Muzaffar Ali in conversation with Professor Fatmi.
Allahabad has been home to a large community of Anglo-Indians since the time of British colonial rule. Though many members migrated to Australia and the United Kingdom sometime in the 1970s, the community still has sizeable presence in the city. My teaching job at the Boys’ High School connected me to this community and their delectable cuisine: a mixture of Indian and British culinary heritage. I discovered the Goan dish vindaloo, Christmas cakes baked at Bushy’s, and homemade mustard dips. Bushy’s, a bakery run by a Muslim family since 1963, still bakes in traditional wood-fired ovens. It is the only traditional bakery in Allahabad and, come Christmas, all Christian families book a slot at Bushy’s, lining up with their cake batter loaded with dry fruits soaked in rum.
train. i found myself a nice cozy nook in the corner of the dining car. that s where i tried to sleep last night. i think i slept about two hours. other people are better at sleeping up right in those chairs, but i m not one of them, so i staked out my little piece of real estate on the floor. it really wasn t fun. the dining car, did you dine? was there food? they did serve us a free dinner last night. they called us by rail car back to the dining car to eat the free dinner. so that was a little bright spot. so we get back to the dining car. and we got a really small little bowl of beef stew, which i actually thought was the appetizer until i realized that was the meal. and they wanted the next rail car. i realized the meal was over. i thought it was the appetizer until i realized that was dinner. so that s why we were so hungry