Double whammy for Chapala Book Stall
The owners of Chapala Book Stall were preparing to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the city’s favourite book outlet. Meetings were held to consider how best to host this meaningful event. Alas! the cylinder blasts at Madras Café put paid to all the plans.
Chapala Book Stall is located adjacent to the Café. When the Fire tenders doused the gas-induced inferno at the café, the heavy gush of water landed at Chapala and not only flooded the shop but soaked all the books in a veritable sea of water.
According to the disappointed owner the loss suffered is to the tune of Rs 15 lakh rupees.
Over and above that he learnt that the building now has a new owner and he has to vacate the place. It’s a double loss for one of our oldest book stalls!
Vegetables
Vegetables from Laitkor are on high demand. It is seen that consumers throng these village vendors who mostly occupy the non commercial areas in the town and sometimes even carry them to consumer’s doorsteps.
These vegetables are sourced right from the farm gate and are fresh and cheaper than the market price.
Customers say that these vegetables are not weighed in a scale but in a unique polyethylene carry bags and are uniformly priced at Rs 10. A big hits are the tiny marble sized potatoes sold in the footpaths of Laitumkhrah area.
These vendors wish they were given a weekly haat or farmers’ market to display their products. This is the way to rural livelihoods!
Dosa drought
After the cylinder blast that rocked two restaurants in the city, one in Jail Road and another in Laitumkhrah customers who are fond of Dosas particularly that of Madras Cafe (Jail Road) are left with no other option but to try them in other eateries.
According to customers’ response, Madras Café is famous for its Dosa, since the taste is as good as those in Tamilnadu or Kerala. A Dosa fan tried it at another eatery near OB Shopping Mall but was totally disappointed.
But another foodie said that Regal Restaurant is now experimenting with non-vegetarian dosa by adding chicken etc to the masala part.
It appears that Regal is doing brisk business. That’s called adaptation!
No laughing matter this!
The recent bomb scare which ultimately turned out to be a hoax in the Keating Road area of the town was played down by the police personnel who turned there on the day like Bollywood heroes. When asked why such a crowd has gathered in the area, a police personal said that a snake arrived from nowhere and fled away from the scene after laying an egg.
The police personal said that they are hunting for the egg and later traced it. But such sick humours in a world that is gripped with terror is in bad taste. Luckily for the town all abandoned baggage so far have been claimed by their owners.
Norway, considered to be one of the most peaceful country in the world was witness to a dastardly act of terrorism in the recent past.
How safe is Shillong? Only time will only tell. The terror acts in Garo Hills are not very reassuring for common citizens.