Team Ahimsa Blog Relay, Various Contests

At the King's Court, 11 February 1556. - #30DBC

PROMPT November 14th

A Mystery Genre prompt tonight. You are researching your genealogy and find that ancestors from a different generations and different countries made visits to the same remote place. Tell us about this remote place. Why were your ancestors going there?

"Birbal!" King Akbar sounded a bit impatient as he called his favourite courtier.

" Huzoor

Huzoor - My Lord, Your Majesty

?" Birbal stepped forward, bowing low.

"Birbal, we must do something special. Something intriguing. Something unique."

"Yes, Huzoor." Birbal's mind worked furiously. What did his monarch want now? Would he, Birbal, be able to satisfy the need, as he had always done before?

"Something to make people come here, to Delhi, from far and wide. Something to make Sonali's ancestors visit."

Quickly, Birbal logged on to facebook and searched 'Sonali'. He found several posts on both FB and WdC. Some related to Marcophily, others to the street food, 'CHAAT'.

"We must invent those here, to attract Sonali's ancestors," he thought.

And he did.

Akbar's court had the first 'Emperor's seal' on all mail in 1556. Mail was carried by horses, and your mail bore a picture of a horse and uniformed mailman.
It was the Moguls who brought CHAAT to India. The sev-puri, pani-puri, golgappa and puchka that Sonali's ancestors grew addicted to. They passed on the addiction to her. The current debate on the Bhatia family whatsapp is whether pani-puri is tastier or puchka.


PS: Fiction, though the Moghuls did bring chaat to India. From what I've heard (not verified) there was a lot of sickness at the time and the water for pani-puri had to be heated, killing the germs. Not realizing that it was the heating that was curbing the infection, people thought pani-puri was good for health. Hey, who is to argue?