went to mohammed ali road after reading in the newspapers about the roadside hospitallity of rotis, tandoori chiken, mutton - - -
reached there by nine pm. is this what is meant by the term ' sea of humanity'?-women in black burkhas, men in flawlwss white and white skull caps- hundreds and hundreds of them; people like us who came to be part of this wonderful celebration of 'breaking the fast' ; rows and rows of stalls selling suits, dresses,chappals, belts, accessories, shades, hosiery-you name it! hundreds haggling, buying , moving on to the next stall- as tho they had the whole day before them- and it was well past nine!
And of course there was this aroma of roti and tandoori cooking. we waited for seats. tables were put out perpendicular on the both sides of the road with only pedestriams and two wheelers moving up and down thru the space in between. our turn came. we ordered roti, mutton cury and tandoori chicken( forgot all resolve to avoid chicken in the wake of the hype about the bird flu). Soon we were joined by a family- as soon as they took their seats, they spread on the table the newspapers they had brought along with them. they gave us a few sheets and suggested we too take this precaution against the not too clean tables. soon food came-never have i eaten such delicious preparations!
we do a lot of eating out- but this was a unique experience. looking back, i realise it's the ambience, that atmosphere charged with the feeling of camaraderie, goodwill that made it so different.
Life can be so beautiful if we can keep things at a very simple level and keep it free from the caste- creed- nationality notions and all the complexities they involve.