This in one word which has fascinated me from a long time..! Many of my ‘male’ friends have been talking about it so much, that i actually had an urge to go there at least once! Especially the famous shankar nagar tapri..where they’ve spent many nights…eating ‘poha’ (with tarri) and ‘chaha’..! but then, they’d also told me that it’s not a girls’ place… too bad..i used to comment!
Last week, my driving license got stolen. And as i didn’t have time to go through the procedure by myself, i gave the documents to my agent. Now these agents are real funny characters. They do your job very easily and on time, but it is very difficult for you to find them on time! So i was waiting for him outside the RTO, where i saw many Tapris lined up.
And out of those, there were two which caught my attention. The one, which was a bit far than the other one, had few customers; a couple, a man & a small child and two middle aged men. This Tapri was serving ‘Chai’ as well as ‘pakode’, which all of them were relishing.
The second one had 4-5 clientele, all college going boys. And they were having their ‘chai and sutta’ combination and discussing about CAT, GMAT, GRE and Placements!
What hit me was, that on both these joints, apart from chai, one thing was common; nobody was paying attention to the kind of material was being used to prepare these things, or what that tapriwala is doing to keep the glasses and plates clean. Plus, he was again frying those pakodas in the oil which was taken out of the most tainted container you could see, and serving them as fresh ones. i always knew that these tapris are not as per the standards of Food development authority of India, but still would’ve at least some hygienic state. But this thing was shocking.
Obviously, the couple didn’t have time to pay attention to this thing, and others were busy discussing issues like fate of congress, Indian cricket team’s defeat, girls and of course, CAT..!
i think what makes these tapris more popular is the environment it provides for discussing some things, which are important, but are not much thought of. Or, may be it is the cheapest joint one could ask for. because i've even seen people in formal suit and tie, standing at a tapri and sipping their "cutting" chai and discussing about their project and cursing their manager or PL..!
But all in all, after seeing this, i no more have an urge to visit a tapri, leave alone having a chai there… over to you, guys!
6 comments:
You are making optimum use of your potential. Keep it up. I think very soon you will have good number of topics covered over here. Will be waiting to read more...... :-) :-)
Ninad Mairal
It was really good to see an article on my favourite "Tapri". My best times have been on the same tapris that you mentioned. You have written it very well and have reminded me of those old days. Waiting for more stuff to come from your side....
This is an utter act of blasphemy i must say!! Tapris are our sacred places!! Its the best place to free your mind , to let go all worries,..rather than observing hygienic details of poor guy show some respect for Tapriwalas and edit the post writing something good for them!
Maze don shabda sampley!! ;)
Keep up the good work :)
The closest I ever got to a Tapri was the internal college 'Daytime' Tapri (we could never go to the very famous Chandrama :( )...I have to say, hygiene apart, I have never had coffee that tasted better...anywhere else...but nice work as an undercover agent uncovering the truth behind Tapris...let's do a sting operation...interested? :)
hey anupama.... though i shouldn;t comment on this, but i've also had a chance to taste that coffee..and i too share the same feelings.. :P.. but yes, that sting operation idea is worth considering.. :))
nice attempt 2 write on tapri,its a gud place to hang out for college guys..keep it up...
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