Karims

This story is an imaginary story about the famous restaurant called Karims which is situated in Delhi. This story is from the point of view of the founder of Karims. His name is Karim.

The story starts with me being the chef in the royal kitchen in the kingdom of Shah Jahan in 1050 it was 1640 according to the angrezi calendar. The Taj Mahal was being built. The king was still in sorrow even though it had been eight years since his beautiful wife had passed away. Such was the love of the king for Mumtaz Mahal.
In 1042, 1632 according to the Britishers when Shah Jahan’s wife passed away, he completely changed his kingdom, including all the ministers. He couldn’t find a suitable royal chef for eight years. That is when I was called to the kingdom of Shah Jahan. He told me to cook my favorite dish. I couldn’t choose one and so I made four items in the menu. I made four items also because I was not aware of the kings likes and dislikes. I liked one more than every other dish though. It was the Mutton Burra. It is a dry dish. After he ate the first bite, he didn’t say a word until the food was finished. He immediately appointed me the chef of the royal kitchen.
    Shah Jahan would be depressed all the time but as soon as the food was served, he would have his temporary good mood until the meal ended.
      My family was very happy as they saw me in services of the king. The daily routine was the same everyday for the next eighteen years when Aurangzeb the son of Shah Jahan overthrew his old father and became the king. He not only put his father in jail but he also killed his brothers. According to me, Aurangzeb was a very cruel person.
        Aurangzeb didn’t like the food made by me and so he sacked me and got a new royal chef. I knew that Shah Jahan didn’t like the food made by the new royal chef and so I used to smuggle food made by me to the jail for him. One day, we were caught and Aurangzeb banished me from the city.    
      The delicious food of India had not reached the mysterious place Aurangzeb had sent me to. I had to add my secret spices, which I carried in my pocket to make the food delicious. The people there were very good to me and I used to give them the food made by my secret ingredients. They loved it!!
      When two centuries later I decided to go back to India, the people there wanted me to stay because of two reasons. One was that they wanted the delicious food everyday. The second was more important, they didn’t want me to go because they had got the news that there was some terror problem in India. Some people had invaded the country. This made me more eager to go.
          I left for India in 1256 (1840). When I reached Dhaka, some people there stopped me. They put me in jail. No one talked to me for the next ten years when I was in jail. They gave me some bland food once a day in which I would put my secret ingredients to make it tasty. I tried to ask them several times why they put me in jail but I got no answer. When they released me in 1266, (1850), I went to Delhi from there. I walked to the Red Fort after reaching Delhi. When I saw it, I was shocked! There was blood all over. I went right inside the Red Fort. I met the king of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar and told him my story. After my story, he told me his.
      He said ‘the royal chef of Aurangzeb one day brought a huge army. They killed many people. Since then they are taking over the country. We have very little resistance power left now, they have even spread their bland food all around the country.’
       I was disappointed because I knew that Indians liked good spicy food. The Britishers can’t make that kind of food because they never discovered spices.
       At this moment I decided ton open a restaurant, which will preserve the food culture of India. I bought a cart and used to cook food on it and sell the food in front of the Jama Masjid. When there was rush for the food made by me, I asked Bahadur Shah Zafar for some land near Jama Masjid in 1273 (1856). He gave me all the papers for the land.
  One day I got the news that the Britishers had attacked the Red Fort and the king was taken to Burma where he would be hung. When I went to get my land, the people there said that I will not get my land, the Britishers have captured it. I fought for the land for 56 years when I got it back in 1331 (1913). This is when ‘Karims’ was officially opened.   
        At this time we started the tradition that is still being followed – we never threw away the food that had not been sold. It was the base for the next day’s food. We like to believe that what we serve in our restaurants today is the same food that we served out more than a century ago.
        Karims was a famous and successful restaurant. Freedom fighters like Chandrashekhar Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and many others came to enjoy the good food of Karims.
     While my restaurant flourished, India struggled to get freedom with Mahatma Gandhi leading the struggle. Everything started to get in place for India. All the plans were well executed and finally India got freedom in 1366 (1947).
        Here I would like to say something about my spirit. It  kept changing with time. First it was to save the food from changing forever. Later it was to make the ‘Aam aadmi’ (normal person) eat the food cooked in the royal kitchen. Soon after independence, the restaurant became famous and it became the main source of income for me. All this was secondary. The primary reason for me was to see the happiness on the people’s faces after they ate the food. Till today this has been the primary reason for me to run the restaurant.
                After independence, I invited Maulana Azad and Jawahar Lal Nehru to Karims. The constitution was being made at that time. When the two of them came in they were worried and were talking about the constitution. As soon as the food was served, the coversation changed and they were talking happily about the food and saying that they would come to Karims once in every month from now. They were very impressed with the food.
 Today in 2012, thousands of people come to my restaurant everyday. I would be at one of the branches of Karims if you want to meet me. Today I feel great about my restaurant. It is a huge success. All the new goals I kept making, succeeded.
        

