from getting directionless and losing hope at a time when they are still licking their wounds from the defeat in the assembly elections. (28.5.2012)
http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/68567-local-body-polls-to-be-litmus-test-for-parties.html

A problem of plenty for Punjab, Haryana

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

Record wheat production in Punjab and Haryana has brought both agony and ecstasy to the farmers and the officials of the procurement agencies. While the two States — the food basket of the country — are celebrating a bumper wheat production, they simply do not know how to store the massive volumes procured this year.

While the scientific storage capacity is limited and at best can store three-fourth of the procurement, the slow movement of stocks out of the region has compounded the woes of the two States.

So far nearly 13 million tonnes of wheat has already been procured in Punjab this season which is the highest procurement in the last few decades. It is already 2 million tonnes higher than the target of 11 million tonnes set by the State Government before the beginning of the procurement season. The Punjab Government and its agencies are wondering where to store the food grain and have hit a wall as the godowns are overflowing and the movement out of the State has been extremely slow.

Haryana is no different and the worry lines are only growing even as the State celebrates a record production. The procurement has touched 8.6 million tonnes against the fixed target of seven million tonnes.

Now that the Food Ministry on Monday supported the suggestion of Rangarajan panel to allow export of 2 million tons of wheat from Government stocks immediately to ease pressure on storages, the two States are breathing easy. But still the two State Governments want more. For them, the export of wheat would serve two purposes. While the problem of storage would be solved, it will also serve as an incentive for farmers as they can hope for a better MSP next year if the Centre formulates a permanent policy on wheat exports.

The C Rangarajan panel was constituted to suggest ways and means to ease pressure that record food grain production had created on storages across the country, particularly Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh in recent years. The panel suggested immediate export of 2 million tons of wheat from Government stocks, and additional supply of 13 million tons of the grain via ration shops and in the open market.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was the first to raise the demand for exports. He asked the Centre to allow export of wheat from the State, being the major producer of the crop to bail out the beleaguered Punjabi farmers already reeling under debt stress. In his meetings and letters to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in the last couple of months, Badal has been consistently raising the demand for permitting export of wheat.

“Whenever there is an acute shortage of the food grains in the country; Punjab was always reminded of its obligation towards the national food pool. On the contrary, whenever there was surplus food production as of now in the case of wheat, Centre pays no heed to our requests, which tantamount to its sheer discrimination against Punjab,” Badal said, hours before the decision of the Centre to allow export.

Officials and agencies associated with procurement of wheat say that decision on the movement of wheat has to be taken on an emergency basis as only a month remains for the monsoon to hit the northern region. “Piles of wheat without any coverage and others where only a polythene sheet has been placed on top of the sacks could easily get rotten and become unfit for consumption after rains. It has happened in the past and the state stares at it again,” said an official, who did not want to be identified.

In fact, on the day procurement of wheat began in Punjab, it already had nearly 7 million tonnes in the godowns which was much more than what is normally kept for meeting any possible food crisis. “The movement to other parts of the country was extremely slow in the last 12 months — both Rabi and Kharif crops,” an official admitted, adding that the Centre needs to look into this aspect seriously and urgently.

A section of the farmers have alleged that the “policy of allowing wheat to rot was deliberate” as it helps some breweries pick up the rotten wheat at throwaway prices and also the flour mills who mix certain chemicals to whiten the wheat and make it fit for human consumption.

State and Centre officials deny any such practice. They simply put up their hands in despair and say what they can do when the storage capacity is not there, private sector is not coming up in the food storage sector and the food grains have to face the vagaries of nature lying in the open. (May 22, 2012) 

 http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/66999-a-problem-of-plenty-for-punjab-haryana.html

Akalis shun traditional rivalry with Congress

 It has just been over two months since the results of the Punjab Assembly elections but there has already been a radical shift in Punjab politics and some say there could be a realignment of the political forces with the Akalis getting closer to the Congress.

While the Akali Dal is apparently coming closer to the central leadership of the Congress to reap the benefits of the central schemes, state Congress seems to be directionless. It does not know and has no clue how to take on the resurgent SAD-BJP government.

Punjab Congress leaders have been complaining privately and publicly how the Akalis are playing a great host to the visiting Union ministers and how marginalised and low the Congress workers and leaders are feeling.

