Pani Puri! The sound of it and there is a huge crunch in my mind already, making way for cold, spicy meandering and piping hot ragda or the lesser substitutes. Sort of like the breaking of a dam and the flooding of a river, but in a nice way. My taste buds tingle almost dutifully!
What chocolate does for the world, pani puri used to do for my friends and me. Some of our worst fights were miraculously forgotten over this.
Then it became so much more special when my tiny scrap of a niece said "Paani Pooyi!"
All that taken away from us and millions of others by one vendor, who decides to de-stress in his own wares! He wouldn't care two hoots about the heartaches (in possibly more ways than one!) that he would have given over the city.
It never fails to shock me how people like him, who practice stock clearance, do not mind not clearing their conscience! I mean, with the sanitation of the pani puri getting costlier by the day, where are we poor people supposed to go with our hankering for it?
Earlier in the scenes of a movie, hero would look on with eyes full of love and longing, while heroine would pop roadside pani puri into her mouth and squeal in delight. Added to the scene, now, will be the vendor looking at her too, diabolically! And the heroine will be a whole new meaning of 'piss drunk' before she embarks on a 'zara sa jhoom loo main..'!
In their world, I would be holding his collar, looking into his utterly shameful eyes and saying "Phir kabhi pani puri ke naam se kisi ke saath aisa dhokha mat karna, Panipuriwale! Warna Duniya mein koi kabhi kisi Panipuriwale par vishwaas nahi karega!" Sadly, that has already happened, so not even my life-changing reproach can hope to have an effect now. All the sweaty hairy arms over the state are being prohibited from drawing spicy water from a vessel swarmed with flies, in a hard, soggy, dripping puri, for fear of utterly disgusting perils!
So goodbye, much fancied roadside pani puri. While you were, you brought smiles to our faces. Smiles that were blissfully unaware of the apavitrata of their cause! Rest In Pe(e)ace!
