I am 45 now, and as the winter chill settles in, a simple act—oiling my head after a shower—triggered a cascade of memories spanning three decades. When I was a boy in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, the ritual of a weekly, sometimes daily, head massage with oil was as common as breathing. My favorite was the potent, earthy scent of mustard oil . I remember visiting our local vaid ji (traditional practitioner), who stressed the importance of this practice, lamenting even then that fewer people were keeping it up. Fast forward to adulthood, and my simple habit met the sharp reality of changing cultural norms. My wife, from a different background, and her circle found the idea of oiled hair "un-stylish." Even when I switched to the fragrant, dark luster of amla oil, the gentle teasing and continuous pressure to conform chipped away at my resolve. Now, my cherished ritual is relegated to an occasional, quick application, washed out within hours. Where Did the Oil Go? As I drov...
ऊँची दुकान फीके पकवान
I have heard this quote nearly 1000 times and I have used this quote nearly 1000 times.
In the latest, the dine out me and my wife had on a weekend evening fit rightly with this quote
The location is Shri Anandpur Sahib, this one of the primary religious place of Sikhs is frequently visited by me.
10 years back when I visited this place for the first time I fell in love with it instantly.
The roads of this place were almost empty and were much different from the extreme chaos I used to experience in Delhi or even Chandigarh.
Visiting Shri Keshgarh Sahib for the first time was memorable too.
However, there was nothing much to visit here except for fulfilling your religious sentiments.
Interestingly there were no good restaurants back than other than few small dhabas, one main reason was the Guru Ka Langar that is being served here.
The primary motive of almost all the visitors coming here was to have the blessings of Guru Ji by eating at the Guru Ka Langar
In the last 2 years or so, things have started to change pretty drastically and a number of restaurants have come up here.
To my calculations they are the result of dollars and pounds that are flowing in from people who have immigrated and are working in restaurants and eating outlets there.
On the first look which creates the first impression the ambience of most of the restaurants are amazing here. It is no surprise that they are inspired by the western culture the financiars of these restaurants are coming from.
The first big outlet that opened was the "T-Point" for around 6 months this outlet ran smoothly and picked up customers easily.
localites of Anandpur Sahib did liked the new type of food and the exotic ambience in it.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 engulfed this new ventures, and inspite of the blockbuster start, this venture was not able to survive the lockdown.
As corona subsided and released life back to normal, other big pocket people were quick to catch on the success of "T-Point" eating out.
So far so good, with a short span of few months more number of restaurants opened up than was expected.
I mean, for 8 years we only had one or two option to eat out and now just in one year we now have at least 10 new options to eat out.
There are snakers, alvin Pizza, barista, crown plaza and roots to name a few.
So this weekend me and my wife decide to try out "Roots". This is a brand new restaurant close to Panch Pyara Park and it looked quite enticing from the outside.
The pleasure remained at the same level as we walked in the restaurant. There is option to sit outside under the sky in open and than there is option to eat inside.
We chose to sit outside as this was something new here in Anandpur Sahib.
The floor outside was leveled with small white stones, marble like, I don't know what they are called but it provided for a perfect setting for a candle light dinner.
A plus was provided by the video projector that was running Punjabi songs. With bare minimum lighting the ambience created the perfect mood to dine out with family.
Unfortunately, things turned disappointing as we looked at the menu.
All the items mentioned in the menu were pretty normal, and I was disappointed because I was expecting something innovating and out of the ordinary, something which compliments the amazing ambience that they had created.
The rescue came here in the form of my mood which today was wanting to have traditional Indian food, that roti and some sabji.
In majority of the cases whenever we had dined out, I have always wanted to have something which is not cooked at home in normal circumstances.
Examples here can be given of sezhwan noodles, manchurian or something new.
So for the first time, as far as I can remember, we ordered Roti and butter panner masala.
The paneer butter masala which was suggested by the waiter there was just so - so. I was expecting something better looking at the ambience.
In all I would rate this restaurant "roots" 5 out of 10. In case someone is really adventurous about eating out than this certainly is not the place to be.
But, the owner of the this restaurant has nothing to worry about, as the majority of the people coming there will not be that picky, in terms of what they are eating out.
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