An abridged version of this article was published in the Indian Express on 7 June. http://epaper.indianexpress.com/284738/Indian-Express-Pune/07-June-2014#page/23/1
This is the full version.
Visitors from the time of Al-beruni to the present day have mentioned how many Indians think there is no country like ours, no culture like ours, no food like ours.. in short, India is so far superior to other cultures that it is pointless even to start a discussion about the elements of other cultures that we can absorb.
And within India, the champions of superiority are Punekars. Yes, Pune may have vastly degraded infrastructure, a rising crime graph, polluted air, the highest incidence of traffic accidents in India.. but all that is, of course, of minor importance in the context of the core Pune culture, the Pune of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Madhavarao Peshwe, Lokmanya Tilak. Every young Punekar knows how great we really are, and how much the world owes to Pune.
One proud Punekar tradition is our food and our method of serving at mealtimes. From childhood, I was taught that there was a very specific way in which food was to be served on the plate. Starting with salt, a slice of lemon, and anything raw - the cucumber salad etc. was on the left, along with any pickles, chutneys and pakoras; with the cooked vegetables - all the bhajis on the right, and the liquids - amti, tomato saar, served in bowls in the centre. You would start with waran-bhat (rice with lentils), move on to the poli or chapati, and then move on to the rice. This was, and remains, our family "padhdhat" or tradition, and with minor variations you'll see the same in almost all Pune households. Anyone who doesn't conform to this practice is an outsider, to be pitied, educated or to be simply looked down upon.
The middle part of the plate - the bowls of liquid - fared equally badly in the traditionality test. Tomato saar - went out straightaway. And minus peanuts, the "danyachi amti" lost its reason for existence. Only the normal amti stayed; but minus the chili.
It was clear that there had been a complete revolution in Pune eating habits in the eighteenth century, with all these new ingredients being accepted. There is no doubt that chillies, potatoes, onions, cabbages, cauliflowers and many more "imported" vegetables spread rapidly and became part of the regular Indian diet during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The ingredients may be new, and our vegetables may be European imports, but surely the manner of serving our food is an age-old Pune tradition? No, it turns out - that bubble burst as well. While I was on the Pune Heritage Walk a few months ago, one of the interesting snippets of information given to us was that Nana Phadnavis, the great Maratha politician, was responsible for devising the serving pattern. Before this, there was no real sequence and manner or serving food - everything was piled on the same plate ( or banana leaf). In the late 1780s, Nana Phadnavis organised the wedding of the young Peshwa, Sawai Madhavarao, and felt that the manner of serving food needed to be better ordered and and more dignified - so he took it upon himself to dictate the exact sequence of serving, as well as the position where every food item was to be served. And ever since, Nana Phadnavis's rules for the royal wedding been followed as the Pune "padhdhat"!
And what could have influenced Nana Phadnavis when he devised these rules? The Marathas were friendliest with the French, with several Frenchmen serving in very senior positions in the Maratha armies, One of them, a Monsieur Perron has even given his name to a locality of Pune .. today's Peru Gate in the old city has nothing to do with Guavas, it is the area where Perron's mansion was located! While there is no direct evidence, it is fascinating to think that Nana Phadnavis used some elements of French dining etiquette, when prescribing the rules for the Peshwa's wedding.
I'd started out feeling proud of the Pune traditions, felt very doubtful in the middle of my research - and ended feeling even more proud - of the unpublicised Pune (and Indian) tradition of accepting good elements from foreign cultures, and then making them our own. So the next time I have French guests and they ask about Pune food traditions, I am going to tell them that our tradition is to eat European and South American vegetables, served in the 18th century French style. And if they are too shocked by this information, I will ask them to relax and have a jalebi (an Iranian import)!
This is the full version.
Visitors from the time of Al-beruni to the present day have mentioned how many Indians think there is no country like ours, no culture like ours, no food like ours.. in short, India is so far superior to other cultures that it is pointless even to start a discussion about the elements of other cultures that we can absorb.
And within India, the champions of superiority are Punekars. Yes, Pune may have vastly degraded infrastructure, a rising crime graph, polluted air, the highest incidence of traffic accidents in India.. but all that is, of course, of minor importance in the context of the core Pune culture, the Pune of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Madhavarao Peshwe, Lokmanya Tilak. Every young Punekar knows how great we really are, and how much the world owes to Pune.
One proud Punekar tradition is our food and our method of serving at mealtimes. From childhood, I was taught that there was a very specific way in which food was to be served on the plate. Starting with salt, a slice of lemon, and anything raw - the cucumber salad etc. was on the left, along with any pickles, chutneys and pakoras; with the cooked vegetables - all the bhajis on the right, and the liquids - amti, tomato saar, served in bowls in the centre. You would start with waran-bhat (rice with lentils), move on to the poli or chapati, and then move on to the rice. This was, and remains, our family "padhdhat" or tradition, and with minor variations you'll see the same in almost all Pune households. Anyone who doesn't conform to this practice is an outsider, to be pitied, educated or to be simply looked down upon.