They recall incidents of the last two months to point out that the visiting Union Ministers played along with the Akalis and the Congress workers were not even given opportunity to meet them while visiting the state.

Licking its wound following the defeat in the assembly polls, Punjab Congress now stares at the municipal elections in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala. In Amritsar, leaders of the party have practically come to blows, clearly suggesting that they have not learnt their lessons from the humiliating defeat in the assembly elections.

“Power is great glue. It binds the leaders and the workers together. Congress leaders and workers now stare at another five years in the oblivion and disappointment is but natural,” a senior Congress leader summed up the affairs of the state unit.

The new bonhomie between the Akalis and the Congress leaders has already triggered speculation whether the two traditional rivals will shed their distrust and come close on issues. The process started soon after the SAD-BJP returned to power and Sukhbir Singh Badal informally began lobbying for his father Parkash Singh Badal as the consensus Vice Presidential candidate. Though the idea of senior Badal going for Vice President’s post has practically been shelved, the process of Akalis coming closer to Congress continues.

Whenever the two Badals are in Delhi, they do not fail to meet the Union ministers with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a list of demands for the state in the other. After the victory in the assembly polls, they met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and several of his Cabinet colleagues with requests for central grants and extending invitation to visit the state. They met almost every minister who could help the state in some way or the other.

When Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh was in Punjab recently, he was given a grand welcome with Sukhbir himself driving an SUV with Ramesh in the passenger seat. It was practically a guided tour for the Union Minister who returned impressed by the hospitality extended and announced a slew of schemes for the state. However, to dispel the impression that he was “too friendly” with the Akalis, Ramesh had a meeting with the Congress leaders as well.

Earlier when Home Minister P Chidambaram was in the state to inaugurate the Integrated Check post at the India-Pakistan border in Atari, a red carpet was laid for him by the state government. Chidambaram could not find time for the Congress leaders, triggering resentment in a section of the state Congress.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too visited the state in the last week of April to inaugurate the Bathinda refinery and was flanked by both the Badals. None of the Congress leaders could be seen in the pictures and the Badals got the mileage they wanted. Just before the Assembly elections, the Badals had invited the Prime Minister to inaugurate the Virast-e-khalsa at Anandpur Sahib. The PM did not turn up after state Congress President Capt Amarinder Singh raised objections fearing that the Akalis would benefit electorally from the visit.

But the bonhomie and cozying up with the UPA government obviously does not mean that SAD would break away from the NDA and would join the Congress-led alliance in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The entire existence of SAD is based on an anti-Congress premise and the party knows it well. What has happened is that mutual distrust of decades and old style politics has given way to a dialogue with development being the buzzword.

In fact, except the old guard in the Congress (Capt Amarinder), the newly elected young legislators have had quite a few meetings with the Badals to get developmental work in their constituency sanctioned. These MLAs have realised that only development can fetch them votes and being at the loggerheads with the Akalis would deprive them funds for their constituencies.

The moment Capt Amarinder got a wind of the development and the young legislators meeting the Badals, he cracked the whip and asked the legislators not to meet the Badals. His advisory to the legislators was simple. “Ideally they should avoid meeting the CM and Deputy CM in a manner that can be projected in a way that they are more friendly with them (Badals) than their workers because of whom they are MLAs today”.

But the advisory of the Captain has little or no impact on the MLAs as they realise that for getting funds and development in their constituencies and to get re-elected, they have to have a positive approach towards the state government. “We cannot sit in a glasshouse and throw stones at the Akalis. After all, development would come only with the assistance of the state government,” a young MLA said.

In fact the approach of several Congress MLAs is similar to that of the Badals. As the debt ridden Punjab needs central assistance and its cooperation in various fronts for the development of the state, the Badals do not hesitate to go with the begging bowl to the Centre. Similarly, at the micro level, the MLAs too need state government’s support and funds for their areas.(21.5.20120

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/66785-akalis-shun-traditional-rivalry-with-congress.html

Slice of life in the City Beautiful

It is now a year now since I moved to the City Beautiful – Chandigarh. The well-laid out streets, the Shivaliks in the background and relatively free of traffic congestion and accompanying pollution, the city has myriad charms. Parks of all shapes, sizes and theme, plenty of open space, free from the onslaught of concrete which has become a hallmark of metros like Delhi are the other features, clearly visible to a rank outsider.

