The thali – Indian concept of a cheap and full meal

Indians love to have a number of items in their daily meals and, hence, the concept of thali has emerged because here, on a single plate (or thali), you can find an assortment of food items – some of these you may not like but you do not have any choice to change the items on the standard menu. It comes cheap and, therefore, is an attractive option for those who have to be careful of how they spend their hard-earned money.
Mandatory items in any thali are four number of puris (or two chapatis) along with a container of rice. Set around the periferi of the thali are a number of smaller containers which contain the food items like dal, vegetables (both dry and with gravy), pickles or onion slices, curd and a sweet – additional helpings are given for dal or the vegetables but not for any other item. At times, a papad is also given.
The menu is set in the morning and runs throughout the day. Changes happen only the next day and these usually are in the mix of vegetables and the dal. That way, the restaurants can economize and maintain low prices to keep the customers happy since they need not cater for those who are choosy. For them, there are buffet meals in costlier eating joints where they can go also in for selective ordering to cater to their taste buds.
I have had the opportunity of tasting thalis in Nashik, Bangalore, Mysore and other places in south India when I had gone with my family to various tourist destinations like Sravanbelagola and Oooty and have found the fare to be more or less similar.
Take the case of a Rajasthani thali - there are umpteen number of small containers laid out all around the thali and each if these contain something special that just cannot be ignored.
The thalis also used to be popular in trains where the items would be brought in specially designed trays that had hollows punched out in the tray itself to accommodate the items. The curd would be served in separate paper cups. Later, the thalis were replaced by meals in casseroles – the puri or chapatis would be rolled into foils and the food items would be what you had ordered. These also would be in casseroles.

Nashik and the Mumbai holiday crowd with faloodas in Deolali

Believe it or not, I get nostalgic when I remember the Nashik of the sixties with a wonderful corner known as Deolali which was famous for its faloodas, holiday crowds from Mumbai with their latest fashions and the majestic Hill Temple.
Deolali of the late sixties was one of the most attractive summer getaways for Mumbaites. With the onset of summer vacations, all the sanatoriums would be occupied with the young, the not so young and the old. In the evenings, they would stroll lazily down the streets in groups, stopping to exchange pleasantries with acquaintances. Some of them would settle in the Bharat Cold Drinks House where a bottle of the original Coca-Cola could be had for only 20 paise – the same price as that of a glass of fresh lime juice!
BCDH was also famous for its mouth-watering faloodas! Its patrons never seemed to be in any hurry. Other vacationers would walk down to Cathay or Adelphi – the two cinema halls, which ran English films. Or spend the evening atop the Hill Temple, an experience not easily forgotten – this landmark of Deolali was in a world of its own where time literally stood still. There were no fumes of auto-rickshaws, no dust hovering in the air, no obnoxious gases to destroy the freshness of the colorful bougainvillea. There was lovely greenery all around and concretization had not set in. The silence would be broken by the occasional clip-clop of the horse driven tongas or the sudden passing through of the State Transport bus en-route to South Deolali or one of the bicycles clanging along with its load of milk pots. Milk in pouches was something nobody could have visualized!
In Nashik City proper, the favorite meeting place of young and old alike was the Bhagwantrao hotel on the main road and near Ravivar Karanja – lovebirds would occupy places on the banks of the Godavari and watch fascinated as the waters rolled over the stones and they wove their dreams.
In Nashik Road where the railway station was located, the only Hotel worth its name was Hotel Raj at Bytco corner. Other hotels had not yet seen the light of day and people were afraid to venture deep into the jail road area after dark because of wild animals. Muktidham, a landmark today, had not yet been constructed.
In the Nashik of the sixties, cereals like rice and wheat were cheap - rice was 85 to 90 paise and wheat 60 to 65 paise per Kg.! A basketful of onions could be had for only 10 paise – the basket would contain 1 to 1 ½ Kgs. Ten grams of gold were available for as little as Rs 160.00 and the fares in the state transport buses were in denominations of 15 and 20 paise.
Moreover, you were not permitted to travel standing and boarding or alighting from a running bus was absolutely no-no for the bus conductor who was and, still is, the Supreme Commander of each ST bus. In fact, I was once reprimanded by him for boarding the bus before it had stopped.
The two most popular two-wheelers of the sixties were bicycles and very few owned scooters which were of only two varieties namely, the Lambretta and the Vespa. Motor cycles were of the Harley-Davidson types of the Military Police and, in order to commute short distances, the common man relied on the ST bus or on his own pair of feet. I have seen such peaceful days and have lived through them!