Growing up in Pune, we regularly had foreign guests joining us at mealtimes. The vast majority of these guests were from France, due to my mother being a professor of French. At the dining table, the intricacy of the food serving pattern invariably became a conversation point - the guest would ask, why is this item served in this place, and we would explain, with great pride, that this is the traditional way we eat in Pune. Occasionally, we would take guests out to one of the traditional Pune eating places like Shreyas on Apte Road, where the quantity of items served was twice or thrice what you would make at home, but the manner of serving was rigidly traditional - left, right, center, etc. As self-appointed cultural ambassadors, we all ensured that our guests were suitably impressed by how well we Punekars, and by extension, all Indians were at preserving our traditions.
Recently I did some internet research on food habits and my views about traditional Pune food culture began to change. I started by looking at the ingredients - the vegetables that we eat every day, and which I considered to be the basic elements of Pune food heritage.
Batata bhaji - my favourite potato dish, a staple at home - turned out to be not so traditional after all, because the potato is a Portuguese contribution - the vegetable originates from South America, was cultivated further in Europe and imported by the Portuguese into their Indian colonies. The same holds true for chillies - it turned out that this is of South American origin, a European import into India - before chillies, the only way Indians could spice up our food was by using black pepper! That's why the authentic Mughlai recipes all have black pepper and not chili, and that's why spicy food was a rich man's preserve back in the 17th century!
Batata bhaji - my favourite potato dish, a staple at home - turned out to be not so traditional after all, because the potato is a Portuguese contribution - the vegetable originates from South America, was cultivated further in Europe and imported by the Portuguese into their Indian colonies. The same holds true for chillies - it turned out that this is of South American origin, a European import into India - before chillies, the only way Indians could spice up our food was by using black pepper! That's why the authentic Mughlai recipes all have black pepper and not chili, and that's why spicy food was a rich man's preserve back in the 17th century!
I discovered that there is a reason why the Shrawan Ghewda is called "Farasbi" - it is a corruption of the term French bean. Cabbage, cauliflower, carrot - all commonly grown and loved bhajis in Pune, are all European imports. And so are tomatoes - like potatoes, they are South American in origin and developed as a food item in Europe, before being brought to India.
So, it seemed that most of the traditional ingredients for cooked food in Pune, are of European origin!
I then tried the left side of the plate - the "uncooked" side - where my favourite koshimbir is served. Koshimbir, the Punekar way, is made of chopped cucumbers, mixed with danyacha koot (ground peanuts) and diced green chillies, sometimes with a mustard 'phodni'. But just like chillies, peanuts turned out to be of South American origin, becoming popular in India only from the late 19th century!
So, it seemed that most of the traditional ingredients for cooked food in Pune, are of European origin!
I then tried the left side of the plate - the "uncooked" side - where my favourite koshimbir is served. Koshimbir, the Punekar way, is made of chopped cucumbers, mixed with danyacha koot (ground peanuts) and diced green chillies, sometimes with a mustard 'phodni'. But just like chillies, peanuts turned out to be of South American origin, becoming popular in India only from the late 19th century!
The middle part of the plate - the bowls of liquid - fared equally badly in the traditionality test. Tomato saar - went out straightaway. And minus peanuts, the "danyachi amti" lost its reason for existence. Only the normal amti stayed; but minus the chili.
It was clear that there had been a complete revolution in Pune eating habits in the eighteenth century, with all these new ingredients being accepted. There is no doubt that chillies, potatoes, onions, cabbages, cauliflowers and many more "imported" vegetables spread rapidly and became part of the regular Indian diet during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The ingredients may be new, and our vegetables may be European imports, but surely the manner of serving our food is an age-old Pune tradition? No, it turns out - that bubble burst as well. While I was on the Pune Heritage Walk a few months ago, one of the interesting snippets of information given to us was that Nana Phadnavis, the great Maratha politician, was responsible for devising the serving pattern. Before this, there was no real sequence and manner or serving food - everything was piled on the same plate ( or banana leaf). In the late 1780s, Nana Phadnavis organised the wedding of the young Peshwa, Sawai Madhavarao, and felt that the manner of serving food needed to be better ordered and and more dignified - so he took it upon himself to dictate the exact sequence of serving, as well as the position where every food item was to be served. And ever since, Nana Phadnavis's rules for the royal wedding been followed as the Pune "padhdhat"!
And what could have influenced Nana Phadnavis when he devised these rules? The Marathas were friendliest with the French, with several Frenchmen serving in very senior positions in the Maratha armies, One of them, a Monsieur Perron has even given his name to a locality of Pune .. today's Peru Gate in the old city has nothing to do with Guavas, it is the area where Perron's mansion was located! While there is no direct evidence, it is fascinating to think that Nana Phadnavis used some elements of French dining etiquette, when prescribing the rules for the Peshwa's wedding.
I'd started out feeling proud of the Pune traditions, felt very doubtful in the middle of my research - and ended feeling even more proud - of the unpublicised Pune (and Indian) tradition of accepting good elements from foreign cultures, and then making them our own. So the next time I have French guests and they ask about Pune food traditions, I am going to tell them that our tradition is to eat European and South American vegetables, served in the 18th century French style. And if they are too shocked by this information, I will ask them to relax and have a jalebi (an Iranian import)!
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