Pani Puri Stall 

At the risk of sounding Elitist, I have a confession to make!

I have never had the road-side paani puri or bhel puri or sev-puri or dahi-paapdi or anything for that matter! Or rather, HAD never had any of those, until I ended up having some in the chat street opposite Vardaan Market in Calcutta.

The experience was absolutely exhilarating… And I ended up wondering why hadn’t I tried any of those before. The reason was this perennial paranoia that something will happen to me if I have any of those chaats! It was more of a mental block that I had… every time I saw my friends have those, I would wonder, “Arent they afraid, they will fall sick or catch some God-forsaken disease???”

I used to worry myself silly thinking ill fall sick with either Typhoid, or Jaundice if I have those road side food items. At the same time, some of the healthiest people I have seen thrive only on those! But, knowledge of that fact never kind of convinced me that I should try one of those things out… that is until he mentioned that I was probably missing out on the taste of India… It was difficult for him to fathom how I could have grown up in India without having had the chaat with the ultimate concoction of paseena, a little bit of soil, some keede-makode (insects) and the works!

Yeah, true! I probably did miss out on that one! So, don’t be surprised if you find me gorging on the next thele wala, around the corner 🙂