But what amazes me here is the helping hand extended by the government to those who love their drink. The lovers of Bacchus had never had it so good in any big city of the country. You can easily find a liquor shop every 100 meters in the City Beautiful. If you are dying of thirst in the humid and sultry conditions and want to desperately buy bottled water, you will have to traverse quite a length to find a shop and you will be lucky to get a brand of your choice.

But the guzzlers of Beer are spoilt for choice and availability. You simply walk into a neighbourhood liquor shop, get your brand and sit it in the tavern to chill out. Over two centuries ago, a French Queen told her subjects that if bread is not available then eat cake. Here, in Chandigarh, people say if water is not available, drink Beer.  In any case, bottled water is largely available only at the railway station and the inter-state bus terminals.

Having travelled to a lot of places in the country and also to a few places which are considered a paradise for drinkers, I did not find any other place, except Nepal and to some extent Goa, which can claim to be “booze friendly”.

Selling and consuming liquor is a lucrative industry in Chandigarh. Even the shops selling liquor and their neighboring shops have become innovative, something rarely seen in other places. For the first time, I found a shop, specializing in selling “drinking accessories”. This was located next to a busy shop selling all sorts of whisky, Beer, Wine, Vodka, Rum, Brandy and what not.

Curiosity got better of me and I examined the shop selling “drinking accessories”. The shop had a list of all the “accessories” used for drinking – soda, ice cubes, plastic glasses, peanuts, mixtures, cold drinks of all variety, bottled water, even cigarette for those who smoke while drinking. The shop next to it was selling another drinking accessory, widely used in this part of the country – Tandoori Kukkad (chicken) and all its variants like Afghani chicken and the Tikkas if one was mindful of the bones while gulping liquor.

As I stood there for a while, I found booze lovers of all shapes and sizes thronging the liquor shop and also the one selling “drinking accessories”. There was a good business for everyone associated with drinks. The guy selling ready-made clothes and the one selling stationary, were only watching with envy the business generated by their neighbor.

The patronizing hand of the government is there, everywhere. In the City Beautiful, liquor was perhaps the cheapest in the entire country before May this year when the Excise rates were revised. It used to be 25 to 40 per cent cheaper (depending on the brand) than Delhi. Though the rates have increased now, but those who swear by the bottle insist that it is still cheaper than Delhi.

But before liquor became expensive from May 1, the booze lovers of the city shopped for liquor to their heart’s content in April. As the excise year was coming to a close, liquor was put on sale with the price tag down by 25-40 per cent. Some denizens stocked their quota for the next six months. Never before had I seen the sign of “Sale Dhamaka” put up on liquor shops. I had only seen that sign on shops selling apparel, shoes etc in off-season.

Coming on to the facilitating role of the Chandigarh Administration, here I found that the authorities do not allow any commercial activity in non-notified areas. But the rule is not applicable for the booze shops. It can be set-up anywhere in the city. Temporary structures, selling liquor have sprung up all across the city, particularly on the outskirts and the southern sectors. They are perched at the corners of the roads with a Tavern and attract cars and bikes of all make in the rush evening hours.

To facilitate such shops and increase their business, “Taverns” have opened. Again, they sell all “drinking accessories” right from glasses, water, soda to Tandoori Kukkad. All you have to do is buy your brand from the shop, flash the bottle in the Tavern and order all the dishes available in the air-conditioned make-shift “Taverns”. One can sit as long as one wants if one has ordered anything from the menu. Even drunken brawls are allowed here, provided it does not warrant the presence of the police and has not turned too violent.

The Taverns here have their own rules which need to be followed, even by the drunkards. The food menu of these Taverns specifies these rules. If you puke after consuming an extra peg, you are allowed to do so in the taverns. But the charges are Rs 50. But you don’t have to clean it yourself the tavern employee would do it for you. Again, if you break a glass in which you are drinking, you pay Rs 20. There is another rule. If you do not want to order for any eatable and only want to drink, the hiring charge for a glass would be Rs 10. And mind you, water is not provided here free of cost and you have to purchase a bottled water to mix it with the drink.

