ESPECIALLY FOR DOONITES!

For all the Doon lovers, a piece shared by a friend!
A trifle long but will stir memories of the 1960s

Life: It Goes On…..

Eating Out In Dehradun In The 60s And 70s- Blowin In The Wind!

Though I was born in Burma, I grew up in Dehradun, a pretty town lying about 240 kms from Delhi & 21 kms from the Queen of Hills Mussoorie.The revered district of Haridwar is 47 kms away.Before Independence a substantial number of Britishers & Anglo Indians settled down in Dehradun because it reminded them of England.
It came to be called a city of “Green hedges & Grey Hair.” Lots of greenery & lots of people with grey hair!

Our house was (& still is ,though in a dilapidated condition) on the fringes of the Rajaji Game Sanctuary, a locality that was quite elitist, called Clement Town.

Not surprisingly, Dehradun had an English speaking culture. The bus conductors the scooter richshaw drivers & even some of the old cobblers & mobile bakers (no not ones with mobile phones ,but ones who carried their stuff in trunks over their head selling confectionary,from house to house), spoke in English, albeit not the way the Queen would speak,but surely good enough to be understood. The town had some of the best English medium schools the country could boast of,St Josesph’s (my school),The Doon School, Convent of Jesus & Mary, Welhams & St Thomas’ leading the pack.Our Principals’ & teachers were mostly Irish.

The smouldering embers of colonialism could be felt & seen in the way we celebrated the festivals. I remember Diwali & Holi of the 60s,but what I remember more vividly is Christmas & New Years Eve.
I remember the town being decked up & people going around wishing each other.These festivals were more public than private, as is the norm these days. These days, we call this social phenomenon as “polarization”!
Considering Christmas & New Year were such an important events,it stands to reason that the confectionary of the town had to rise to these occasions. Because, what is Christmas without a plum cake or pastries?
I have never tasted such fabulous chocolate & pineapple pastries as the ones we got in Milkmade (which later was renamed Elloras), & Standard bakery.
The sweet bread of Sunrise Bakery just off Paltan Bazaar was something to die for.

I remember the chocolate pastries,they were firm enough to bite into & soft enough to just melt in your mouth!!The lemon tarts were just amazing, the crust was beautifully crunchy & the lemon & cream filling was just out of the world. The best pineapple pastries were sold at Standard’s opposite to Milkmade in Astley Hall, next to Pratap Music House.The cream that crowned the cake of the pastry was so fresh that it always messed up ones mouth!

I can say with my hand on my heart that I have never been able to get the quality of buns, bread, pastries & cakes like the ones we used to get in the Dehradun of the 60s & maybe the 70s (when major demographic changes started to take place for various reasons,one of them being that the Anglo Indian families started to dissappear either due to death (Lumsden, Messenger, Col Adams, Flasskett, Mr & Mrs Monk & many more), or because they migrated back to their parent countries.
I have travelled a lot around some of the biggest , quaintest, & oldest cities of the world, but I haven’t come across the quality of the confectionery of the 60s in Dehradun (the tarts at Margarets in Macau & Tetsu Uncle in Toronto,are at best comparable, though not better).Good old Central Stores dished out the best bacon, ham, & sausages that one could ever get. It was the shop immediately next to Milkmade.
In Scotland, about 5 years back, I ordered a breakfast with ham & sausages (like I normally do abroad) & they amazingly smelt & tasted like the ones from Central Stores.

Then there were Restaurants. Again, very British. Royal Café(which used to be next to Orient movie hall owned by the Pasricha’s used to have a crooner entertain, while people dined. We always asked the beautiful lady to sing “Que Sera Sera” (Doris Day ).There was a small dance floor, enough for 3/4 couples& mostly Gentlemen Cadets or the army personnel from the Indian Military Academy would occupy it.The music was soft, not noisy.The fastest one could dance, was the “Twist” on the Beetles number “I wanna hold your hand” Once in a while we would also go to the wooden floor & do the twist! However, mostly it was ballroom dance music & the favourite request was the Bollywood classic“Aaage bhi jaane na tu, peeche bhi jaane na tu, job hi hai,bas yahi ek pal hai” Ah! Wonderful memories!

