A Tribute To The Humble Vada Pav

Mumbai is synonymous with Bhel Puri and Vada Pav which is available throughout the city in varying degrees of shabbiness. As goes the popular myth, it is the sweat and dirt of our local Vada Pav wallah that grants it the characteristic taste that we have grown to love. Even though it is highly romanticized, the vada pav certainly is a god-send for thrifty college-goers and labourers. Prized at Rs.4 [6 if branded], it is cheap, tasty and filling

Though I have always been one of the exponents of fast food, junk food and its other variants, the stuff available outside my beloved Sathaye College somehow manages to freak me out.

However on occasions when the college canteen starts resembling a local train, I have no option but to venture outside the boundaries of the college to satiate my hunger pangs. It was then that my eye fell upon the cart just opposite the gate. The cart-owner is a resourceful guy who has a wide variety of food of dubious hygiene standards ranging from Sandwiches to my favourite, samosa pav.

That day I decided to order a samosa. He experty pulled out a paper plate, picked up the smallest samosa of the lot and lavishly poured highly diluted green chutney. I could almost hear the green chutney say, “Hi there, my name’s cholera, what’s yours?”

However that didn’t deter me from having a bite into the hot realms of the samosa. I avoided having too much of the green chutney though. Unsurprisingly, inspite of failings the samosa was lip-smacking. As goes the adage, “Never judge a book by its cover.”

This is the reason why I am never going to cease eating the humble vada-pav; the small piece of edible matter that clearly defines the spirit of Mumbai and is staple food for a majority of the inhabitants of the city.

A Myth Called 'Impossible'

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they have been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing!

The universe is replete with instances where seemingly impossible things have been accomplished just due to the perseverance and diligence of seemingly ordinary people.

On the basis of how-to-live-life, the world is divided into two schools of thought. One school thinks that life is a fair, enjoy it. However the fare which they pay for living such a life is pretty high too. Their mantra is ‘Kabhi na kabhi toh marna hi hai, tension kyon lene ka.’ Such a line of thought is tempting only for those who are too lazy to lift their bum off the ‘sofa of life’ and get off to work to etch their names on the indelible sands of time. For folks like these, the improbability of the impossible is too high for their precious time to be wasted upon.

I personally think that such people are a waste; parasites upon the face of the earth who suck upon the milk of our motherland without even bothering to give back something in return. Unfortunately, some of today’s snobbish duuudes are turning out to be exactly as what I have been dreading since long.

It is solely due to the worthy members of the second school of thought that we are able to lead the comfortable lives that we are leading currently. All the inventions and ingenious techniques of living life which all of us use with such disgusting ungratefulness were built keeping in mind that impossible is just a myth; a long-lost grandma tale that is better forgotten considering the credibility of their origins.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to achieve the impossible; it doesn’t take Mozart to create a beautiful symphony out of nothingness. In fact it is the hardworking average-intelligent chap who is successful in the long run [though I wouldn’t mind being a genius]. So all you guys who feel that life is a fair, remember this; life is a mirage, when the sun above you is blazing it’ll show you an oasis, it’ll drive you on and on in quest of that elusive oasis, but it is only the one who doesn’t consider ‘impossible’ to be a hindrance who’ll really discover the oasis shimmering away to glory. Impossible is indeed nothing!