In one of the taverns, the rule was to place an order for a minimum of Rs 400 from the kitchen, to sit in the AC hall. If you place an order of a lesser amount, then you will have to do with the non-AC hall. But the irony was that none of those drinking merrily actually realised after a couple of pegs whether they were sitting in an AC or a non AC hall.

What has come as a dampener which is otherwise a paradise for the lovers of “the daughter of grapes” is the drive against drunken driving, launched by the Chandigarh Police. During the drive in the late evenings,  the traffic cops on duty simply ask you to roll down the windows of the car and ask some innocent questions. The idea is to smell liquor. The moment you open your mouth after a drinking session at a Tavern or a Bar, you are out to a test and asked to pay a fine. The drunkards simply can’t believe that driving after drinking is an offence. Reeking of liquor and driving late night on the city streets, these “gentlemen” and “Gentlewomen” were shocked when the police impounded their license and told them to call home and get a sober person to drive them home. “I get sober and become normal only after three pegs,” one of them told the police. (Sunday, May 13, 2012)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/64830-slice-of-life-in-the-city-beautiful.html

100 years of Bollywood: Then and Now

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA                    

The year long celebration of Indian cinema turning 100 has started. It was 99 years ago in May 1913 that the first feature film was released. A lot of water has flown down the Ganges since the days of Raja Harishchandra. In fact, in the last 25-30 years so many changes have come about that if anyone watches a movie made in the 1970s now in a theatre, he would realise the technological limitations which the producers and directors faced then.

I am not a film critic or a film historian and so I will not delve into movies which received international or national recognition or failed to do so. Being a movie buff, I will simply go into the joys of watching a film in a theatre over the years.

In my growing up years in a small town in Bihar, which is now in Jharkhand, films were the only source of entertainment for almost everybody. I am sure in the late 1970s and early 1980s that was the case almost everywhere in the country. There was no cable Television and Doordarshan was limited to a few state capitals and showed the immensely popular dance and song show, Chitrahaar and a movie every Sunday. But I watched television for the first time only in 1983, shortly after Asiad 1982 made the medium popular and owned a set a couple of years later.

It was movie and cinema halls which fascinated everybody then. I remember going to the two movie halls in the town of Hazaribagh with my parents and later alone. On the first few days, it used to be impossible to get a ticket due to the massive crowd. Almost the entire town descended on the theatre if it was a multi-starer. You could only get tickets in the Black then in the first week of release of most of the movies.

When Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha or Jitendra kicked or boxed anybody, you could see that a sound of dhishum dhishum was coming from the background. But no one took it otherwise as the movies were wholesome entertainers, lots of songs, dance, fight, emotions – masala and curry mixed deftly. There was no body contact in the fight scenes then and it is only now that you can spot it when compared to the films made in the last 10 years or so.

But movie going always remained a memorable experience. Watching Deewar, Sholay, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Silsila, Noorie, Jaani Dushman, Naseeb, Dharam Veer, Nadiya ke Paar, etc. etc. was such an experience that I remember the entire sequence even now. Seeking permission from parents to going to the movie. Then there was a phase when I bunked classes to go to the movie.

The movie theatres then hardly bothered about the viewers. Most of the seats in the two theatres where I frequented were torn with the sponge from the seat coming out. Others in the front rows were plane wooden seats where the bed bugs feasted on the viewer. Many avid movie goers returned with bloody butts due to the bed bugs present in the wooden seats. It was only when the third theatre, a relatively modern one and that too having a screen of 70 mm opened in the small town that people got a taste of “good cinema”. Now the other two also made some cosmetic changes in their theatres. But the crowd still used to be so huge that few bothered about the inconvenience. They only wanted to see the movie. Once the movie was out of the theatre, there was no way you could see them. The VCRs arrived later and became popular only after the mid 1980s.

Air conditioners were a distant dream then, only fans whirred in the movie halls. Something like the commercial of a fan company featuring Rajesh Khanna being aired on TV these days. Remember, the impact of carbon dioxide generated by over 1000 people in a cramped space on a hot and humid day sans the air conditioner.

But then, people were so involved that they identified themselves with the character of the movie. This was the only medium of escape from the harsh reality. When Amitabh Bachchan died in Deewar, Sholay and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, the entire audience wept. Some loudly, others silently but I remember almost every eye was moist when they left the theatre.

