विचारों की यात्रा

डॉ पुरुषोत्तम अग्रवाल
क्रेडिट: बुक लवर 

आज बहुत दिनों बाद हिंदी साहित्य से रूबरू होने का मौका मिला| अवसर था डॉ. पुरुषोत्तम अग्रवाल की पुस्तक के विमोचन का| किताब का नाम है “हिंदी सराय : अस्त्राखान वाया येरेवान”| विमोचन डॉ. कर्ण सिंह द्वारा किया गया जो कश्मीर के महाराजा हरी सिंह के पुत्र हैं और राज्य सभा सांसद भी हैं| अस्त्राखान रूस में है और येरेवान अर्मेनिया की राजधानी है| यह किताब वैसे तो अग्रवालजी की येरेवान और अस्त्राखान यात्रा का विवरण है, पर साथ ही साथ उन्होंने १७वीं सदी में अस्त्राखान में जाकर बसे भारतीयों के बारे में भी बात की है| जिस तरह से उन्होंने इतिहास, संस्कृति और विचारधाराओं को अपनी किताब में कुशलता से बुना है, उसके लिए कई वक्ताओं ने उनकी पुस्तक को मात्र पाँवों की यात्रा का विवरण की जगह “विचारों की यात्रा” का वर्णन कहा|

पहली वक्ता थीं सुश्री मन्नू मित्तल जो जवाहरलाल विश्वविद्यालय में इतिहास ही प्राध्यापिका हैं| उन्होनें एक बड़ी रोचक बात बताई – हम जो कपड़ों में “अस्तर” लगाते हैं, वो शब्द अस्त्राखान से आया है| हुआ यों की अस्त्राखान में कपड़ों का, खासकर फ़र का व्यापार होता था| और पहले कपड़ों में फ़र लगाया जाता था इसलिए वो अस्तर हो गया| संस्कृति के आदान-प्रदान के ऐसे कई सबूत मिलते हैं, जैसे कि कोणार्क के मंदिर में सूर्य देवता स्लाविक जूते पहने हुए हैं जबकि कोई भी हिन्दू देवी-देवता जूते पहने हुए नहीं दिखाए जाते|

Dust and spice

Today I reached the southernmost tip of my journey - Chennai. In the bus from Hyderabad, I could literally feel moving closer to the equator because of the heat. As my third metropolitan city, Chennai stands out as being not cosmopolitan. It could be the areas I've seen are old Chennai because the dressing style of people is quite untouched by western fashion. And plus the crowd is primarily Tamilian, with no mix of races and cultures. It is a dusty city which seems to have clung to its ways.
As being a capital city, it does have its share of chain restaurants and retail outlets. On the ride from CMBT to T Nagar, I saw KFC, Big Bazaar, More, Reliance Fresh etc. Also found a BFC: Bigboy Fried Chicken. It feels good to see that Indian brands have grown as chains. Earlier chains were confined to McD and Dominos.
Since we are talking about food, lets talk about the rava dosai I ate in the evening which came with a daal like saambhar, coconut and green chutneys. The green chutney was tangy as if it had raw mango. It is the first speciality of Tamil Nadu for me. The red garlic chutney of Mysore was also a good experience. After eating versions of Mysore Masala Dosa in BITS and outside Samhita office, the authentic version near Mysore Bus Stand was revealing. In Bangalore and Hyderabad, the south Indian food came from UpSouth and Chutneys respectively. The highlight remains the AP food at a friend's house, home-cooked by her mother.
And lastly, speaking about food, lets talk about chaat. Sadly I missed it in Karnataka. In Hyderabad, the chaat isn't good at all. I ate panipuri in 4 different parts of the city and all of them had soft puris. Of course I am talking about their lack of crispiness before being dipped. Looks like the cooks who make them don't do it well. The chaat ka pani wasn't great either : poor show right from Bikanerwala to the street vendors. Hoping to try Chennai's versions tomorrow.

Fulfilling Half Day in a Village

Visiting a village was one of the things I wanted to do since long. Though Jagriti Yatra filled that wish to some extent, today was better. (And ya desire for a longer visit still smoulders) I'd gone to an official visit today to Katgaon village in Osmanabad district in Maharashtra. The purpose is to monitor and report on a project supported by a corporate donor. It's a small village with population of around 5000. This post is about my travels, another about the impact of the NGO which I visited will follow.

The two-day visit started in Solapur with taking a room in Hotel Surya International. The room is good except for the fact that it has no tubelight (only CFLs) and there is no ironing facility at the hotel. But my colleague opined that there are no cockroaches and the bathroom is sparkling clean so it's a great deal :P

Moving on, we reached a training centre of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), the NGO we are visiting.