The pent up anger in upper caste Hindu men that comes from perennially feeling like victims is the force behind the rise of Hindutva. Dalits have it better. Earlier they used to clean our toilets, now MNREGA has made them rich. They won’t work our fields, someone had said. The anti dalit violence took a radical new turn after Dalits started to do marginally better. Muslims have it better. In a country where police, state, society and economy works against the minorities, it doesn’t take…Continue Reading “The biggest victim of them all”

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A political commentator is expected to discuss dying, decaying state of politics. Not celebrate it. A streetfood commentator should be expected to comment on dying, decaying streetfood culture that is drowning under mayo and amul butter, right? Not celebrate it?? Show me one. If food had journalism, we won’t have a single journalist amongst us.All of them fall over each while running to a omlette guy who uses half a kilo butter or some paratha guy who uses thirty eggs or some pani puri guy…Continue Reading “Streetfood bloggers needed”

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Lately I have been a little cheap. Old age and sickness and all that. But that has nothing to do with my perception of Blue Tokai. My first encounter with the brand was because the high commission had an outlet inside the campus and tanu was addicted to it. I used to tease her that my office had free and great coffee as well as some 30 types of tea bags and cookies for free. Anyway, as a representative of the urban poor, I objected…Continue Reading “Blue Tokai and Communism in Khan Market”

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Age moves your cogs not so silently. You don’t run into walls and wonder how much you hurt the bricks. It’s your joints you worry about. From winning the world, your dreams are resized to fit a plot in a second-tier city. Youth is fire that you want to burn the world with. With age, you are happy if it cooks the omelette well. Middle age. When the cloud of your dreams has rained down as years gone by; when the rivers of your plains…Continue Reading “Middle Age”

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The constant feeling of being inadequate is the only constant in life. The flurry of social media doesn’t distract it. The busy corporate life doesn’t drown it. The million dead is nothing but a longish blur. The shopping, the dining, the friends and their banter – all but faint brush strokes on the background that has inadequate written all over it, in small fonts, like a gift wrapping paper. Only there will be no gift, and no wrapping. The feeling of inadequacy. Meaning is as…Continue Reading “Being inadequate”

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When we were growing up, the daala in the household was like the loveable oldie. You liked the feeling of having them around but they were never the center of anything. You focused elsewhere. The small ones were called daala and the bigger ones pachia. The mudhi was had in a daala, boiled rice was strained in a pachia. They were cheap. Though, they were never disposed. Some were as old as my father’s marriage. Others kept time of his younger siblings’ marital calendar. They…Continue Reading “The Comeback Daala”

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The nights have merged into days. The morning alarm, the most despicable human invention, has finally been fed a bottle of sleeping pills and silenced. The mornings are lazy. Isn’t that how it should be for the apex predator? No one wakes up and runs for food. Animals hurry at daybreak because they don’t want to be eaten. Day and night are now words without value judgements. Why are you up at this hour? Why are you sleeping at this time? The questions have no…Continue Reading “The Lockdown Lullaby”

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Now that RSS has come out in complete support of Modi, here is a clarification on the rumours that RSS is replacing Modi with Gadkari. The rumours had got a lot of traction and even some journos whispered about them. I have been saying it will never happen. Here is why: 1. There is no clash between RSS and Modi. Modi is the sharpened tip of the spear that is RSS. They are the same. 2. RSS never had any issue with despots. From worshipping…Continue Reading “WHY RSS WILL NEVER REPLACE MODI”

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Sikkim and governance. We have all heard such brilliant stories come out of Sikkim, we have been lulled into thinking the govt there is being run by monks. So, take this as a sample. The govt first wanted all taxis to paint their hoods yellow. A yellow number plate won’t do. The whole hood had to be yellow. Now, they want the hood to have only a yellow circle. Our taxi driver said he isn’t getting it done because he can’t bear the cost of…Continue Reading “Sikkim and Governance”

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Watching IPL after a decade. So, watched regular ads after ages. Says a lot about our economy. FMCG has completely vanished.Now, ads fall under 3 categories: 1. Cricket betting which is betting. 2. Bitcoin investment which is not betting but being positioned as. 3. Mutual funds which return less than last year’s LIC. 4. Savings on paying billsMuch like our politics and society, our economy now hinges on betting. Legal, govt encouraged betting.