Trip to old Delhi

Our tour started from the Delhi Gate. This gate has its name because it faces Delhi. Similarly there is Ajmeri Gate, Turkman Gate and Kashmiri Gate. We walked to Ghala Masjid. Enroute we saw an old wall. It was a part of the wall of the Shahjahanabad city which was walled from all sides. Only a few remains are present today. Ghala Mosque was built by Zeenat Ul Misha, Aurangzeb's daughter in 1717 AD. After the revolt of 1857, the Britishers captured this mosque and converted it into a bakery. It even worked for five years. The Britishers captured more than 50 mosques after 1857.

The Kalan Masjid, built by Firoz Shah Tughluq's Minister

We continued walking after we saw the mosque. We crossed pataudi's house and haveli Azam khan to reach Kalan Masjid. Kalan Masjid was built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq's Minister. He built seven such mosques all around Delhi. After taking a walk around the mosque, we walked through 4 feet wide lanes to reach Raziya Sultan's tomb. Raziya Sultan was Iltutmish's daughter. After Iltutmish died, Raziya Sultan became the ruler. Her father had more faith in her than he did in his sons. Raziya Sultan became the first female ruler in Indian history. Her brother was jealous of her and after a reign of 4 years she was killed by her own brother who succeeded her.

The most popular mode of transport in the walled city

After that we took a Rickshaw to the Fatehpuri Masjid. It was built by Shah Jahan's wife, Fatihpuri Begum in 1650. We didn't go inside the mosque due to lack of time. We continued our Rickshaw ride and stopped at Arif Bhaiya's (our guide) friends house. He stayed in a colony called Farash Khana. This colony was given to 4 brothers who had come from Bukhara to build the floors (farsh) of Jama Masjid and Red Fort. Their families still stay there. Their family now has over 3000 people!

After talking to Arif Bhaiya's friend about Farash Khana, we walked to Mirza Ghalib's house. He was the best Urdu poet and one of the best Indian poets. His haveli was turned into a museum. We looked around and found many of his belongings and writings. We finally left his haveli and took a Rickshaw to Delhi Gate. We ate local food and butter milk. It was amazing! On that note, we ended this tour to old Delhi.

Passion

I love travelling. Meeting new people, listening to their stories. They have the most unexpectable stories. Travelling on the road is even more fun because I love cars a lot and I won't be able to meet anyone from 40000 feet above the ground! The villages near the highways are approachable. I can go to these villages and ask them what they think of the world outside their villages and their lifestyle. I want an SUV for travels like this as I can also go to the remotest areas that have no roads. The best stories will come from places like these. There may be some people who are having trouble staying alive. There may be some government schemes they do not know about. I can inform them about that. If the government is not helping them, I can go back to the city and contact NGOs who may be willing to help these people. I also like to click photos, I would be doing that in the villages to show the state of these people to the people who want to help. 

