Chat across India

I took a walk around the neigbourhood in hunt of a new sim. Instead I found a chat store. The place looked appealing for some reason and I wanted to try out their pani puri. Turned out it was Rs. 15 for 6, which is a tad expensive. But the hidden benefit was the conversation with the pani puri maker. On a side note, he had a slightly unique way of making the pani puri. He took out a glassful of the pani before the prepped the puris, then he poured the pani into the puris with the glass. A bit more hygenic I suppose? After he was done with the six (he actually made seven, liked my face I suppose) he poured out the reminder of the pani into my cup. I was a little startled since I wasn't used to drinking that much pani. But it was tasty and more importantly, it didn't feel heavy or too spicy so I finished it. He offered to pour me another glassful and when I was hesitating, he said, "It has pudina, very good for you. Good for digestion. Go on, have some." I smiled and drank another glassful.

The pani was in fact slightly sweet and I asked him about it. He said that that was the way they liked it there. I asked him if he was from there, he said he was from Kanpur. I told him I was from Hyderabad and that over there the pani was spicy, although some liked it with a little sweetener. So I asked him if they made it sweet in Kanpur, he replied that that sweetened version was in fact from Mumbai where he worked for a while. In Kanpur, he continued, we make them spicy like this, and proceeded to pour me a glassful of pani from a different container! So basically a guy from Hyderabad went all the way to Haryana to meet a guy from Kanpur who worked in Mumbai and came to Chandigarh to serve him pani puri. Globalization!