Now, movies are one of the numerous sources of entertainment. You know that once you miss even a great movie in a multiplex, it will be shown on television within the next two months. Though I haven’t seen many movies in the last few years but certainly I haven’t seen anyone crying in a movie hall whenever I went for a movie. Perhaps the emotional drama was a hallmark of the movies of the 1950s, 1960s and the 70s. Making people cry made good business sense then, now people go to theatres simply for entertainment and if the producers and the directors make people cry, they will lose audience and revenue.

When a hero or heroine wore a certain type of apparel in a movie then, people went to the tailors and told them that the new cloth should be stitched exactly the way it was being worn in the movie. The movie heroes were the role models for the teenagers and the youth. That is no longer the case now.

You no longer have to fight for tickets and look for menacing looking black markeeters for tickets. Even on first day first show in the multiplexes, you get tickets without even waiting for long if you haven’t booked on the Internet. At least, this has been my experience in Chandigarh and New Delhi.  The multiplexes run 12-15 and even 20 shows of the same film in a day, each at an interval of half an hour while earlier at best, a movie theatre could screen the film four times a day. Not even a blockbuster runs for more than 3 weeks in a theatre now.  Then Silver, Golden and Platinum Jubilee was a norm with some movies running for years together.

As a film enthusiast, I enjoy going to the multiplexes and would shudder going to the theatres I frequented as a child and a teenager. I also like the way films are being made, the way cinema has advanced and the way technology has made viewing a memorable experience. But I also miss the emotions which a movie-goer expressed then and bemoan the detachment with which films are watched these days. People used to talk about a movie they watched for weeks together and wear clothes styled on the pattern of actor for months.  Now movies at best are remembered just for three hours and at the most for the day on which the movie has been watched.

Cinema is evolving gradually like everything else. It is changing. While most of the changes have been for the better, a nostalgic trip makes you realise its importance in shaping personalities.

Much before the first film was released in 1913, Ghalib had said, Iman mujhe roke hai jo kheeche hai mujhe Kufr, Kaaba Mere peeche hai to kalisa mere aage. I cannot risk translating it but roughly it means a person in utter confusion who cannot decide whether to go forward or backwards, whether to listen to the soul or to the head. (May 6, 2012)

(The writer is Senior Editor, The Pioneer, Chandigarh)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/62995-100-years-of-bollywood-some-magical-memories.html

Cuisine gets standardized; East or West, Punjabi cuisine rules

It was travel time again as I traversed the length of the country from the foothills of the Shivalik to the Indo-Gangetic plains of eastern India as I reached a small town of Bihar from Chandigarh.

Over a period of time, travel, changing cuisine, language along with culture and social milieu every 100 kms has fascinated me like nothing else. But not this time round. Partly because the journey was by train, partly because of the growing standardisation of cuisine across the country.

I felt as if it was a standardisation of cuisine right from Chandigarh to Patna with hardly any change noticeable anywhere. Take Shatabdi Express for example by which I started the journey from the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. Regular travelers would vouch for the fact that the breakfast in the train is to be consumed only if you are extremely hungry. Leave it alone if you do not want factory made bread, butter, jams, pickle and cutlets made on an assembly line.

There could be better things for you only if you skip the breakfast in Shatabdi. I wanted to relish the pakoras of Panipat. But I couldn’t. The vendors selling pakoras in Panipat do not come near Shatabdi as the passengers in the elite train would not patronise it. In any case, there was hardly any time to look for one.

Then it was New Delhi in three-and-a-half hours flat. As I had to catch a connecting train to Patna, the only viable place to eat was the food joints opposite the Railway station on the Paharganj side. One can savour the cuisine of Delhi here but only if you venture in the lane behind the main road. Bedmi puri with spicy potato gravy is a treat any day. For dessert you have suji ka halwa in which ghee flows liberally. Do not come here if you fear for your heart. This is not for the “weak hearted” as the puri too is deep fried and that too twice. Then you can have a glass of creamy lassi and then move on to catch the train.

This was one meal in the entire journey of 1,500 kms which could be recalled with satisfaction. The pantry of the train served unimpressive bread pakoras, samosas, vegetable biryani, egg biryani, dip tea, tomato soup made from powder, etc. It is better to remain on fast for the entire course of the journey rather than eat from the train pantry. Of course, if you cannot fast and control the hunger pangs for that long then you can order from the limited menu the train pantry offers or get down on the platforms to look for something.

