"Phuchka" - "Unity in Diversity"

"Phuckha" is one of the street food ( it falls under Chat category) in India, that everyone like. It's very hard to pass a street side stall that is serving "Phuchka". Being born and brought-up West Bengal, India - this is the name and taste i was familiar with till i step outside my home and observed that it is widely enjoyed and appreciated across India. At different phase of life, this dish brings me a different memories and savor. Primeval memories comes when my Maa, Fulma (Aunt) and with neighborhood aunts called "Phuchkawala" ( the man who sells phuchka) inside our house compound, would circle around him and start eating the serving from the seller - there were so much controversies with the number he was serving , the size of serving , the potato is not spicy enough, the water is not enough and at the end the ask for one "dry" "phuckha" with masala inside 😀. Now with the mid-age i think "Phuchkawala", is one of the most patience man i have even seen 😀 . My Baba never liked or allowed us to eat "Phuchka" in our childhood, so all these fun activities would take place early evening before Baba was back from office. I must be around 3/4 years , as i was not allowed to eat, and keep on asking Maa to share one with me, which she refused, sometime Fulma would give me a very small piece of the dry phuchka after breaking it and that made me so happy 😍.  During "Durga Puja" time -  in my adolescence, we used to have the "Phuckha" party when we would go for "pandal hopping" with the family , no one could have beat Nili(cousin sister) and Sejomoni (Aunt). Baba used to tell a lot of demotivating stuff to hold us back from eating "Phuchka" like - the water is not clean water - it will lead to the stomach upset, the "Phuchkawala" is making with his dirty hand, they fry those puri in bad oil - but nothing could stop or demotivate us. My Mamma(Grandmother) also tried her best to convince us - but in vain! 😆

Later in my college days in Orissa , the same dish was called "Gupchup" and seller would come in our outside gate of the college dorm and we would have just circle around him. Somedays when he didn't come, it would be a great heart break for all of us 😂.  What i observe, with the change of name the same dish is served with different ingredients , different serving style. But the taste , once it is burst in my mouth --- it will ignite and nourish all  the senses with a delightful pleasure. 

When i came to Mumbai/ Pune - i observed that this is way more established food as a "chaat". While coming back from office often i would stop for a "Panipuri" break, keeping my daughter inside my car. Basically from my Mom's place to my house is 3.5km and within that distance i started knowing all the "Panipuri wala Bhaiya" ( this is just a naming convention) and I would stop each of those corners at least once/week 😂😃. My daughter would report the same to her dad and my mom and i would get a fair lecture of how unsafe it is to stand and eat from roadside - but that has very little to demotivate me!! (though i dont deny, that it was not a very wise step)

People in India have a ball with this dish and everywhere it creates its own identity.  Following are the synonyms of "Phuchka" that is spoken or called across ( source : wiki  and Mummy  (mother-in-law)). 

Paani patashi (Haryana)

Pani ke batashe, Pani ki tikki, Fulki (Uttar Pradesh)

Golgappa, gol gappay or gol gappa (Delhi, Punjab)

Fuchka ফুচকা (Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Nepal)

Phuska/Puska (Assam)

Fuska ফুসকা/ফুছকা (Sylhet and Chittagong)

Gup-chup (Odisha, Chhattisgarh)

Pakodi (Gujarat)

PaniPuri ( Rest of the India - widely used name and but taste varies from place to place )

During any marriage ceremonies or any kind of ceremonies, where there are gathering of people now a days we find a "chaat corner" and "Panipuri" became an inevitable part of that Chaat corner. This makes the audience energetic with its tangy taste and smell. Whenever we visit Jhansi, we eat enough of this serving. Papa (Father-in-law) would make sure that we get enough variety of taste from across the city 😀.

I have tried to lookup the origin of this "Phuchka", found 5000 years back, Draupadi in the Mahabharata impressed her mother-in-law Kunti by being able to turn dough for just one puri and some potatoes into pani puri to feed her five husbands. Food historian Pushpesh Pant opines that Pani puri originated in north India (around modern-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) about 100 to 125 years ago. He also noted that it was possibly originated from Raj-Kachori.(source : wiki )

After coming to USA, around 8 years back my husband invited some of his friends with their wives for a "panipuri party" at my place, so there are 2 couple came and we served them "Panipuri", there eyes were rolling with tears but they were not been able to stop gulping those Puri's one after another 😀. It gave me a strong feeing that this dish has a huge scope of internationalization 😇. Once during an office lunch in USA, we went to a famous chaat place and i recall one of my colleague packed 2 plates of "Panipuri" for her son, I observe that this dish is slowly breaking the boundaries and ready for broader adoption. I started eating "Phuchka" when cost  was 8 piece/Rs2, my husband said 16piece/Rs1😁. My maternal father-in-law (nanaji) still now loves to eat "Pani Ke Batashe " now also at the age of 87. Now, i get Panipuri at 5 piece/$5 😂, then also i eat. 

This one food brings the memoir from leisure summer vacation, blissful college days, family gatherings, how a child struggle to fit one piece of 'puri' in their mouth and after success brimming  with joy, memory of patch up with friend ( who was very aware that how much fond i am of panipuri). Irrespective of cast, creed, race, continent this dish made its way and had won every heart 💗 ...