Sambhar of 69

Bryan Adams: eat your heart out

Sambhar of 69 (lyrics)

I had my first real six rupees,
stole it from my father's pants.
went to a madrasi hotel,
to eat the sambhar of 69.
Me and some kadke dost,

had it all and we caught bukhaar,
jimy puked, joey got ulcers,
and Bagga ne maari dakar.

Oh when I went back there now,
the food was as stale as ever,
and though it was 1999,
still the sambhar was being served over there,

that was the worst food of my life.

Therez no use in complaining,
when you got no other place to eat,
rushed in the evening to the doctors clinic,
but he too was at the toilet seat, yeah

standing there waiting outside,
nurse told me I will wait forever,
oh and when I held my breath,
I knew that I had to use that loo there
That was the worst food of my life.

Back to the sambhar of 69.

Man I was getting killed,
I was full and restless,
I needed to unwind,
I guess nothing can wait forever - FOREVER... NO!!!!

And now the dhabas are changing,
new dishes have come and gone,
sometimes when I pass that old madrasi lane,
I still smell it, I can't be wrong.

Standing in those unwashed clothes,
the waiters still call me in there,
oh the way my nostrils burn,
I know that it will be served forever,
what was the worst food of my life.

yeah it was the sambhar of 69,

the sambhar, the sambhar, the sambhar of 69 ...............

Times of India

I often eat from the streets and one of the rudest food I’ve had from my neighbourhood was from this hawker selling “Hot Kolkatta Rolls”. I asked him for a plate his hands went into action which went twisting and swirling producing eggs and curry wraped in layers of maida. I obviously lack this lucidity for instance give me a numerical from my chosen topic subject I will fumble to give an answer. Perhaps if that boy was educated he would have given better answers. Poor fellow couldn’t read or write, couldn’t read the 20 rupee note I gave him.

It is observed that there are two India, the educated and the underprivileged perhaps the ignorant and the ignored. That is not a great insight but a shameful aberration. Walter Bagehot in the early nineteenth century got it right. This editor of “The Economic” wrote “Poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult (for them) to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell”. In our country poor people can beg, ask for help, can file petition, can go to Lok Adalat, run to courts, write to Prime Minister they are sure to get no response. And for people of the city they are virtually invisible, our imaginary friends they come to iron our cloths, wash our car, clean our homes but of course how can we help them.

In the past few years of BPO, KPO, IT’s resurgence India slipped from rank 124 to 127in the Human Development Index of the UNDP ( and even my pocket money slipped a notch). And it shows that you are better off being poor in Botswana, El Salvador, Guatemala or the occupied territories of the Palestine- than in India. It had earlier sparked an indignation when I was in eleventh but it was lack of self will or maybe societal pressure that would reduce me to a pen pushing negligee who unsuccessfully prepared for IIT like million other zombies. If today’s youth is a wreck I hold my father’s generation responsible. For pulling a MATRIX before our eyes that choice itself is an anomaly and walking anything other than the self righteous path of acquiring a professional degree is considered a taboo. My friends had met with severe criticism when they tried their hand at helping the others. “Are you nuts? Starting an NGO, “You must be on drugs?” “Why waste time teaching street urchins?”

I think that giving back to our society is absolutely essential if that doesn’t happen then this “Two India“ thing would never cease to exit. Ankur Garg IAS rank1 who happens to be an ex-IITian summed it up nicely, he said “India aagey ja rahaa hai, Bhaarat peeche ja raha hai” but I don’t know if all the IIT graduates share the same realization. Anyway, can anyone name a single innovation from these Indian institutes which has brought significant change in your daily life? ziltch ! Still 1.5 lakh pack of nerds sit for JEE, what a waste of human resource. If these many educated people had ploughed fields or worked in agri-research then millions of people in Orissa and Bihar could have been saved from starvation.

From ploughing fields I remember that our all helpful, ever so considerate credit and finance institutions have always been there. Its now easy to obtain a low interest loan to finance a Mercedes Benz than it is to raise a farm. This is the reason why debt ridden farmers in Karnataka commit suicide. The BT cotton has been a flop and now the cotton growers of Vidarbha are in debt. Things are different in rich farming states like Punjab and Haryana after the green revolution the dependence on irrigation and fertilizers has spiraled, yields have reached a plateau so the farmers once rich can’t be rich anymore. One of my friends in Amritsar has three tractors and a Mitsubishi Lancer but doesn’t have money for tuitions (unless he sells his spanking new Ludhiana chic house complete with imported bath fitting) his family is looking to migrate to Canada.

Poverty itself is of different at different places. The poor of Punjab and Haryana are reasonably well of than those who are poor in West Bengal similarly rural and urban poverty are totally opposite. The urban poor the rickshaw puller, the cobbler, painter etc are on the brink of poverty line but sometimes are also lazy enough to pull themselves from this stigma. The florist near my house left his home in Jharkhand at 14 now he is 19 earns reasonably enough and shares his employer’s living space. His corner carries a whiff of poverty and hard work steeped in dreams, what do you call it “reminiscent of craft economies of yore where the guild master presides over both the work and life of his family”. He might never have his own house but instead of saving he likes to splurge on burgers and cold drink. Maybe he’s just a boy no one probably told him how to handle money. And this is the reason why I don’t believe in donations by charities in physical terms i.e money, clothing etc. The poor lack the sense of spending we as educated adults often get in spending frenzy so how can we expect an illiterate to be a wise consumer.

I had earlier involved myself in the Rotary Club, did teaching work for slum dwellers but as I grew older I had less and less time to spare. I even found the children opting out from such basic studies and one time none of friend turned up for collections. Even the poor I know don’t bother, don’t want to migrate from poverty, for them education ceases to be a vehicle of “social mobility”. They are habituated to free money dolled out to them in charity, free meals at langar, free medicine from dispensary, free money from begging on crossing etc. Maybe they are sick of working hard, sick of the corrupt police, sick of exploitative money lenders. Don’t know when this other India will pull itself up my helping hand will always be there.