Non-veg

Last night we headed across the river for dinner for the first time, an auto taking us across the wide black space of the Sabarmarti at night and into the bustle and noise of the old city. We were dropped on Relief Road and headed right at the cinema, onto a narrower street lined with shops. The smells of the old city are familiar to me from when I was last in India: feet, effluent, moped fumes and incense. At the end of the street was an open space filled with stalls. Many of these were kitchens on wheels selling what passes for Chinese food in India, their clientele sat in the open on plastic chairs, the smoke from the brightly painted stalls rising in thin clouds above them. On one side of the square stood a low-rise, white-painted mosque, on our left as we stepped up into Nishat Restaurant ready to revel in non-veg curry. I had mutton, Dani had chicken and we washed down both with thick, sweet lassis.

Today we started with a cooked breakfast. Jains don’t eat eggs and this makes them hard to find. Although a minority in Ahmedabad, adherents to this branch of Hinduism are a major influence on social mores. They also own many of the flats and frown on other people flouting their rules. The bright new supermarkets launched by India’s leading corporate houses don’t infringe on this sensibility and the small retailers keep such controversial wares well hidden. But I have managed to establish a supplier, the owner of a bakery on Jodhpur Gam Road (I daren’t reveal his name) who will sneak out to the back of his shop to bag up some of the perfectly white ovals and allow us to cook up scrambled eggs to accompany our buttered toast. We sat on our bedroom balcony and enjoyed the warmth with breakfast. I have been able to have tea at home since I bought a small kettle and sieve, and am having sweet, milky chai in the mornings. In the afternoon we picked up two cookery books from the bookshop, Crossword, and ate cake and ice cream in the air conditioned coffee shop there. After a big shop at the Star Bazaar supermarket I washed some clothes and cooked dinner: parsley mash with sweet potato and carrots, and hot chocolate for dessert.