Street Food - Roti Chai style

Roti Chai has been on our ‘to do’ list ever since it opened in 2011. Last Sunday lunchtime we finally got round to trying it out. I had voted for one of the Drummond Street Indian vegetarian buffets. Chutneys @ £6.95 / person would have fitted the bill – I think I was nostalgic for my early 20s and student days – but I was voted down. Or rather (as the voting was 1-1), persuaded down.

Roti Chai was started by Rohit Chugh, an ex-Goldman Sachs equities trader. This had actually put me off going for quite a while as I cynically thought it was just an investment venture, a commercial enterprise rather than being run for the love of good food (the two obviously not being mutually exclusive). Chugh, had, however, worked for the Cinnamon Club after leaving the City and then helped set up the Cinnamon Kitchen before starting Roti Chai – so he did come with some kind of food pedigree background. His father apparently is from Amritsar which helped to seal the authenticity of the venture.

The menu is divided into a street food menu and a more expensive dining room menu. We went for the street food, although I am not sure the dining room part was open on a Sunday.  The décor is simple, deliberately basic café-style seating with kitsch Indian adverts decorating the walls.  I know what Chugh was trying to achieve – a modern take on an Indian café theme, though it did feel slightly contrived, slightly too stylised. Reminiscent perhaps of Haldiram’s in India.  It was good to see quite a few Indian diners there.

The menu is short and fairly simple. For starters, we had the bhel puri and papri chat. Both were good and well presented – though nothing particularly out of the ordinary. I can probably get the equivalent for at least half the price at the stall in the Quality Foods supermarket in Hounslow. A few more fresh ingredients: onion, cucumber and fresh coriander might have been nice in the bhel puri.

For mains, I had the idli sambar - always keen to branch out from the usual North Indian food on offer. Susen had the chicken Manchurian – chosen because of its Bengali roots (of course!) Again, good food but nothing special. A thought did come into my mind, whilst eating my sambar, that it reminded me of a slightly spicy version of tinned Heinz lentil and vegetable casserole pureed baby food I used to eat well into my toddler years as I liked it so much. That thought didn’t help too much with the appreciation of any subtle sophisticated grown-up spicing that might have been going on in the dish.

Our meal was washed down with Mongoose beer – which is trying to rival Cobra in the Indian food market. Mongoose looked convincingly Indian in origin, until we saw that it was brewed in Bedford which didn’t have quite the same ring to it.

One good point is its location – tucked away behind Oxford Street, close to Marble Arch. Good, therefore for lunch or dinner away from the Oxford Street crowds - though why anyone actually wants to actually go shopping in Oxford Street is beyond me.

Our lunch came to £46.00 for the 2 of us (including 4 beers between us). You could probably get the same or better in Southall for quite a bit less – or any number of other urban Indian eateries in every major town. Probably around 6/10 rating overall.

Roti Chai – 3 Portman Mews South, London W1H 6HS

www.rotichai.com

Himalayan Tsunami

In mid June the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand north of Delhi was devastated by floods killing thousands of people and making many more homeless. On the 9th July 2013 the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand said that at least 1,000 had died but that more than 4,000 were still missing. The causes were an early monsoon which caught out many pilgrims, the sheer weight of rainfall, and the unrestrained building that has taken place in recent years to cater to the influx of pilgrims. While some elements of the Indian state, such as the Indian Air Force, have acquitted themselves well, others such as disaster planning have not. The disaster also raises questions about governance and corruption.

The monsoon rains started on the 12th June, and then intensified on the 16th with the capital of Uttarakhand, Dehra Dun, recording in one night more than half the rainfall of Delhi in a year. This rain melted the snow on glaciers and the mountains. On the 17th Chorabari Lake, near the town of Kedarnath, burst its banks and water descended into the town along rivers, and took bankside buildings with it. It is thought the water levels rose by 10 metres. A number of smaller towns were almost completely overwhelmed by water. Refugees told of climbing onto the upper floors of a building and finding those on the lower floors were swept away. Landslides happened along the course of rivers in the area. Such was the force of the water that a town 250km from Kedarnath felt the effects. Parts of Delhi were also flooded as a result of the initial lake burst.