Me, a city named Nashik and Maha Kumbh Mela

Two important events are slated for Nashik in 2015 – the first is the Maha Kumbh Mela 2015 and second is the air connectivity from Nashik to other cities probably starting from January-2015.
Nasik is strategically located and its proximity to the financial hub of Mumbai and the industries of Pune have given it an added advantage to prosper. In the bargain, roads have widened from two-lane to six-lane, and multistoried buildings have cropped up to accommodate housing complexes and provide accommodation to the thousands of people who have come to stay to make it their home. I am no exception.
The River Godavari has its origins in the mountains of the Brahmagiri in Trimbakeswar and it wends its way through the Deccan plateau to flow into the Indian Ocean, bisecting the country into two halves. Starting as a trickle, it grows from strength to strength till its confluence in the Bay of Bengal and, the first important city on the banks of this mighty river is Nasik (also called as Nashik). Till the sixties, it was known to the outside world more as a pilgrimage center where kumbhmela was held once every twelve years.
I arrived in Nasik in 1967 – just one year before the kumbhmela of 1968. The kumbhmela takes place once every 12-years and the next one I witnessed was in 1980. I am not much of a believer in the fact that just by immersing oneself in the waters of a holy river like the Godavari, one can wash off all of ones sins! Moreover, I was still a young man and my idea of cleansing oneself of sins was not commensurate with the thinking of others. Therefore, I did not involve myself much. However, in the next kumbhmela in 1992 I decided that enough was enough. Staying in Nasik and not witnessing the kumbhmela was an unpardonable offence like visiting Paris and not taking in the Eiffel Tower. My relatives saw the makings of Satan in me. A non-believer in the Holy Scriptures deserved to be isolated in Society. Hence, throwing caution to the winds, I prepared to take the plunge. And, what a plunge it was!! Nashik is now getting ready for the 2015 celebrations.
People from all over the country come here to participate in this mela. But, there is also a very different kind of ongoing mela – the mela of Industries, the mela of IT revolution. In the sixties, one had enough leisure time to relax on the banks of the Godavari, atop the Hill Temple in Deolali or amidst the relics of the Pandu caves. The only worthwhile industrial activity in those days was confined to the village of Ojhar, situated approximately 30 Kms. from the Railway station, where an aircraft factory was being set up to manufacture the sophisticated MiG class of fighters. And, of course, there was the India Security Press which printed currency notes and the Government of India Press which printed Stationary. The villages of Ambad and Satpur were not even in the map of the Nasik of the sixties.
Times have changed since then - several million cusecs of water have flown down the Godavari and Nasik today is a tremendously busy industrial center, which does not have time to even sleep. Fairly well connected by road and rail with efforts on to get air connectivity, industries are localized in the two villages of Ambad and Satpur in Nasik and Sinnar on the Pune highway. The wide range of Industries, which have found permanent footholds and have become the pride of Nasik, range from Plastics to Transmission Towers. Some products have become household names like VIP suitcases and MICO spark plugs. And, to cater to the needs of people who have migrated to this part of the world, any number of eateries, shops and such subsidiary establishments have mushroomed all over the city. Not to mention a full-fledged Engineering College and a Medical College. To meet the continuously rising demands of local transportation, bus routes are being extended and new ones are being introduced. Even then, during peak hours, one will have to, more often than not, travel standing. A situation which the old timers could never have imagined!
This tiny hamlet town of Nasik and its wonderful environment used to, once upon a time, attract vacationers. Today, it attracts entrepreneurs.

Travel by MSRTC buses from Nashik to Pune

It takes roughly six hours to travel by bus from Nashik to Pune and, the prompt service of the MSRTC at half-hourly intervals have ensured that there are no hiccups. There are the semi-luxury buses as well as the air-conditioned Shivneri buses. During peak season or during festivals like Diwali or Dussera, passengers go in for online booking and those who do not do so get frustrated.
I had to wait in queue at Nashik for nearly two hours before I managed to get a seat to travel to Pune last week because it was ending of Diwali and the crowd comprised mostly of young men and women who were employed in IT firms in Pune and were going back to join duties.
The IT industry in Pune has resulted in hundreds of hotels and restaurants on the way – some of them like Daulat, Indraprastha, Kamats and Purohit are always busy and the cars in the parking lots bear testimony to the fact that for any place to prosper it is necessary to have good infrastructure that attracts investments.
As I waited at the Nashik bus stand I saw people ahead of me in queue getting their reservations for the 10am bus, then for the 10.30 am bus and by then, I was third in queue for the 11am bus. Unfortunately, when that bus arrived, there were only two vacant seats because all the remaining had been booked online!! I finally managed to get the 12am bus. Incidentally, the road for a major portion is through hills and the Ghat sections and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the huge mountains had been demolished in certain areas to eliminate curves and make the journey by road more pleasant. Moreover, elimination of frequent curves help to economize on fuel consumption and reduces fatigue for the drivers.
A proposal to have a railway route as an alternate means of communication failed to take off the ground.
As per the plans of the railways, the route between Nashik and Pune would be via Sinnar, Sangamner, Alephata, Manchar, Rajgurunagar, Chakan and Begadevadi on the Mumbai-Pune main line. This is the route that is flowed by the MSRTC buses. However, an alternate route has been proposed by an NGO named Rail Parishad – this is a route that will pass through Sinnar and then pass on through Akole, Kotul, Junnar, Ghodegaon before reaching Begadewadi. In the opinion of the NGO, this route would reduce the distance and also the cost of laying out railway lines.