Many countries have looked at India in absolute awe. The reason being the wide diversity in the population which resides here. While the country has witnessed moments of weakness, where this diverse social fabric is disturbed, at the heart of it, we remained bound to each other. Reinstating the same fact, Vinod Chand, a resident of Maharashtra narrates a beautiful incident.

Today I got one 12mm mild steel sheet cut in a diameter of 32 inches. This sheet was cut by people from Uttar Pradesh who are working in a shed in Bhayandar. Most of them are illiterate and all of them belong to the same village. This sheet was cut using an automated cutter with Oxygen and LPG gas mix. The owner of the shop told me that the cut sheet will weigh 50 Kg. When the job was done, the circular sheet weighed 50.2 Kg, not bad!

Next, we got the sheet bent into the shape of Pav-Bhaji Tawa. The job was once again done in a ramshackle shed where a 100 Ton press was in operation. So when you come to my restaurant you can have pav-bhaji on a tava cut by Muslims from UP who cut it to precision and a Hindu from UP (again) who used his 100-ton press to give it perfect shape.

Now an ustad from Mangalore whose family stays in Chennai is going to dish out tasty Pav-Bhaji, Tava Pulav and Tava Biryani (all vegetarian albeit, a blasphemy for real Biryani lovers, I know) and serve it in a restaurant owned by my wife who is from Rajasthan and married to a Punjabi who has been in Maharashtra since 1970, so more of a Maharashtrian than a Punjabi.

And by the way, the Pav-Bhaji counter has been made by a Shetty from Karnataka. And most of my customers are going to be Gujarati and Marwadis!

That’s India. You can’t mess with that.

PS: I forgot, the masalas are from Kubal, a truly Maharashtrian household name for condiments!

Story by: Vinod Chand

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