Delhiwale: Ambassador’s thali

Polish envoy on leaving the Capital

Moong dal, arhar dal, vegetable kofta, aloo gobhi matar, farsan, choorma laddu, dhokla, tillar papad and fresh rotis. This picturesque Gujarati thali will soon be a sweet, aching memory for the Polish ambassador. With his five-year term in India coming to an end, Adam Burakowski is set to wind down the cozy routine he built so lovingly around this homey meal. Each time a short half-hour spell of an appointment-free afternoon chanced to ease his otherwise packed schedule at the embassy in Shanti Path, the ambassador would be ferried in his long, black car by chauffeur Sunil Kumar to Gujarat Bhawan on Kautilya Marg—a five-minute drive. There, His Excellency would sign in the visitors’ register, walk to the Gujarat Bhawan restaurant, claim a window table and order the comforting thali—the many dishes rotating daily, the additional servings unlimited, and all of it for ₹210.

Polish ambassador Adam Burakowski (HT Photo)

“I will especially miss the Special Gujarati thali that comes with mithai,” he mutters, tearing a piece of roti, scooping a bit of gobhi with it. The ambassador’s next posting is in South Africa. Before he leaves Delhi, he wishes to meet a favourite Delhiwala—novelist Surender Mohan Pathak. “I once read somewhere that he lives in Karol Bagh.” The envoy from Europe reads Pathak in the original Hindi, which he taught himself with the help of Bollywood films and Lata Mangeshkar songs. The ambassador picked up the language long before he became an ambassador, when he would frequently fly to Delhi from his hometown Warsaw as a political science research scholar. Gradually, “main Dilliwala ban gaya.”

Casually breaking the crispy papad into two unequal halves, the ambassador gets sentimental about leaving Delhi. No more will he be able to stroll and click photos on his mobile phone in Chandni Chowk, no more will he be able to party with Polish expats in Gurugram, or lose himself in an aimless walk in Cyberhub. Neither does his new home in Pretoria, South Africa boast of anything comparable to the grand history of his New Delhi home. The white art-deco bungalow at 1, Tilak Marg was Dr BR Ambedkar’s home as India’s first law minister. “For about five years, I worked on the same cabinet on which Dr Ambedkar used to work when he was writing the Constitution of India. It gives me a lot of inspiration. Being a scholar I know I cannot match his level, but at least I’m trying.”

After finishing the khana (the pickles stay untouched), the ambassador instinctively completes the closing rituals of his Gujarat Bhawan routine. He gets up from the table, thanks the waiters, walks to the desk, pays in cash (he always brings the exact change), heads to the basin, washes his hands, and walks out.

Within weeks, Adam Burakowski shall cease to be a Delhiwala.