It was an evening dedicated to the celebration of food with all its richness and diversity. The launch of “The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine” edited by Sourish Bhattacharyya and food critics Colleen Taylor Sen and Helen Saberi, at the Taj Mahal Hotel last week was well attended and had its informal moments, with the audience partaking in the conversation on the dais whenever a certain cuisine of interest came up for discussion. The launch had Bhattacharyya in conversation with Suhel Seth and the two foodies discussed everything on the menu, from spices to rasgullas. Amongst the audience were Nalini Singh, Uday Mahurkar, Dilip Cherian, Unni Rajen Shanker, Amit Khanna, art historian and curator Seema Bhalla, food impresario Rocky Mohan, restaurateur Amit Bagga, noted chef Manjit Singh Gill, and well-known influencers Gurpreet Singh Tikku, Atul Sikand, Dipali Bhasin and Pawan Soni. The book is a comprehensive guide on contemporary Indian cooking and cuisine, throwing light on diverse traditions and practices.
Some of the interesting takeaways from the evening: Even as the Odias and Bengali fight over the origins of rasgullas, Bengal’s pride—its culture of sweets—owes much to the labour of Biharis, who are known as haluikars (based on the word halwai), as opposed to the Bengali moiras.
One of the examples of surprises that India’s food culture can throw up is that—many politicians may find it hard to digest this reality—India is a non-vegetarian-majority country, but Punjab, the alleged Republic of Butter Chicken, is predominantly vegetarian. Talking of diversity, no city showcases this more appropriately than Delhi, which, although justifiably famous for its chhole-bhature, has become a momo capital and the business is dominated by “aunties” from Darjeeling. For the rest, read the book.
The Patna Moment
The Opposition got together in Patna to try and forge a common platform to take on the BJP. Wisely, they did not get into the seat-sharing discussion in the very first meet as that is a tough hurdle to cross, and could well be the deal breaker. Instead, keeping in mind that this was a “first meeting” they stuck to social chitchat and niceties with RLD leader Lalu Yadav enquiring about Rahul Gandhi’s wedding plans and advising him to get married soon so they can all be part of the “baraat”. Lalu, in fact, is emerging as the patriarch of the Opposition fold, much like the late CPM leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet was. Can he play Surjeet’s role and bring all the opposition parties to work together. His first challenge would clearly be smoothening ties between Arvind Kejriwal and the Congress. Not having the patience for polite small talk, the AAP leader wasted no time in asking the Congress if it would support it against the Centre’s controversial ordinance against the Delhi government once Parliament re-opened. On this matter, the Congress is divided, with its Delhi unit, specially Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit, openly attacking the AAP. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge stood by his team and reminded Kejriwal it was not just the Congress but other Opposition parties also that had still not made up their minds on the ordinance issue.
In fact given the fact that the Opposition could not come together to support a candidate against the BJP’s nominee for Vice President (the current incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar), then to expect it to come together on other more contentious issues will be a difficult ask to negotiate. Particularly one where stakes are high, and seats have to be shared. The problem will be maximum in five states—West Bengal, Telangana, Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat—states where Mamata Banerjee, Chandrasekhar Rao and Arvind Kejriwal clash with the Congress to take on the BJP. But, having said that, a beginning was made in Patna.
Many Forms of AI
The Prime Minister loves to coin new meanings from commonly used abbreviations, and came up with a catchy one during his recent trip to the US, where he observed that there is AI (Artificial Intelligence) and then there is also AI (America-India). Given the way sundry BJP spokespersons and leaders ape the PM, expect a barrage of similar abbreviations and acronyms in the TV studios in the near future. Don’t forget AI also stands for Acquired Intelligence.