Cooking Alliances?

Hostel dining rooms always seemed a ritual for me, where you stand in a queue with your plate, say your room number and then sit on the huge metallic shining table to gulp all that was there on the plate. Sometimes, the gulping verb would turn to savoring and enjoying. But it was never more than that. If you don't like the food of this mess, shift to another. There were a lot of them (especially if your energy can be invested in going outside the halls of residence and eating at the tiffin services). I could never imagine anything more than this happening over a plate of lunch/dinner in the tiffin services.

And when you never thought about dinners and lunches catering to more than this, you would be definitely amused when you hear that wedding proposals and love was also catered to, in the catering businesses. It just gets you more interested in how! (of course, the way proposals are presented is quite interesting).

Surat's urbanism developed in fascinating ways and there could not be one linear pattern you can follow. And for me, the most interesting time frame is when the Diamond industry and the Textile industry developed. The Diamond industry mainly had migrants from Mehsana, Kathiawad who could not earn much in farming in the Saurashtra region. The Diamond Industry flourished with the industrious workers who slept in the same factory and considered the place as their 'home'. But there was one issue, most of them didn't know how to cook. What could be done about this, during the 1970's, when there were hardly reasonable restaurants and eateries outside? Women in the Surti communities, mainly in the Ghanchi and Golas were quite good at cooking and they had the 'business acumen', be it in the Jari, or in the 'saraiya' business. They started the tiffin services and the Kathiawadi workers who came to dine here found it very cheap. (around 45 Rs per month when the restaurant offered thalis for 4 Rs per meal)

The men who had migrated, did not have a lot of property back in the villages and had quite a difficult time finding a suitable match for them. Here, they earned better compared to the earnings through Jari work in Ranas and the shifted powerloom sector in the Ghanchis. Golas and Ghanchis consume liquor and they were fine with the workers bringing in a quarter everyday and drinking in the house where the meal was served.
They tried to woo the women in the Rana and the Gola communities by bringing expensive gifts and that one quarter peg, of approximately 7 Rs per day. So the women would think, "aah, he can afford liquor worth 7 Rs per day, so how rich he may be!" (As told by a ghanchi man)

The city's lure for easy money and luxurious life did tempt the women and some of them decided to get married to the Kathiawadi diamond workers. The workers were quite happy with the alliance because they could show off in their villages that they got a 'city girl' as their wife. (and of course, they got a wife)

I am sure there are other complexities involved in the alliances between various communities of Surat, like the Ghanchis, Khatris, Golas and Kathiawadis, may be the mobility of women because of work culture allowed in Ghanchi and Golas, may be the alarming sex ratio of women and men in the Kathiawadis and the Ghanchis, or may be the economic tie ups translating into social tie ups. But this one's fascinating.

Dinner tonight?

And you thought, this is the only way to ask someone out.