“The Jet Airways XYZ flight’s crew welcomes you to the city of Indore. Do not forget to visit the famous midnight food market Sarafa during your stay in the city. Thank You for traveling with us!”
The flight announcer’s words came as a thing of high curiosity and amazement to all the first-time visitors of Indore. But, to me, they engendered a sense of amusement and even laughter that how a city has excelled in appealing to human palate through the means of its countless delicacies that a reference generally made to a city’s monuments or historical sites, is made to a food market in case of Indore.
Any number of words and even the most bedizened adjectives are not enough to address the culinary diversity of Indore, but for now let me leave the connection of Indore and food right here because food is not the only thing that amazes me and makes me proud of Indore. Yes! Indore has many staggering facts to offer that most of us didn’t know of. And yeah I will be puking out some real astounding figures about Indore’s favorite dish Poha in the coming section, so don’t you dare stop reading :p
1. India’s first….: Many of us know that Indore is presently the only the city in India to have both an IIT and an IIM, but did you know that Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital is not only the first medical institution of India but was also Asia’s largest government hospital in 1950s! I can’t remember any other Indian city having such an impeccable hold on the three most important aspects of Indian education: Engineering, Management and Medical Sciences
2. Economical Hub: The Madhya Pradesh Stock Exchange which has its headquarters in Indore is actually only the third oldest stock exchange of India after the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Calcutta Stock Exchange. Hitherto, we were only aware of the not so exciting fact that Indore is the economic hub of central India but now, cheer up! It has a standing on the national front too. 🙂
3. The Poha madness: In 2012, Indore was awarded as the ‘Best Foodie City’ of India by NDTV Good Times in a survey held in 15 cities of India. This was just a manifestation of the bountiful talents that this city has when it comes to cuisine. Despite a plethora of dishes, the one which relentlessly steals the limelight is the breakfast delight- Poha! Owner of one of famous shops for selling poha told me that there was a Sunday when he sold Poha worth a staggering Rs.2 Lakh in just 4-5 hours! I doubted my ears for once. But then this is the craze here. On the top of it, almost every big city of India has centers selling Indori poha nowadays.
4. Diversified: This is another aspect which we never really connect with Indore. Surprisingly, Indore has one of the highest no. of foreign immigrants every year. It is the city with most no. of Pakistani Hindus in India. This very fact makes it a prominently diverse city.
Hope that the above 4 facts make you admire the city of Holkars even more. Meanwhile, it’s time for me to have some Sev waala Poha and masaale waali chai because “ Kya bhiya, apan pet-pooja ni kare kya matlab?”