During my travels, I will also go off roading with my vehicle. Like driving it in the desert, slush and other places where a normal car would get stuck. Just the idea of this makes me feel very excited. Another job that I will do is work for an automobile magazine, driving and reviewing cars. I will get to drive such a variety of cars. I have always loved to photograph cars. I may also become a photographer in such a magazine. That is my passion, not something I will be forced to do for a living.

What I feel about this Trip

There are many things I like about this trip, the first is that I love travelling, especially road trips. But this is something beyond driving, meeting these women has been an amazing experience for me. When I really connect with these people I experience me in their place and I think that this is how india can change, not just by big politicians who are selfish. I have never met more selfless people before.

What I feel about each woman

Bimla Devi - She destroyed the most important problem in India, cast and gender discrimination. I feel she made a huge difference in her village even when she was not the sarpanch of her village which is a great feat because people do not listen to just any person and she made them listen to her...

Vijaylaxmi Sharma - She is the most brave woman I have met, she is not scared of so many threatenings. She just does her work without worrying about herself which is a very good value. Another that I really liked about Raju was her firmness when she said at the age of thirteen that she will not get married.

Norti Bai - I love her always young spirit, she learnt how to run a computer at the age of 60! She became the Sarpanch of her village at such an old age!

Sister Mariola - I love how she looks at everyone with a different or good eye. She even saw love in criminals. I love her love for everyone.

Kalbeliya Dancers - She is a part of a nomadic tribe which is on the move at all times. She has grown from the worst of times into visiting more than 50 times and going abroad 85 times. But this has not made her show off, her humility still exists.

Rakhi Paliwal - She is the role model for all women who think that men and women are equal. She does everything a man does and maybe even more than that.

Fehmida Malik - Being a psychologist, she was not a professional in what she did, but she still did it for the people.

Mittal Patel - Her subject was journalism for which she studied nomadic tribes, when she went and saw how these people live, she was very touched and she then took the decision to help them in any way. And she did. This shows a good heart and a strong decision making power.

What I feel about this Trip

There are many things I like about this trip, the first is that I love travelling, especially road trips. But this is something beyond driving, meeting these women has been an amazing experience for me. When I really connect with these people I experience me in their place and I think that this is how india can change, not just by big politicians who are selfish. I have never met more selfless people before.

What I feel about each woman

Bimla Devi - She destroyed the most important problem in India, cast and gender discrimination. I feel she made a huge difference in her village even when she was not the sarpanch of her village which is a great feat because people do not listen to just any person and she made them listen to her...

Vijaylaxmi Sharma - She is the most brave woman I have met, she is not scared of so many threatenings. She just does her work without worrying about herself which is a very good value. Another that I really liked about Raju was her firmness when she said at the age of thirteen that she will not get married.

Norti Bai - I love her always young spirit, she learnt how to run a computer at the age of 60! She became the Sarpanch of her village at such an old age!

Sister Mariola - I love how she looks at everyone with a different or good eye. She even saw love in criminals. I love her love for everyone.

Kalbeliya Dancers - She is a part of a nomadic tribe which is on the move at all times. She has grown from the worst of times into visiting more than 50 times and going abroad 85 times. But this has not made her show off, her humility still exists.

Rakhi Paliwal - She is the role model for all women who think that men and women are equal. She does everything a man does and maybe even more than that.

Fehmida Malik - Being a psychologist, she was not a professional in what she did, but she still did it for the people.

Mittal Patel - Her subject was journalism for which she studied nomadic tribes, when she went and saw how these people live, she was very touched and she then took the decision to help them in any way. And she did. This shows a good heart and a strong decision making power.