The state of Uttarakhand contains some of Hinduism’s most sacred sites including sources of the Ganges. Sites such as the Kedarnath Shrine are difficult to reach, either by trekking (it is 14km from the nearest bus-stop) or helicopter, but despite these logistical issues the number of pilgrims to this shrine increased from 87,000 in 1987 to 600,000 in 2012. More broadly it is believed 30 million pilgrims and tourists visited the four shrines in the area in the last year. These visitors put immense pressure on transport and hotels in particular. There have been suggestions that the numbers of visitors are limited but this has been rejected by local politicians who are conscious of the income that visitors bring.

Getting clarity on numbers has been difficult but it is believed that over 100,000 people were originally trapped. Many managed to get out by themselves, and perhaps 30,000 have been rescued by the Indian armed forces. The Indian Army had 8,500 soldiers involved in the operation and reportedly fed 10,000 people between 15 and 21 June. The Indian Air Force reported that they had flown 1,400 sorties, both helicopters and fixed-wing, dropped supplies and rescued more than 12,000 people. Two thousand vehicles were utilised in ferrying people to safety. Refugees waited at Dehra Dun Airport for information and their relatives. Google launched apps in both Hindi and English, and the state government its own website, to enable relatives to get in touch with those rescued.

Concerns have been raised about the conduct of the state government of Uttarakhand. The Comptroller and Auditor General reported in April 2013 that the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) had never met, had no dedicated funding, and had no plans in place despite there being numerous landslides in the past few years and it being mandatory under various legislation. There had been no analysis of previous disasters. It was also found that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister, had never followed up to ensure that India’s States were preparing disaster plans. There have been many complaints about the slow pace of the rescue and relief effort, and also the fact that many refugees had been gouged for water and food by local entrepreneurs. This ignores the fact that it should be the local and national authorities that provide basic supplies in this instance. The Home Minister admitted there had been issues in co-coordinating the different agencies.

It was revealed that the Geological Survey of India had identified over 100 villages as being vulnerable after a previous disaster but no action had been taken. Furthermore, the Ministry of Environment and Forests declared a 135km building free zone, which would ban new hotels and hydro projects alongside the main rivers in Uttarakhand. However, the Chief Minister made representations to the Indian Prime Minister and the ban was never enforced

The environmentally unsound development of the Uttarakhand region has been partially blamed for causing the disaster. These include deforestation, which denudes the river banks and enables soil to silt up the rivers, sand mining, stone quarrying, excessive construction, and dams. It is believed that more than 70 dams have been planned for the region. While it is recognised that some dams are necessary environmentalists in India complain that there is no clear strategy on the numbers and where they should be built.

Time and time again when referring to the government one comes across the phrases, themes, and terms “poor planning”, “lack of strategy”, “uncontrolled” and “corruption”. All of these elements come together. One does not pretend that everything in the West works well always. The poor disaster management response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans is one example, but the US appears to have learnt and there was seemingly little criticism of the authorities after the recent New Jersey hurricane. The politicians in India seem to make limited public pronouncements, information is difficult to come by, they impede the rescue efforts by making numerous VIP visits – various Chief Ministers visited and tried to get their own people out - and in their refusal to arrest development they may contribute to the disaster. “Development” means building new hotels and dams, from which politicians may get kick-backs, while schools are often decrepit and lack teachers.
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Postscript: While not directly related to the Uttarakhand disaster the case of Narayan Pergaein is instructive in how the Indian educated classes think. Pergaein was, repeat was, a TV reporter for a Hindi news channel, News Express. He was filmed reporting to camera sitting on the shoulders of a man in a flooded river in Uttarakhand. This incident outraged Twitter opinion in India and Pergaein was sacked. His “defence” was that the man had offered to hoist him on his shoulders and that Pergaein had given him 50 rupees. What is saddening is that the upper and middle classes expect that the lower classes (and castes) have no dignity and are there just to serve them. In “Days and Nights in Calcutta” it is said that a pilot was fired for not getting to work during a flood; the pilot’s response was that it was the airline’s fault for not sending a peon to carry him across the water.... plus ça change.

