jhumka gira re... bareilly ki bazaar mein

This  line sung   by Asha Bhosle in the famous hindi film Mera Saaya is beautiful  ...  Its  more beautiful  for the last  one week because  i am in bareilly ,uttar  pradesh .  Around 250  kms  from delhi , bareilly  region has a long history  and  was  the  capital  of uttara panchala  . And panchala clan  was  mentioned  in the Mahabharatha and puranas  . 

Present day bareilly is  a buzzling town  yes  buzzling  because  it  reminds me  of  some busy areas of mumbai  in the sheer  density of people , cyclerickshaw,auto,buses on the road .   And  today walking  down the civil lines area where the street food is famous i realized  why  1 $  a day  poverty line  may not mean  poverty  here   .  Let me explain  .

After  my days work i  went  to my hotel gym .  Usually people go to the gym to burn excess calories  but  here  i  went  to the gym as  i  was planning to try bareilly street food without guilt of excess calories  .After  the gym i wanted  to  go  at  a leisurely  mood to civil lines area  so i took a  cycle rickshaw  .  In delhi  for a distance where u paid 30 rs , in bareilly  you pay  rs 10  for cyclerickshaw  .  very cheap indeed  .

 In bareilly  each of the food stalls is known by the owners name  .  No "pizza"hut  , no "Kentucky "fried chicken  . Here  you have  Tyagi restaurant ,  Deenanath ki lassi , chaman chaat  , chote lal ki chaat  etc  .  I had  Deenanath ki lassi  --for rs 25  you get a  large  earthenware glass  full of thick sweet lassi  decorated with  nuts .  Like a  neurosurgeon or cardiac surgeon he  is specialised in lassi  . Service is prompt  and good  .  Similarly  Tyagi restaurant has nice channa batoora  cost  rs 30  .And  it  is  just next to  deenanath  so that you  can eat batooras and wash it down with lassi .

Next    there were many pani puri places  (pani puri can be tricky as it is filled with cold  tamarind water so  probability of stomach upset is there  depending on your  resistance)  . I choose one which  had the handler with  gloves  .  Risky still  but i took it  .  I gave  rs 20  for  6 pani puris  .  The man  after  i ate  the yummy pani pooris  called me  and told something in fast hindi  .  Oh my god ,  did i mistook  the price and paid only rs 20 when price is rs  30  ?? Will  he  think that  this  chor  has  come from malluland  and ate  his pani puris without paying up  fully  ??                 No , the  old man  gave me back  10  rs  . Cost price for 6  lovely pani puris filled with boiled potataoes ,  paani and meeta chutney  was only  rs 10  .  You tell me  with food inflation nearing all time high  do we  get  anything at  this price  ? 
Total  cost  of  outing was  rs 25 +30+10 = rs 65  .  That  is  almost one  EURO  .  Can you  get  your stomach  full  in Europe  with one Euro  eating  food which  is natural  like lassi , channa etc  .No way  . 

                                                        So what else to do in bareilly  other than eating street  food  .  Take a  cab  and go to Nainital  (3  hrs  drive ) or go to Jim Corbetts  house  (on foothills of Nainital at Kaladungi  )  or  if you have proper 2 days  go to Jim Corbett National Park  .  And  thinking about  Jim Corbett itself  makes  me  want to visit  his house  .  He  is no more  in this  world  but  he was a courageous  hunter  who used  to hunt  maneating  tigers and leopards of kumaon region around  50  years  back  .  And  i  say  he was  extremely brave  because some  of this  hunts  he  used  to  do  "on foot  "  .  Imagine  that  .

Till  my nainital and kaladungi trip  .... i will  be checking  whose  jhumka has fallen in bareilly  bazaar  ..