Mittal Patel

She has started an organization called VSSM (). She has been working on giving an identity to all nomadic tribes like the meer group where she has started a school. These people are present in India but do not have any identity because they did not have any permanent address. The physical state of the school is not too great as there are thatches in which studies go on. But they do learn. This school was started just about 2-3 months ago, there is a school that has been going on for 3 years. The aim of these schools is to try and build the mentality of the children to go to the mainstream school. There aim is to send these children itching the time span of 6 months and 1 year. The students in the meer group school seemed very motivated to learn, there was a lot of participation.
There are 40 nomadic tribes in Gujarat, 4 million people are part of these tribes. 28 of these tribes are notified criminal tribes by the Britishers which still stays in India. But the other 12 are denotified by India. VSSM has given identity to 60 thousand people out of the 4 million. They are given the identity by reference, mittal patel is the reference. She even had to make the conditions for the IDs for the government! They have worked in 9 districts out of the 28 in Gujarat. When asked by when will they be done with all 28, she answered first let us be perfect with these 9 at least.
There is political awareness in these tribes and so they all get together and demand several things from the government, it is not fulfilled by saying it once, not twice but several times and then the government does listen to them.

A tribal woman, Jyotsna, less than 30, with which Mittal Patel is working said "she gave my son education, gave us ration cards, voter ID card". She describes the problem of her house saying "when I put a utensil under water when the water falls from the ceiling, water starts falling from somewhere else! This tribe specialises in making bamboos and so he hits were mad of bamboo. And do her tribe is called Baspoda, Bas means Bamboo. "Mittal patel made my girl go to school. She is a great woman". She said "you people think what to cook, we have to think how to get water to cook!". When asked how the government has helped her, she says government only eats money, it does not give money. Mittal Patel has been working here since 3 years.

She used to be a normal journalist researching nomadic tribes. When she asked people where this tribe lived, no one answered. She searched the newspapers and it was written there these are criminals. She went to that place using the newspaper cutting. She was motivated to do this work only after she visited them and saw their state. When a child was crying when she visited that place, when she told her mother, why don't you feed her, the mother shouted back "we don't have food to eat since 3 days, how do you think I will feed her?!". That was the moment she decided to work for the nomads.

The biggest problem for this community is water, food and shelter. There is shelter but it can even get burnt in peak heat in a place like Ahmedabad. This is the physical problem, the social problem is that no one recognises or likes them. Politicians ask citizens what they would like to earn votes but no one asks these people because they don't have the right to vote.

Besides saying so many great things about Mittal, the tribals welcomed her very nicely...

Quote of the day - "There should be a heart in doing things, that is how you can achieve everything" - Mittal Patel

Fehmida Malik

Fehmida Malik is 40 years old, she is a qualified psychologist. She is unmarried because of the cause she is working on. She has 3 sisters and one brother, all of them are married. She was working working with mentally challenged children from the slums of Ahmedabad. In 2002 she took a break because she thought she is not learning anything and exactly a month later the Gujarat riots took place. Thousands of people from the slums were homeless. Vatva is one of the slum area in Ahmedabad. She went there to see what damage had been done. She went there for the first time. When she saw the state of the slums she felt some work needed to be done there. For 6 months after the riots, no one went out of their house there was so much terror. The children were told the stories. They were never so scared before. Fehmida said if you were not there you can't imagine what would have happened. She then started to raise funds so that the children can go to school.

She even opened bank accounts for the people. But there was one condition for that, a woman from the family will open a account and only after that will a man open an account. She gave instant loans to the people between 2000 and 4000 INR. She said at first, the men functioned from the ladies accounts but now men also have opened their own accounts and even come to deposit money in woman's bank accounts.

She got her inspiration from her father who never gave up on anything. Se said he met with an accident two years ago and had a complete memory loss, so much so that she had to even teach him how to peel a banana. But now he has fully recovered and she even went on Haj (pilgrimage) with him last year. This show his power.

She said 3 people supported her financially these are Sameer a friend from Delhi, Aman Trust which is based in Delhi, and Father Paul from a church nearby. When she was asked if her family helps her in this cause, she said yes they support me in any way possible.