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They say experience and perspective changes you. I think after my years of arrogance, my moment has come. After just a couple of months of weekdays bleeding into weekends and nights extending, I feel absolutely apologetic about my years of blogging. Back in 2010, when I got an email inviting me to a restaurant, I felt I had arrived. And, I reviewed food, decor, restaurant and what not. What I didn’t realise is the relation is completely lopsided. On one side is a person who…Continue Reading “Apologies from a food blogger”

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colocal chocolates dhanmill delhi

Being this long in Delhi, nothing in the city’s food scene surprises me anymore. When we want to be surprised, we go to another city. So, nothing really prepared me for what we came across today. Not unexpectedly, the surprising element in Delhi’s culinary scene has come from outsiders. The concept, the scale and the implementation is something that you will never be prepared for. I have been thankful to Sankalp Vishnu for introducing us to great food in Hyderabad. Now, I have to be…Continue Reading “Colocal Chocolates, The Dhan Mill Compound”

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Okay. Personal opinion. Strong opinion. Don’t like it, stay away. Bad day at work. I seriously don’t understand married women taking on surnames of their husbands. Let’s forget about feminism and identity and power equations etc etc. Even the liberated women who have a choice don’t think twice before erasing half of thier identity because a man married them. Tanu and me joked a couple of times that Om Bhowmik sounds way more cooler than Tanushree Routray. But we were very clear that beyond jokes…Continue Reading “Love and last name”

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When they say sometimes destiny is thrust upon you, they have Umar Khalid in mind. He would have been a very good student, a well known academic, worked in a think tank or whatever. But he would never have been The Umar Khalid. One evening of some planted students, corrupt media houses and he is Public Enemy Number 1. He could chose to vanish, be selfish and become irrelevant. Do what we all are trying to do – stoop a little lower in the last…Continue Reading “Umar Khalid and destiny’s thrust”

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Food for work programs like MNREGA are aimed at keeping the pressure cooker of anger among the poor from bursting. There is always a possibility, a hope, the bare minimum assurance that they will get food for that day. Mutual funds is that pressure cooker valve for the middle class. It is an elaborate scheme in which they will never win anything. But there is hope, a possibility, a bare minimum assurance that they will have their get rich by working hard dreams for that…Continue Reading “Mutual fund sahi hai?”

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Thank god for OTT platforms. For two decades Indian TV was stuck in saas-bahu and nagin genre. And, will be for longer. They said thats what people want to watch. Same for bollywood. Mediocre people will find compelling reasons to do mediocre stuff. An Amazon had to step in for Bandish Bandits to be made. On a personal note, until I reached D School, I didn’t know anything about classical music. Had the same disdain that most idiotic teenagers have for good things. Then DU…Continue Reading “Bandish Bandits in Delhi”

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The answers to goonda raj of Jai Shri Ram are two fold – secularism and Krishna. First we all know, let’s talk about the second. Krishna and Ram are both avatars of Vishnu. But Ram lends himself to caste bigotry, patriarchy and religious violence much more easily than Krishna. Krishna is a complex, worldly and intelligent character. He goes beyond the judgemental black and white of Ram. Krishna is the master of grey. He didn’t have the arrogance of a maryada purush etc. He was an…Continue Reading “The answer to Ram is Krishna”

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What happens when a bank loses public money due to carelessness or due to malpractice? There are repercussions. Now, consider this. About 57,676 tons of foodgrain stored in Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns between 2013-2018. What happened? Nothing. It looks like 2020 will set a whole new record due to high previous stock and new stocks being added. The value of the food lost – Rs 92,000 crore — is nearly two-thirds of what it costs the government to feed 600 million poor Indians…Continue Reading “Food waste should be a criminal offence”

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Doing a weekend post after a while because this one issue has been bugging me. Both me and my wife have massive interest in rice. We write about it, we did a pop-up and an rice exhibition that showcased 32 kinds of rice and are now planning a book. The biggest issue in rice is sourcing. And, that is how we have met the most passionate and amazing people and institutions. How many of you have heard of these two: https://www.juhaal.com/https://amarkhamar.com/ Most would not have….Continue Reading “Why ignore great startups with no funding?”

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No matter how badly the economy is doing, India has enough food to ensure that no one will grow hungry doing lockdown. It is not about resources, it is all about intent. Food Corporation of India (FCI) should have stock of 21 million tonnes of food grains. Currently, FCI holds 55.5 million tonnes – over two-and-half times more than mandated. As on March 1, the FCI had 30.97 mt of rice and 27.52 mt of wheat, totalling 58.49 mt. The FCI also has unmilled paddy…Continue Reading “Covid19, FCI, Hunger Deaths and Govt’s Intent”

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