Jaipur Junoon

Jaipur 'Junoon' is still there in my head. I am simply not able to forget our Jaipur holiday. 'Junoon' translated loosely means madness or craziness. It is not the exact meaning but the best I could manage. I seem to compare my shopping experience with Jaipur. I accompanied my visiting relatives to a few boutiques in Mumbai.Thank Heavens for the 'Firangi' accent and a genuine one at that, that we were treated well in all shops. I have this Mantra of putting lipstick when I go shopping. Cant do much about the clothes I am wearing but my lipstick helps me to be treated well by most sales people in stores, malls and boutiques. The attitude is, they check you out and decide on their own that you are not a customer but a browser. Then the subtle rejection is there for all to notice. One experiences this as an Indian when one goes abroad even though Indian tourists spend a lot on shopping, the sales people will treat a fair skinned Caucasian better. This is the arrogance seen in the Middle East and Far East too. The frontline sales people are almost never Indian in big branded stores. Even a less English speaking person from an Asian country is preferred to a qualified Indian in the hi end retail business. 

In school, we were shown 'Junoon', a film with Shashi Kapoor and Nafisa Ali. We were really in a younger class and were taken to a movie theatre to watch this film. Never knew Shashi Kapoor's wife Jennifer Kendall was in the film. Nafisa Ali was beautiful and some scenes are clearly etched in my mind. Could not understand the violence or the subtle emotions but the chemistry between Shashi Kapoor and Nafisa Ali was dynamic. School showed us a lot of movies on special days. Those days parents did not go for movies or went rarely to watch films with their children. During my growing up years, films were considered a bad influence. Singing movie songs all the time or reading film magazines was not a sign of a good student. We got the Stardust magazine at home. The pictures of hero heroines were so delightful. We did not call them movie stars. In fact , movies were called 'cinemas'. The movie theatres were referred to as Cinema Halls. No one ever went on a date to a cinema hall as you would almost always bump into people who knew you or your date. If we talked movies with our friends and cousins, it was always in hushed tones. There was no concept that  good cinema would expand your mind. Knowledge came from reading books or listening or travelling. Definitely not from cinema or television viewing. Those were my simple growing up days. I was  not  exposed to much of world cinema or the world, for that matter. 

Jaipur has totally spoilt us for Mumbai restaurants . Every place we have visited in the last month and half, is falling short in the quality of food they serve. We keep comparing the taste, ingredient quality and the flavours to the food in Anokhi Cafe. It is not that Maharashtra has bad weather or no organic farms. In fact Nashik and Pune has a lot of farms and good produce. Sad to say it never comes to the restaurant tables. The 'Farm to Table' concept does not exist in the restaurants of Mumbai. The Mumbai customer is not discerning in taste. He goes out to meet as much as to eat. He is happy meeting family and friends and just wants a good ambience, good food be damned. The Chefs and the restaurant owners know this and don't bother with the quality of food or its freshness. The pasta and its sauce tastes like saw dust in most places in Mumbai. Anokhi Cafe has set a new benchmark for us in the freshness of ingredients and the taste. Even their desserts were delicious and not just gooey or chocolatey. In Mumbai, the restaurants start well but in a month or two, the cost cutting by the owners begins. The first to go is herbed butter then the quality of bread and then the greens in the dishes followed by the size of the portions reducing. 

Time to  re-acclimatise myself to Amchi. Time to fall in love with my Karm Bhoomi.
Jaipur, you will always have a special place in my heart.