Amartya Sen and India's continuing inequality

In 1984 I was doing my A levels (yes I am that old), driving my first car and going out with my first boyfriend. On the other side of the world, however, Ethiopia was in the midst of famine – causing an estimated one million deaths and many more made destitute. I still remember the shocking images of the BBC reports from Michael Buerk at such a formative time of my life. Like so many then, it sparked off many questions for me: about inequality in the world, injustice, why people were starving when other countries had so much food and what could anyone do about it? Travelling to India for the first time in 1985, you couldn’t help but be moved and concerned by the extreme inequality and poverty that confronted you in the towns and villages: children, women, disabled people living and begging on the street.

In 2011, I went back to India on a brief visit to Delhi with Susen. It had been 16 years since my last visit and 26 years since my first visit as a teenager. In that time, India had liberalised its economy and experienced rapid growth, becoming one of the 4 up and coming BRIC countries, set to rival and supercede the old US and European powers. Indian graduates from the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) were sought after all over the world, and Bangalore had become India’s Silicon Valley. India now has more US $ billionaires than the UK and is itself a donor of development aid to Africa. India could no longer be seen as a poor country, with an expanding middle class, availability of consumer goods and new shiny shopping malls.

And yet the inequality and poverty are still endemic and infrastructure woefully lagging behind rivals, notably China. I took the two pictures below in Delhi during our recent trip, starkly illustrating the rich / poor, private / public divide. Inside the shopping mall, you could be anywhere in Europe – air conditioning, coffee shops etc. But step outside and you are confronted by unfinished pavements and child beggars. Why is this? Why hasn’t India’s economic growth translated into improved infrastructure for all and less inequality? It really is a huge conundrum.





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are questions that Nobel prize winner, Indian philosopher and economist Amartya Sen (with Jean Drèze) has tried to address in his new book ‘An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions’. Sen was speaking at the London School of Economics on 26 June, to promote his new book and I was lucky enough to be allocated a ticket to a very oversubscribed talk.

Amartya Sen will need no introduction to many. Originally from a Bengali Hindu background in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, he is currently Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is best known for his work on welfare economics and the causes of famine. To my mind, he seems to have a perfect set up: married to his third wife, Emma Rothschild, he divides his time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Shantiniketan (home of Tagore’s university). His co-author, Jean Drèze, is also an impressive figure. Drèze is a development economist of Belgium origin, living in India since 1979. He became an Indian citizen in 2002 and has an admirable commitment to social justice and voluntary simplicity in his lifestyle.

Sen is not so young anymore and I found his public speaking style a little difficult to follow. He seems to wander off into anecdotes that make you wonder where he is going and what his point is, before coming back and making his point with perfect focus and clarity of mind you might have been in danger of missing.

Sen started with Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’ in 1776. At that time, India was one of the richest parts of the world (mainly N. India and Bengal) and Smith postulated that this was because of trade. Under the British Empire, however, India’s growth rate was extremely low – only around 0.1% in the first half of the 20th century (nowhere near even the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ - around 3.5% / year). By the 1980s, however, the growth rate was 5%, rising to 8% / year after the economic reforms of the early 1990s. India was the 2nd fastest growing economy for many years at this time. Its income in 2011 was 5 times that of 1947 (adjusted for inflation and per capita). Life expectancy had risen from 32 years in 1947 to 66 years currently. This was coupled with a democratic system and a human rights commission with legal standing. By any measure of development: well being, freedom and justice and economic growth, India was doing well.

