When a food vendor asked for some sauce and curry powder from English Soldiers in Post-war Berlin, culinary magic happened. Here is a thread about a German icon you might not be familiar with. #travellingsOftheIndianCurry 1/n
On a scale of 1 to 10 Berlin Street food must be somewhere at the very top, its various nooks and corners are teeming with joints and cafés serving all kinds of food from the doner kebab to the Japanese vegan waffle. 2/n
The item, however, which can be considered at the center of Berlin’s gastronomic pleasure is something called the Currywurst. 3/n
The magic happens when a grilled sausage is cut into pieces and mixed with curry powder, tomato paste, and other spices and is accompanied by some French fries to form the perfect comfort food. 4/n
The story of the curry powder is an ingenuity of the colonial era and though most Indians would most likely denounce its usage preferring to work with original spices, the powder’s global patronage cannot be denied. 5/n
In 1949, Berlin was a divided city. Filled with construction workers, migrants from other cities and towns, and foreign soldiers, the city was struggling to get back to its feet. 6/n
In the midst of this, a young food vendor, Herta Heuwer from West Berlin, in her bid to add some innovative flavour to her bland fried sausages, traded alcohol with someone from the British sector, for some curry powder. 7/n
Heuwer started selling the curry powdered sausages to the construction workers in the borough of Charlottenburg where it first became popular. It was filling, cheap, and easy to get and soon everyone wanted to taste it. 8/n
Heuwer patented the sauce under the name Chillup. At its height, her shop sold more than ten thousand packs of currywurst every week. Over the years, the snack’s origin has been disputed. 9/n
In Uwe Timm’s novel, The Invention of Curried Sausage, a woman called Lena Brücker is said to have perfected the Currywurst sauce a couple of years before Heuwer did hers. 10/n
The city of Hamburg has also laid claim to the famed snack, saying the ketchup which is integral to the dish landed first in the Ruhr region with the American GIs. 11/n
Whatever may be its origin, there is no denying that the snack is a German icon with its own dedicated museum – the Deutsches Currywurst Museum, including a song by German Musician Herbert Grönemeyer. 12/n
Around 800 million sausages are consumed every year in Germany. The snack’s growth and popularity reflect the German people's mentality to move beyond the past and embrace something new and make it their own. Make sure to have one when you are in Berlin. 13/n
Later today, the Indian Cricket Team is set to face New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad for the T20 world champion crown. But do you know that India's first tryst with cricket began in Gujarat – a little over 300-years ago?
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By the mid-18th century, the Mughal Empire was on the decline and European powers were increasingly making their presence felt on the subcontinent. Although late to the party, the British were gradually stepping up their trading activities.
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The Gujarat coast was a hub of maritime trade and one of the busy ports was Khambat – back then known as Cambay. Globally well known for its classical agate industry, Cambay cloth, ivory, golf and lacquer works, one fine day in 1721, Cambay was witness to a strange scene.
In 1905, a young woman in Kerala was dragged into a trial for adultery. The system was built to break her. Instead, she brought the system down with her. It became, and remains, one of the most extraordinary episodes in Kerala’s social history.
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The story unfolded in the princely state of Kochi, within the tightly guarded households of the Namboodiri Brahmin community. At its center was Kuriyedathu Thatri, a young woman whose life and public trial laid bare the double standards of her society. 2/21
To understand what happened, one must first understand the social world Thatri was born into. In early 20th-century Kerala, upper-caste Namboodiri Brahmins lived under rigid patriarchy. Women were confined indoors, their lives dictated by strict codes of conduct. 3/21
1944. On a quiet night in the then State of Madras, a man was stabbed and left bleeding on the streets. He was a tabloid editor. The suspicion had turned toward a beloved comedian widely known as the Charlie Chaplin of the South.
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So who was this Charlie Chaplin of the South? He was N.S. Krishnan also called Kalaivanar- “the devotee of the arts” An actor and comedian who rose during the formative decades of Tamil cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.
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Like Chaplin, he came from a humble background, had little formal education, and turned to stage plays early in life. He set the screen on fire with satire that made audiences laugh, and think. But he was not alone. Beside him stood his wife.
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Did you know Indians born in Suriname were once considered Dutch citizens? And while that might sound strange, all of this connects back to Lord Ram and the settlements of Chinsurah and Baranagar on the banks of the Hooghly. Do read on. 1/24
Moving through the streets of Baranagar in North Kolkata can be challenging at times. Rickshaws, autos, trucks, and even the odd stray cattle all vie for a place. It does not just bustle with activity; it practically lives and breathes it. 2/24
But as you move through the intricate, narrow lanes, you will find old houses, broken and scarred, called Kuthis. Now these kuthis once housed Sahebs, mostly Britishers, but for a time they also housed people from the land of the Oranje, the Dutch. 3/24
In 1977, an Indian art student set out on a bicycle for Sweden, covering more than 11,000 kilometers because he could not afford an airfare to be with the love of his life. An incredible story worth remembering a thousand times. Read on. 1/18
The facts of the journey are striking enough. But to understand why it happened, it is necessary to return to a village in Odisha where Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia was born into the Kandha tribal community n 1949, historically among India’s most marginalized groups. 2/18
He grew up in poverty, in a house without electricity, and displayed an early aptitude for drawing. In interviews over the years, he has spoken candidly about the discrimination he faced as a child. It was too real to forget. 3/18
The high-octane trailer of #Border2 dropped recently and one character – played by Ahaan Shetty caught our eye. Shetty plays an officer of Indian Navy in the 1971 War and our thoughts went back to a real-life Indian Navy officer who left behind an eternal legacy through his actions in this war. 1/18
The INS Khukri was a Type 14 frigate of the Indian Navy in 1971. The Type 14 was a minimal anti-submarine craft, a cheaper alternative to the more expensive Type 12. They were introduced to the British Royal Navy in the early 1950s. By 1971, they were considered somewhat obsolete. 2/18
India had acquired three Type 14s, which it had named INS Khukri, Kirpan and Kuthar – all part of Western Fleet’s 14th Squadron. On the other hand, in the aftermath of the 1965 war with India, the Pakistan Navy acquired three Daphne class submarines – which it named PNS Hangor, Shushuk, and Mangro. 3/18