BENGALURU: It is refreshing to know that India now rests on top! I was in conversation with a foreigner who heads a top-notch organisation, who admitted that their presence in our country was to tap our talent pool. In fact our innovativeness, ambition and ability to think out of the box were a major draw. But, doing things via ‘Indian-standard-time’ really got their goat. We are a habitually late people, and quite unapologetic about it. Well! We can’t be perfect now can we?
Our ‘imperfections’ make a massive ‘people-heavy’ country like ours work. We make it up with a generosity of spirit, and a certain joie-de-vivre that cannot be denied. All the brown-sahibs’ in the audience may beg to differ, but ask the majority of our kids who don’t want to leave. Unlike the exodus of the educated youth that wanted to leave for greener pastures in the early eighties, very few of them want to do that now. It’s a good feeling for an army-brat like myself. Ultimately the ‘India’ that my parents and many like them fought for, is ultimately becoming a reality. Why even our self-serving ‘men-in-white’ here are as bad as the ‘men-in-white’ anywhere in the world! Viva equality!
Take Indian food for example. It is the number one ‘fave’ food in the world. Even the bastardised ‘chicken-tikka-masala’ has metamorphosed into a self-respecting chicken-dish! My POV is that there is no other food so rich in complexities and as diverse as Indian food. An Indian chef will easily whip up an oglio-olio, but get a foreign chef to make a dosa or a ‘baigan bharta’ and he/she will sweat tears!
Being a sub-continent, we had curious wayfarers nudge our coast-lines over centuries bringing their expertise, spices and way of life with them and enriching our country with diversity and inclusiveness. How deftly we use fruits, veggies and condiments from the different regions in our country are an art in itself.
Let’s get real! The other countries were hostile and remote and it wasn’t until Hannibal and co. came along sitting on elephants, were the Alps even crossed!
It is always a high for me when fellow artistes (in this case the chefs) acknowledge me as their peers. Chef JP Singh has a formidable legacy of Indian food behind him. His looming presence belies the gentleness with which he handles the dishes he whips up. We were invited to lunch at the beautiful new Indian restaurant Zarf, at The Sheraton-Grand Whitefield. The very fact that I would trudge all the way to a place that is neither ‘white’ and doesn’t boast of a single ‘field’ through hair-raising traffic, and trucks belching smoke, is a testament to the fact of how much I respect this chef! The food was simply magnificent, and worth the trek. India rules again!
Hair raising trips to Whitefield seemed to be a norm this week as we were there for the second time this week at the invitation of Aslam Gafoor and Vivek Sharma. JW Marriott-Whitefield inaugurated their spanking new ‘thrills-and grills’ station by the poolside. Needless to say, superlative food, flowing ambrosia and beautiful people made for a lovely evening, as the ‘Sundowner-Soiree’ became a reality for the guests.
True happiness lies in the little hugs that dry big tears.
(The writer’s views are her own)