But in recent years, this has not been sustained. Whilst in 1990, India came 2nd (just below Sri Lanka) in South Asia on standard indicators such as quality of life and living standards, today it is the 2nd lowest (just above Pakistan) and way behind Bangladesh. China’s life expectancy is ahead of India, at 73 years. Even in Bangladesh, life expectancy has overtaken India’s – from 62 in 1990 to 69 currently.

Sen and Drèze argue that investment in human capital – through education and public healthcare – is the foundation to economic growth and a market economy. He takes the example of Japan, whose rapid post Second World War growth started with a huge emphasis on education. Similar development has occurred in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and to some extent in Hong Kong and Thailand.

In contrast, India’s first 5 year plan post-independence did not have such a focus on education, or only very basic education. Sen calls the education system in India today, ‘a mess’. Yes, there are a few elite schools which rival the best in the world, but for the majority of the population, the state school system is failing. He reports that more than 50% of school children, after 4 years of schooling cannot divide 20 by 5. One survey of state schools in 7 of the northern states found no teaching activity in half of them.

Similarly, with the provision of public healthcare. China (after a brief experiment with a US – style health care system which saw coverage plummet) now has healthcare cover for 96% of the population. While China spends around 2.7% of GDP on healthcare, India spends only 1.2% on public healthcare provision. (Both of these figures, however, are low compared to a global average of 6.5% GDP and 8% in the UK for public healthcare). The immunisation rate in India is 72%, compared to 99% in China and 96% in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s success in development, Sen comments, is due, in large part, to the participation of women. Women were prominent as leaders in the independence movement and today it is the only country in the world where the number of girls in school outnumbers boys. A high proportion of workers in both healthcare and education are women leading to more gender equity. Girls in India are too often seen only as a burden, largely due to the continuation of the dowry system, leading to a strong preference for boys and millions of sex selective abortions.

Of course, India is a big country and there is variation across the individual states. Kerala has always stood out as having better education and healthcare provision and today is one of the richer states, along with Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. India can almost be divided into 2 halves – the richer Eastern / Southern half and poorer Northern and Western half. But, even according to the Government’s own statistics, nearly half of all children in India are chronically malnourished. From 2005-2010 India ranked second to last among 129 countries on underweight children, below Ethiopia, Niger, Nepal and Bangladesh. Remember this is a country with more billionaires than the UK.

Sen and Drèze are clear about the foundations for economic and social development: first public investment in education and healthcare with gender equality. From this a strong market economy can grow with state and market complementing one another. They are, however, gloomy about prospects for this happening in India because of deeply entrenched inequality. The ruling elite are defined and set apart by a combination of caste, education, gender and income. India’s government and bureaucrats, drawn mostly from privileged backgrounds seem to have little interest in improving the situation for everyone else including lower castes and classes. Sen goes as far as calling the state ‘negligent’ in failing to provide the necessary infrastructure of education, healthcare and sanitation. He can criticise as, being an Indian citizen, he cannot be accused of criticising from solely a Western standpoint.

Yesterday saw India passing a new Food Security Law which aims to provide 5kg of subsidised food grain per person per month to around 2/3 of the population – in a populist measure to try to address the huge hunger and malnutrition problem. But this seems more aimed at symptoms, rather than doing much to tackle to real underlying issues. It may lead to even more food rotting and wasted unless the storage and supply network is improved. It also does nothing to address state failure, as Sen and Drèze argue, to provide the necessary education, healthcare and infrastructure to facilitate further market growth and address the huge inequality.

Susen comments that after his father left India for the last time in 1966, he wrote a letter that was published in The Statesman, a Calcutta newspaper. In the letter he said that India would not develop until it had clean water and sewerage, near universal basic healthcare (he was an NHS doctor), and fresh milk to the front door, all elements that the UK had by that time. Forty five plus years later it seems nothing has changed in India. Educated people like Susen’s father continue to emigrate, never to return, and this will continue.

Now it seems India’s progress has slowed considerably, and other developing countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and Nigeria may overtake it. The elites in India do not acknowledge the levels of inequality, nor that it is a structural barrier to further and sustainable long term growth.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2013/06/20130626t1830vOT.aspx