A delicious surprise!

“Just sit!” my cousin blurted out. “We are getting late!”
I am not a girlie type girl but obviously I do take a little more time than my brother to get ready. But he won’t listen, never! Always blames me for all kinds of delay. This particular day, he was taking me somewhere on his bike- I say somewhere because I really had no idea where to, he was unwilling to disclose anything about our venture!
“It’s a surprise for you! Something to fill your stomach!” is all he committed to.
Well, for me, something to fill the stomach is a great incentive- you can lure me to hell with that! And travelling nearly 10 km on a bike at 4 on a hot summer afternoon is something that needs good incentives!
“Thank God! We reached in time!” My cousin looked relieved. I looked around. We hadn’t really reached anywhere- we were standing on the ring road and accompanying us were 4 cars, 8 bikes, 2 rickshaws and 5 bicycles. All the people were waiting- for what I had no idea. Some spectacle? I was getting anxious and fidgety. And my brother wasn’t helping matters! What were we doing here- sweating it out under the hot sun? I looked suspiciously at my brother. Had he lost his mind? Had all these people here lost their minds?
And then, two men arrived on a bike with big pots. All the people who had lost their minds, smiled. The older of the 2 men was very old- nearing 70 I should say; his face had been softened by age and sweat. The other man was middle-aged and stern. He laid out a cloth on the footpath and placed the pots on it. People madly crowded around them, pushing and pulling others.
“I am not going in there,” I told my brother.
“Don’t worry, I am!”
When he finally came out, dodging magnificently to avoid bruises and blows, he had 2 leaf-plates in his hands. And in those leaf-plates was my favourite Katki food.
“The old man, his name is Rabi, he is the one who started this business in this city! Some celebrity he is now…His son will soon take over from him.” my bro informed.
In 20 minutes, the place cleared. The 2 men were ready to leave- their business done for the day!

Have you ever been to Cuttack? Well, for a casual tourist, Cuttack is definitely not a paradise- no great tourist spot it is. Flanked by the Mahanadi and Kathajodi rivers on two sides, Cuttack is a crowded city in Orissa. With no real scope for expansion and development (unlike Bhubaneshwar) owing to limited space, Cuttack is all set to get worse! More cramped, more gullies, more pollution! Stinking drains is probably what it’s known for amongst those who, well, those who don’t know what Cuttack actually is. For a pure-bred Katki, Katak/ Cuttack is heaven! And even though I haven’t been brought up in Cuttack in the real sense, it’s Cuttack where I have spent all my summer vacations and enjoyed every single moment there! I love everything about the place. As we enter Cuttack’s bounds, the bridge, the ‘sometimes’ clear waters of the two rivers, the fresh fish and prawns, the rather ramshackle toll booth (which has closed down recently), the humble park right beside the bridge which boasts of a great number of flowers in the winters- every thing’s unique. The magnificent ring road, the numerous temples (big and small), the Durga puja pandals, the beautiful idols and the ‘chandi (silver) meddhas’ and the procession before their immersion (Durga puja is really the time to be at Cuttack!), even the dilapidated roads in the main city which get flooded during rains and the stinking drains- every little thing has a place in the hearts of all Katkis! (I am not a Katki, but very near it.) Cuttack celebrates every day, there’s a different aura around the place. But the one thing (if we must isolate one) that Cuttack really boasts of is it’s “Dahi vada and aloo dum”!

And that’s what all those people who had lost their minds had come for: the tastiest “Dahi vada and aloo dum” in the city! The dahi vada melt in my mouth, the red (well, they do take the liberty to add colour) spicy aloo dum made my mouth and eyes equally watery. Those who think it’s too hot and spicy, well damn them- they don’t have a taste! Moreover, the vendor gives you more dahi if your tongue’s sizzling…

There must be some hundred such vendors in Cuttack, perhaps even more. Since we can’t go 10km every day to enjoy a treat at Rabi’s roadside ‘restaurant’, we settle for the vendors who offer home delivery! “Thak thak! Khat khat!” they bang on the pots with large spoons, moving around on their bicycles in the gullies. And just how much my ears love that sound, I can’t express. It’s like music to my ears. I run towards it, sometimes even barefoot! And several others do the same.

I don’t know what the Cuttack vendors put in it but the taste is different, unique! No matter how hard my mom tries, mind you she is an excellent cook, yet she fails to create the same magic. Of the few things that attract Katkis living outside to Cuttack, Dahi vada and aloo dum is one delicious reason! Every real Katki will agree with me, won't you?