Dubri in Udvada

Udvada is described as a coastal "town" 200 kms from Mumbai which is an important place of worship for Parsees. I disagree with the "town" bit. This is a village that is caught in a time warp. Everything and everyone seems to be moving at a remarkably slow pace keeping in step with the chirping birds and the barking dogs. Even the dogs don't bark the usual way, they give short low pitch sounds that sound like they are clearing their throats. We stayed at a place called the Globe hotel which is right behind the Iranshah. The name has nothing to do with the structure. It must have just caught the owner's fancy several years ago. There are a couple of two-storey cottages here called 'Homi Cottage' and the 'Annexe'. We stayed on the first floor of the Annexe courtesy of a couple of lizards in the room on the ground floor that was alloted for us earlier. There was a quaint little balcony attached to the room where all the meals were served. (At the end of our stay a little lizard appeared in this room too... THAT is another post)

Speaking about meals, I haven't had such rich and delicious albeit fattening food in any other hotel in my life. Breakfast on the first day consisted of eggs to order, kaleji-bukka (chicken liver and kidney) with bread, butter, jam and milky sweet tea. Even before all this could be digested, lunch arrived. There was a type of fish which is a specialty of this place called boey (B-O-E-Y nahi, B-O-I says Chrys) fried to perfection, mutton gravy(melt-in-mouth tender meat), fish curry, rice and rotis.

After an afternoon siesta, we spent the evening walking around the largely empty village. There are several abandoned or unused houses here - ancient structures that may be over a 100 years old. The population of dogs is more than the local human population. We paid a visit to the beach which was sadly disappointing because of sand erosion and illegal quarrying and all that was left was a rocky bottom exposed by the low tide. With hardly anything left to do, we returned to the room when it grew slightly dark to avoid being followed by the over-friendly dogs. Dinner was a lavish affair again with tandoori chicken, mutton curry, fried boey fish and rotis.

The next morning started with a generous dose of dudh na puff which is considered a delicacy by all Parsis and it's a tradition to have it every time they are in Udvada. It's basically just sweetened milk bubbles which is prepared overnight. I personally didn't like it too much.

Speaking about tradition, these Parsis attach the word 'tradition' to every little thing. It's a tradition to brush your teeth (according to my MIL, we non-parsis i.e dubros are very untidy people). It's a tradition to perform the birdy dance at weddings. It's a tradition to eat eggs when you are ill or have a stomach upset because it's 'light food'. It's a tradition to eat dhansak every Sunday and sleep away the rest of the day. It's a tradition to buy only Kolah's brand pickles. It's a tradition to eat/drink dudh na puff in Udvada. It's a tradition to over-eat when in Udvada. Actually it's a tradition to overeat, period. Almost all traditions are to do with eating. I have gained 8 kilos in the three years that I have been married to Chrys. At this rate I would have gained 58 kgs more by our silver wedding anniversary.

One more pampered day was spent in this quiet little place and we got bored of the sedentary lifestyle. We left the next morning to Ahmadabad by the Shatabdi. Getting bored and being pampered continues for a few more days here before we leave for Mumbai.