Bhaskar’s walima & Bareilly ki biryani!

Of all the places you decided to come to Bareillyrdquo Bollywood actor Swara Bhasker rightly exclaims as we greet her at the wedding reception podium shamelessly jumping the line of about a thousand attendees clicking pictures with her and husband Fahad AhmadThe couple got officially married on January 6 in a civil ceremony at the court registrarrsquos office Ever since Fahadrsquos best buddy Arish tells us the parties havenrsquot stopped mdash with the final 10day sprint in New Delhi March 10 onwards mdash nights of haldi mehendi qawwali Rahul Gandhi Arvind Kejriwal et alThe walima reception in Islamic tradition is the final function that follows the weddingnikaah Swararsquos is in Bareilly because thatrsquos where Fahadrsquos family home isAlthough for his schooling since a child Fahad the eldest one has mostly lived away mdash in Aligarh Himachal and Mumbai where he most recently completed his PhD at Tata Institute of Social Sciences before formally pursuing a career in politicsAs celebrity weddings go SwaraFahad then mdashshowbizactivism experiencedstartup HinduMuslim South DelhiBareilly mdash sounds the most interesting On a scale where cricketers marrying filmstars cornering the attentionfame industry are blandpredictable boresWhile Bareillyrsquos weather seems most influenced by Nainital that itrsquos in the foothill of it is equidistant about 250 kms from both Delhi and Lucknow Fahad is a Young Turk freshly recruited into Samajwadi Party SP Which explains a posse of Mumbai corporators from SP on our packed flight to Bareilly for the walima mdash thatrsquos primarily for Fahadrsquos local familyfriends Such that we feel like crashers into this gated intimate commune alreadyTo be honest in a way that wedding guests usually arenrsquot mdash besides personally wishing the married couple of course mdash wersquore in Bareilly chiefly for the foodAnd while you can best survey the two culinary kings of Bareillyrsquos streetcuisine mdash topclass chains Ajanta and Deepak we did both mdash sampling the curation at SwaraFahadrsquos reception reveals just as well how the taste of so much that yoursquove universally taken for granted bears a uniquely Bareilly style stillTake the famous samosa mdashitrsquos stuffed with cashew nuts raisins etc and yet it isnrsquot vaguely sweet The flavour is inimitably Bareilly Likewise with the panipuri more commonly known as batashaEvery stall across the city including the one at the walima displays multiple matkas of mixers The pani of the puri come mixed in separate flavours jaljeera pudina heeng kalimirch laungelaichiYoursquore supposed to sample all Even the global French fry is dressed in the Indian tricolour at the Bareilly doBut of course at the openair venue you first follow your nose instantly headed towards the thick waft of kebabsmoke drawing you in to the large counters of seekh and shammi that this Rohikhand town is equally known for Impossible to navigate wedding crowdsWe saved up appetite instead the following day for Kashish the roadside gem of a restaurant serving stellar biryani And yes mdash there is such a thing as the Bareilly biryani Quite distinct from lsquoLucknowrsquo perhaps closer to lsquoKolkatarsquo but without potatoes and egg Since yoursquore done with the meal mdash no there is no such thing as a Bareilly ki barfiItrsquos just the title of a film by director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari who gave Swara the lead role in Nil Battey Sannata 2015 But sweets mdash in particular soan papdi and rasmalai in several flavours mdash is the mainstay of both a day and meal in BareillyIf not the reason why yoursquore unlikely to meet a gentler set of UPites with such mithaas in their manners Bareillywallas are lsquobarfisrsquo themselves To a point that as a recipient you almost feel like an imposter undeserving of so much respect and hospitality As we did with the young groom Fahadrsquos family mdash his brother Faraz his local friend Fardeen the BFF ArishhellipSurely theyrsquore also proud of having a Bollywood star in their midstfam Bareilly hometown of modelactor Disha Patani and where Priyanka Chopra finished high school from is Bollywoodcrazy alrightYou can tell from the number of oldworld lsquotalkiesrsquo singlescreen cinemas up and running still Unlike most towns in the region One of the talkies is currently playing Khalnayak 1993And itrsquos not like there arenrsquot enough entertainment options mdash only as much as the rest of India This is also a visibly wealthy city Observing a highend hospital for every third highrise in the main streets it appears medicinemedical tourism is the top industryBetween fine bars we went to a couple Goonj Deja vu mdash Kingfisher is brewed in Bareilly by the way mdash alongside massive beautifullykept bungalows in several parts decidedly Posh Bareilly gt Posh BombayConsider the venue of the SwaraFahad reception itself The Grand Nirvana hotelresort a gigantic European recreation structure off the city centre that came up a few months ago It could be anywhere in the first worldIN PICS From Haldi to Mehendi checkout these photos from Swara Bhasker Fahad Ahmads prewedding festivitiesGiven the profile of the wedding event of course there were bouncers and cops actively guarding this venue Most barfis of Bareilly we casually spoke to had heard of Swararsquos reception in their proud cosmopolitan cityIncluding policemen at the stunning Ghanta Ghar Clock Tower who also claimed that the jhumka of Bareilly bazaar had fallen right where we were mdash at the cityrsquos congested Bada Bazaar The reference is to the Asha Bhosale song picturised on Sadhana Mera Saaya 1966 Jhumka gira re Bareilly ke bazaar mein The jhumka otherwise has nothing to do with the cityIt may be the only lyrics to inspire an actual monument We drove far outside Bareilly to watch the Jhumka installed by the local government on a road junction Itrsquos no more majestic than a shady lamppost We nearly missed our flight