Indore diary [4] : Paanch rupye ki fati hui note...

What first comes in your mind, whenever you hear “Indore”. Honestly when I first thought seriously about indore, I thought what is reason of name “Indore”. I found through Wikipedia that this is due to Indrashwer temple. Sand of time polish name from Indrapur to Indur and finally to indore.

At the end of my first journey through van in Indore, I gave 10 rupees note and van driver return me 5 rupees note. But when I saw the bad condition of that note, I immediately complain to driver but he gave little attention towards me. “Are bhiya, chal jayega”, after this words he accelerated van and I was watching five rupees note in little storm of dust. I thought he was mad person who wants to get rid of that note, it’s better to forget such people.

For Indori people: a rare fresh five rupee note

But next day same incident happen with me, but this time my friend was also with me. When I was about to complain, he pulled my arm and say “are yar indore me chalta hai”. I briefly look at five rupee note and reply, “really”. Whether it’s a van, auto rickshaw or any restaurant, everywhere any type of five rupee is acceptable irrespective of condition of that note. Now when anyone refuses defective note of five rupee, I immediately remember Indore. Strange but true, a torn note of five rupees reminds me of Indore.

In Indore, breakfast means poha and/or jalebi. In almost every street, one can easily find Poha shop. Just like Tom with jerry, if there is Poha, there must be ‘Sev’. In Indore, people can see Tom without jerry, but there is no possibility of Poha without Sev unless one doesn’t want to take breakfast. During the whole year when I was in Indore, I ate Poha, Poha and only Poha in breakfast. (There are very-very few exceptions) Now when I eat Poha sometime it reminds me of Poha city.

A view of sarafa market at night

Until the day I visit sarafa, I never thought Indori people are so crazy about food. Sarafa in Indore is less known for jewellery than food. During day time jewellery shop are open and in evening up to midnight jewellery shops get closed and place is full of street vendors selling different type of delicious food. If you are in Indore and your friends say that ,”Let’s go Sarafa”, this means for exploring food only and nothing to do with gold or silver. Sometime I think, may be some crazy foodies ask for food at jewellery shop during day time. An unimaginable thing for other cities. Chappan bhog near palasiya is another place in Indore for food explorers. Chapppan bhog is market having shops of many types of foods.

India invented zero and every Indian has proud of it. But everybody talks about zero who cares about one(ek). Only a true Indori understand the value of one(ek), for him/her everything is either “ek number” or “nothing”. My friends in Indore usually tell “ek number” whenever something good they hear or see. I often thought that when will they say two(do), three(teen) or something else. But they never got ahead of one(ek). Sometime I think, One(1) might be invented in Indore.

So next time when you will in Indore, don’t forget to visit Sarafa and Chppan Bhog. Don’t forget to collect your defective five rupees notes to spend at Indore….

Indore is ‘ek number’.