Sometimes strange thoughts can strike you at strange places. You can just step out of your house and find an ordinary phuchka wala (for core UPites its pani puri wala) and he can give you one of the deepest lessons of life. On this day, i.e 16th July, four years back JEE Mains counselling system allotted me Mechanical Engineering in NIT Durgapur. On 23rd July 2013, I moved to this new city which was going to become my home for the next four years. Usually, I am not very good with remembering dates, even forgot my girlfriend’s birthday (man that was a bad day!), but I know I will never forget these two dates as they changed my life forever.
When I moved to Durgapur, I found a strange city. The people were strange, their culture was strange, their language was strange; there was nothing that I could relate to my hometown Lucknow. People who know me know what a foodie I am, so obviously the biggest discomfort that I faced there was a lack of the type of street food that I was used to. And my biggest disappointment was the phuchka/pani puri that was sold there. Here in Lucknow, they fill your puchka with mashed boiled peas and serve you each puchka with a different flavor of water (pudina, lemon etc). I had eaten only this type of puchka since my childhood and when in Durgapur the vendor filled it with mashed potato that was so spicy that it literally brought tears to my eyes and then served me all the six puchkas with the same flavor of water I knew these coming four years are not going to be easy.
Fast forward four years, here I am back in Lucknow and just yesterday I stepped out of my house to find my favorite puchka wala. No wonder I decided to devour some puchkas before heading onto my business. After I ate my first puchka I found something amiss. I found that puchka too plain. I said, “dada thoda jhaal aur dal do” (Uncle please spice it up a bit more). The vendor gave me a what on earth are you saying look and it was at that time I realized I was not in Durgapur anymore. I will never be eating those over spicy puchkas with same water in each serving. I gave the vendor a never mind look and continued to eat my rest of the puchkas with mashed peas filled in it while my taste buds were still craving for those spicy mashed potatoes.
I had never thought that I would be craving for a thing that I despised once. Maybe that’s what happens when you leave a place. You get this strange feeling. You don’t only miss that place and the people you love but you also miss the person you were at that place. I can never be that carefree college student again. I can never bunk those lectures or chill with friends in the hostel room or go to the dhaba in the middle of the night or eat that spicy potato puchka ever again. And who knows what I will like or dislike after the next four years!!
Nice one. This blog reminded me that how a puchka can bring back some really old memories. Though I am from Bihar I moved alot and with the movement as my address changed, so changed the taste of pani puris but what did not change was my love for pani puri(aka puchkas, golgappe,gupchup etc.).In mumbai it was sweet and tangy, in gujarat it was bland, in delhi the puris were thicker, in chandigarh it was damn big, in hyderabad they served it hot.
ReplyDeleteOne fateful day my friend and I gathered some courage (remeber 1st year ragging period), crossed the gates and asked 'dada' for panipuri. The first one was served; and voila there it was, the taste of my childhood, when there were tears in their eyes because of 'jhal' , I had smile on my face because it was the taste of my childhood - same tangyness, similar spices and served in a leaf plates instead of a styrofoam one. That was the day I connected with NIT Durgapur and W.B.
Divided be regions unite by Pani Puri :p
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