Thursday 16 April 2009

Two Questions

On Dr. Ambedkar’s birthday, for want of anything better to do, we went for a family outing to Falta, a port and industrial town located about 60 km from Calcutta, near the confluence of the Hooghly and Damodar rivers. The place is of moderate historic interest: it was here that the East India Company set up camp after its defeat at the hands of Siraj-ud-Daulah in 1756. It’s also a good spot for bird-watching.
En route, at two places about 14 km apart, we spotted a doll impaled on an iron spike, and another doll strung up by a noose above a garbage vat. Question one: what is the reason is behind this mindless violence being perpetrated on innocent dolls?

I have a strange soft spot for hotels which are slightly unprofessional. Too much, and it becomes a serious inconvenience: I remember a hotel in Darjeeling where I had to take a bath in cold water at 4 a.m. (two degrees above zero) because the water heater was not working, and another in the Relli valley where we arrived to find that everything was locked, not a single staff member was around, and two families had been booked into the same room. But slightly unprofessional hotels, restaurants and suchlike are rather cute. Hotel Rajhans, where we had lunch, was one such. Look at the menu card.

Chicken lollipop is an hors d’oeuvre made from the middle segments of chicken wings. One of the two bones of the middle segment is removed, and the flesh is pushed to one end of the bone. It is then coated in a spicy batter and deep fried. It is a popular item in Indian Chinese cuisine, served with Sichuan sauce.

‘Chiken lolipup’ and ‘Chiken lalipop’ are presumably misspelt names for the same dish. Question two: why is there a twenty-rupee difference in cost between the two?

As Tommy would say: Yes, I am easily amused.

7 comments:

RC said...

Accha, amake seriously bojha ... tui keno corporate law korte cholechish?! you are a FANTASTIC writer ... the simplicity reminds me a bit of Hemingway actually ... 'you don't quite know you're there till you're there' .... use the time off to write 'seriously' (if there can ever be any such thing) ... and you might not do anything else for a long long time!

PS: If the above rant hasn't made this obvious, I have just read the last two months of your posts, and am absolutely thrilled at the beauty of each one!! :)

Tommy said...

Where I live, there's a type of bird ("loggerhead shrike") known for leaving lizards impaled on barbed wire. The bird in your pic is cooler looking, though.

Priyanka said...

I'm still not quite reconciled to the fact that a chicken lalipop or lolipup could be described as an hors d'oeuvre :P

Also, "Butter Tosh" and "Egg Tosh".

Tosh?

Indecision Personified said...

Wow! am on a roll... I got 'retring' for WV... That could either be one way of saying 'the phone rang again' (you know: tring tring) or cud it be a wierd way of saying retrying? neways.. its close enough to an actual word for me to be excited!!!

P.S: No, i did not have an actual comment on this post! :)

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

three posts in one week?! goody goody goody :D.

new age scheherazade said...

pinka, forget that and look at the amount of food on the list. You can't blame them for failing to keep track of everything.

Priyanka said...

no no, ana, i've figured it out now. what they mean is butter toast and egg toast *beams*

vw: takli