The Chai Wallah (part one)

 

This wallah is fundamental to life here. His presence is constant in a place characterized as "reliably unpredictable".
The chai infrastructure is remarkable in my opinion. In a place where electricity comes and goes, water runs out and is delivered once a day, and traffic obstructions range from cows to craters, the chai will go on!

No doubt, chai pushes me to my limit sometimes. For instance, you can move heaven and earth to organize a team and trucks to deliver aid in natural disasters, but if that team hasn't had it's morning chai yet, your caravan is going NOWHERE. It just wont. And it's excruciating.

However, when your long day is seasoned by, true story, a cow using your motorcycle to pick it's nose, you KNOW a chai wallah will be on the next corner to offer you a chai time-out.

Chai is truly a constant in South Asian living. It ties a lot of the struggles and comfort together in a pretty unique way.
 

Batti Choaka Walla

These guys are making a food unique to my region of the state. Hint, its not baked potatos.

Those are dough balls stuffed with spices and ground chickpea. And those aren't wood coals, but rather the embers of a burning dried cow poop and grass mix.

Even better, whole eggplants are smoked over the pan while the cow patties burn down. The eggplant is peeled and mixed with boiled potatos, chilies, and masala.

The roasted dough balls are tumbled clean(enough) in a sheet and tossed in a refined butter. The dough balls are then ready to be broken up and eaten while scooping the veggie mix.

It's enough to make you cry "Uncle!"

Yep. Totally asleep. Woke up to see the crowd and...
went back to sleep. 

On a last minute call, we packed all night to catch a 3am train out of town. Due to disagreement with a conductor on the platform boarding was going to be tight. With Bollywood-star-like agility we ran along side the moving train to find an open door. But that night was a Bollywood tale of woe as every door was locked and we had to walk back past hundreds of half-sleeping people who just watched the effort.

If anyone could help us find the next solution it would be the uncles at the ticket window. Not pictured are the 20 other men I waded among trying to rouse the employees. No matter how people pushed or persuaded, the help window remained open, but not doing business.

This experience typifies some of the most trying moments here. Just when you want something to go right. But a way was made and we caught our flight by using an alternative bicycle rickshaw, 4 hour bus ride, and regional flight to catch our intended flight.