Thursday, January 10, 2008

Facts of Life => Fact of the day part 4: Thank you for Joking

So it's Pindi we discuss today, in briefs (error led pun intended) though. Islamabad's twin, not identical ofcourse. The two have as many similarities as does an unmatched pair of cotton socks; they both share the weather, and the socks share the cotton.
Islamabad may be Islamabad during the day, but at night it belongs to the Pindi boys. And why not, they're twins. Which brings the comparison between the two to a close and we zoom in to a Nihari hang out in Pindi, where the delicacy being manufactured, unspoiled, by too many cooks. The owner has clearly been feeding on Nihari every since his Cerelac days; he does not need a naala for his shalwar. He squats in front of his register, next to the broth, stagnant like a caterpillar. Cater-'pillar' indeed. He pinches the mole on his left cheek and he straightens his beard with his fingernails. He sticks his pinky in his ear and then he shakes it with so much vigour that his skull shakes. He then stealthily makes the culprit hand disappear and oddly enough at the end of the night his shalwar has rust-like stains around the knee-cap area. And to top it all of, he would belch like a man who's had his fill of nihari... well that naturally makes sense. This man is all about the Nihari and sometimes the Nihari is all about him. His joint though, not his shalwar-knee-cap, is very popular. So popular that it even creates interest in the Islamabad part of town. At a time too early for the Pindi boys, but too late for the Isloo-sers (a term coined by the Pindi boys to get back at the Isloo-sers for calling them Pindi boys as opposed to Pindi bouays), a group clinching their upward pointing nostrils walks in. The obese man takes notice: cha-ching! There is a sense of urgency among the staff, the chotas are prompt to the calls, the dirty dishes are wiped twice before being served and the obese man belches with his mouth closed. The nihari though, thanks to the too many cooks who don't spoil the broth, lives up to the word that had spread. One of the new-commers then gets up to face the obese man to pay for the experience: cha-ching! "I'm alright Jack, keep your hands off of my stack". While he's paying through his upward pointing nose a cat drops out of no where between him and the cater-pillar man. "What the hell?! Ye kya hai?" inquires the young man in accented Urdu. "Billi...urrrrp" comes the prompt reply. A moment later the look of disgust on the young man registers with the cater-pillar man and he placates him by telling him that the cat is the part of his masterplan for getting rid of the rodents in kitchen. Enough said.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ayehaye. grosso khatti dakaar.

fuss said...

fabio grosso!