I chose the second option. But it was thoroughly disappointing. Right from Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly to Lucknow, you only get chips, biscuits, soft drinks and bottled water. I hopped from one station to the other without much success. For food, you get the Janata khana. At Lucknow, they served chhole-chawal and nothing else. The hungry souls of the train practically looted the food as the vendors made quick money selling them. I could not even get the aroma of the famous kebabs of Lucknow. I did not risk the option of going to the market and have a fill of the kebabs. I could have got stranded in Lucknow as the train would have moved without me. I am no Lalu Prasad Yadav or now Mukul Roy.

The lesson was learnt quickly. If you want to travel by train, have home cooked food with you or simply remain on fast. The only other alternative was to look for fruits or munch the ridiculous chips. I still fail to understand why people eat chips and sip soft drinks. I gave up the effort long time back.

Then I was at Patna, the Capital of Bihar. I had a very satisfying lunch — rice, daal, aalu ki bhujiya, spicy black gram with gravy and raw onions with fresh lemon squeezed on it. A papad was thrown in and that made my day. This was a typical Bihar lunch and a nap was necessary before the wedding function in the evening for which I was in the city after a gap of several years.

Patna had changed. Flyovers were dotting the city. You could no longer take a leisurely walk. Black fumes-emitting monstrous vehicles were ferrying passengers instead of the rickshaws. The rickshaws in any case could not climb the flyovers and in several areas had ceased to operate. I remembered a couple of eating joints which I used to frequent long time back. Paucity of time forced me indoors and I did not venture out on the crowded streets.

I was soon at the wedding venue and the buffet was thrown open to the guests. Punjabi cuisine had invaded Bihar like nothing before. You had tandoori roti, missi roti and lachcha paratha. I did not even want to look at that. There was no sign of good old tawa ki roti. Then you had paneer masala, shahi paneer and other items with the word “paneer” either as a suffix or a prefix.

I went to the other side of the venue. Here, I found litti-chokha, the traditional cuisine of Bihar in which sattu (ground and spicy roasted gram) is stuffed inside wheat flour and made into small balls. But the litti was fried instead of being baked on cowdung cakes and served with desi ghee. But still something was better than nothing. The chokha (mashed potato and boiled brinjal combine) was relatively better and reminded me that I was in the capital of Bihar and not in the capital of Punjab and Haryana.

I also tried the gol gappa. It had tamarind water and the filling was white chana with potato. Much better than those sold in Chandigarh in mineral water. But that was it. There was nothing else which I cannot find in the cities of Haryana, Punjab or in New Delhi.

The realisation dawned on me that there has been a complete Punjabisation of cuisine all over from the place of its origin to the distant east. Tandoor has been a great leveller and perhaps the biggest contribution of Punjab to the rest of Indian matters of cuisine.

It was time to move on. Now it was journey by a taxi and not a train, which I took from Patna to Bettiah — a district town in north Bihar, some 200 kms away from the State capital, Patna. Nitish Kumar has managed to construct the roads and the journey was a breeze. I saw a dhaba near a place called Kesharia, close to a Buddhist stupa. Tourists come here to see the stupa and offer prayers to the makeshift Buddhist temple. The dhaba was called ‘Mukhiaji ka Line Hotel’ and looked perfect in the sylvan setting to have a cup of tea amid acres of green fields.

Here I saw ‘Mukhiyaji’ frying fish in a pan. I asked which fish it was. “Naini from the local river,” said the man cooking it. Instead of tea, I ordered a meal comprising fish curry, rice and aloo bhujiya all for Rs 50. This was the best meal of the trip.

The fish and the meal were heavenly. Nothing in this world, not even the broken chair, could take away the taste. Cooked in mustard and local spices, the fish was as fresh as it could be and my 1,500 km trip was made. There was no sign of a tandoor anywhere in the small dhaba made of thatched bamboo and local material. I changed my opinion. The flavour of local cuisine is still alive and kicking. (April 29, 2012)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/61261-cuisine-gets-standardized-east-or-west-punjabi-cuisine-rules.html