Apart from Royal Café there was Napoli where we would go mostly for Noodles, & where for the first time we came to know that there was a coffee called “Cappuccino” We always used to think that every coffee with a froth was Espresso!There was also the a juke box in Napoli,into which you slipped in a 4 anna coin & listen to your favourite song by pressing a button which had the songs listed by numerals.

Moti Mahal was ably run by the well known restaurateur Sardar Tirath Singh.He was well known to my Dad & they would embrace each other whenever he walked in with 6 of us in tow!Moti Mahal still is, & must be among the only restaurant that has stood its ground as new brands have sprouted & overrun the city. Fish & chips typical British meal,was our favourite,though they also served tomato fish & peas of high quality.The restaurant is now managed by his son Vimaldeep, who was my junior in school & college with me & is a dear friend. So, if you are ever in Dehradun & looking for great fish & chips or fish with tomatoes & peas, just walk into Moti Mahal.You will not be disappointed. In fact all the food items are excellent, its just that we were most addicted to their fish!The fact that nearly all the restuarants I have written about have disappeared & Moti Mahal still holds the fort,proves its longivity which can only come with class & good food.

Kwalitys was a little way down from Moti Mahal, next to the Odeon Cinema.It served the best chicken curry & on the way out, we would always pick up their famous “Kwality toffees”.

My father also took us to a famous dhaba called “Barkat” dhaba.It was situated in the street adjacent to the railway station.Barkat made exquisite black dal & “baingan ka bharta.” It was not the creamy kind of “dal makhni,”which has become very popular these days in all restaurants.It was cooked over a “angeethi” fuelled by wood, over a long period of time. The viscousity of it was just right.The dal was very finely mashed, almost like a thick soup.Over this amazing dal, Barkat would sprinkle desi ghee & serve it with onion rings & green chillies marinated in vinegar.With tandoori paranthas.

The Doon Club was the only club in those days,just a stone’s’ throw away from the Pavillion Ground.It was the only Club during our times & my father was a member.Sometimes he would take us there (though he liked to go alone, because he loved to drink & play “Teen Patti” which he probably thought was a bad thing for children to see).
It was a typical British kind of club, a bigger & more elaborate version of an old pub in England.One could get the amazing aroma, which was a mix of cigarette smoke & alchohol.
Oh! I simply loved it & made it a point to buy Cigars & Whisky & food!
Old British “Burra sahibs” would enter & stand at the door while either the bar boys or the valets peeled of their overcoats & hung them on the pegs.But they always removed their top hats on their own.I don’t know what the clientèle is like these days. I hope it hasn’t been overrun by the feisty & boisterous crowd that one gets to see in lets say Chelmsford or Panch Sheel Clubs in Delhi.Please do try to appreciate the fact that there is a difference between a club,a hotel,a restaurant,or a motel.
The Doon Club still exists.
There was some fantastic street food also.The “Tikkiwali gali” sold absolutely fabulous tikkis made from special sticky aloos.The tikkis always had peas in them & since the buns in Dehradun were nice, warm & soft, we would often slice the bun, put the tikki in it & have it steaming hot with “pudina chutney”.

There were “thelas” selling kulcha cholas also in the same gali, which is in a congested lane near Ghanta Ghar.The gali led ultimately to the best pani poori walah in DEHRADUN.

It’s not my bias for my hometown (I know many of us fall into that trap), but seldom have I had better street food than the one in Dehradun of the 60s & 70s. Kumar sweets, though he made a slightly late entry disrupting Bengali Sweets (below Digvijay Cinema) dominance, still serves the best rasmalai with “falooda”, & “kaju ki burfi.”Divine!

There was no home delivery.There was no McDonald.There was no KFC or Pizza Hut.There was no Swiggy! There were no cell phones.One went out to eat, good clean food which was served by courteous waiters, & most of them knew everyone personally.

When we ate we talked with each other & enjoyed the food. Unlike these days , when everywhere we find people eating horrible food with mountains of French fries & cheese pizzas. It is a common sight these days to see people eating with a spoon in one hand & a cell phone in the other!

And yes,once in a while, we do see dancing. Like a flash mob, the waiters & the waitresses break out into a raucous dance!

Times have changed in Dehradun! The times of the 60s have blown with the wind!

The times they are a changin- as Dylan put it!