My Musings

Batata Vada Arun Vaidya is a vada seller in Dadar rly stn. Even though his vadas were selling fast and thick, one fine morning, he thought "why not take a bun (paav), split it, stuff the hot steaming batata vada inside, call it Vada Paav, and sell it?" However, he was apprehensive of the outcome, and he made just a few vada paavs. When Vaidya started selling these ---- well, it is now history. Vada paav is today the largest selling snack in Mumbai, Pune, and other Maharashtrian places. When I was in Pune during 1962 - 1974, my most favorite dish was batata vada and even today when I hear the name of "batata vada", I drool over it! i like it so much. So, recently on Aug 9th when I was in Bangalore, Ashok - Neeraja offered "may we go to Jayanagar 9th Block where there is a true Maharashtrian outlet selling vada Paav, batata vada etc", I jumped at the offer and we drove there. There I had batata vadas and I enjoyed eating it! Others had Vada Paav. ...

Visit to Hosur. 03 August 2008 Vijaya and I went to Bangalore from 24 July to 14 August 2008. In between, we decided to go to Hosur also to see Savithri. So, Sunday the 3rd of August, we four (ashok - neeraja) had an early lunch (at 11-45 !!) and we started in Ashok's Maruti Alto car for Hosur. We drove via Jigani Industrial Estate, Bommanasamudra Ind Estate, near Bannarghatta National Park. This road meets Hosur Road after Electronic City. It was a 42 km drive to Hosur. Savithri was waiting for us. She is okay and fine (after her recent hospitalisation in July). She prepared tasty dosais for us. We were all hungry (at least I was) and each one of us ate 3 or 4 dosais. Savithri presented Vijaya a sari. We left Savithri's house by 5-30 PM and dropped Savithri at a nearby temple and proceeded to Bangalore. 75 minutes' drive later we were home by 7-15 PM. Neeraja drove in the return trip. Quite an enjoyable day. Earlier, we went to Hosur on 27 July 2007 and 27 ...