Tag: Mamta D

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Hum log

Talking translations

Writer and translator Mira Desai talks about venturing into translating regional writing quite by accident, and her important new work.
by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

In May 2015, Harper Perennial  brought out a new book Hon’ble Minister Jagubhai originally written in Gujarati by Pravinsinh Chavda and translated into English by Mira Desai. While many Gujarati readers have read the varied works of Pravinsinh Chavda, this is the first time that English-speaking readers will read his novel. This has been made possible because of the diligent efforts of Mira Desai. Translation, especially of a regional Indian language, is a long and cumbersome process.

Mira has not just successfully translated but has also had her translations featured in national and international publications such as 91st Meridian, Indian Literature, Pratilipi, Muse India, Calque and The Brooklyn Rail. Besides working on translations, she has also written fiction and has contributed to a number of journals. She resides in Mumbai.

Here, we talk to Mira about translation, her new book, and more.

How does the translation process work? How do you usually begin?

After I’ve selected the text – which is a process in itself—I begin with a paper and pen draft.  There is something liberating about writing on paper, it lets you explore alternatives and mark sections in a way that a cursor on a screen cannot. The next stage is the typed version, where I edit and move words around as I type. I then send the prints to the author or poet for their comments. I’ve found poets quite liberal in the freedom they grant you. Story authors tend to be particular and it is not uncommon for them to change words around, or even change line by line! So this is a test of patience at times.

For how long have you been doing translations?

I don’t have a formal Arts education—my degrees are in pharmacy and marketing. I began translating quite by accident. In 2003, a fracture forced me to rest for a month. Those were the days of boring dial-up Internet. So on a whim I began translating. Dipak Doshi, the editor of the literary magazine Navneet Samarpan, was generous with the author’s address—and that’s how it started.

I believed, quite erroneously, that if I had a collection of short stories I would be able to interest a good publisher. 12 stories and many standard rejection slips later, I gave up. For a year or so I fumed, not knowing what to do. Then a chance search on Google led me to Indian Literature, the journal of Sahitya Academy—they were prompt to accept. I decided I would address magazines, not book publishers. Calque was the first online journal to accept these stories, and Brandon Holmquest, the editor, was patient with his suggestions. Pratilipi, MuseIndia followed, and in due course the crème – 91st Meridian, Words without Borders, Massachusetts Review and others.

So far I’ve translated short stories, a book of verse and now, this novel.

What made you choose Pravinsinh Chavda’s novel, Hon’ble Minister Jagubhai?

I’ve worked extensively on his short stories—I like his concise style. Yet he is comfortable using fantasy to take a leap into the unknown—all his stories have this off-the-page element. After working on his stories, translating his novel was the logical next step.

What’s the most difficult and the most exhilirating aspect of working on a translation?

The most exciting part is getting close to the original and having experts say it reads like it is written in English. The most difficult part is capturing the nuances of culture and manner- things that would be assumed as ‘known’ by someone reading the work in the original language. At times, editors want introductory essays, and that gets daunting if one hasn’t written any essays after high school!

Your bio says you have also written your own works, besides translations. Are they in English or Gujarati?

My own writing, all in English, grows out of weekly practice exercises at the Internet Writing Workshop—IWW. My stories and creative non fiction essays have been published in print and online. I keep my journal in Gujarati, though.

Mira’s book Hon’ble Minister Jagubhai is available on Amazon in print.

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Hum log

Mr Grover’s going places

He gave up a corporate career for the unpredictable, exciting, big, bad world of Bollywood. And Varun Grover struck gold.
by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

Varun Grover. If you are on social media or browse through YouTube India channels regularly, you would know who this is. And of course, if you are a fan of offbeat cinema, and have watched Gangs of Wasseypur and Ankhon Dekhi, you would have seen his name in the credits.

For those who are still in the dark, let’s throw some light on the subject.

Varun Grover Varun Grover wrote the lyrics for Gangs of Wasseypur, Ankhon Dekhi, and the critically acclaimed documentary KatiyaBaaz. Varun Grover is also a standup comic, a key part of JayHindTV, and has performed many live shows both in the country and abroad. He has written for several TV shows including Ranvir Vinay aur Kaun, Aisi ki Taisi, Oye It’s Friday. Varun Grover is also one of the few whose script was selected for the NDFC Screenwriter’s Lab held at Toronto in 2013. And these are just some of his accomplishments.

Varun was born in 1980 in Himachal Pradesh and grew up in a typical middle-class family environment. At a young age, he moved to Dehradun with his family. He studied in the IMA – Kendriya Vidyalaya and as a child, he wanted to be in the military. In 1991, the family moved to Lucknow, where he would spend the next few years until his college. After completing B. Tech. from IIT-Varanasi in 2003, he tried his hand at a software job in Pune. However, coming from a family of writers, it was creative writing that was predominant in his genes and not software development. Before long (less than a year, in fact), he moved out to Mumbai to try his luck in the film industry as a writer. And, he has never looked back since.

In a chat with The Metrognome, Varun opens up about his creative journey, how he juggles many interests on a daily basis, and what it has been like to work with some majorly creative people in the film industry. Excerpts from the interview:

You began your first job in the corporate world but soon realised your true calling was elsewhere, in the creative arts. It’s now been 10 years since you left the corporate world for good. How do you feel about that and how has your journey in these 10 years beenr?

[The] Journey has been great. What I didn’t want to end up in was a routine life full of predictability. In corporate life, you can very easily see where you’ll be in five to 10 years. You just have to look at the person who joined five to 10 years before you. You’ll most probably have the same car, similar house, same number of kids, wear similar kind of clothes, and you’ll be regularly bumping into the same guys at the same kind of restaurants. While in the film industry, you can be anything in the next five or 10 years, including being dead, due to too much success or too much failure. That thrill is what keeps me going. And of course, the fun of creating new stuff which will be around even after I am gone.

Performing stand up comedy, writing film scripts, directing films, co-writing graphic novels, and composing lyrics…how do you strike a balance between it all? What do you enjoy the most?

I wish I could strike a balance. I wish there was a clear definition and a machine to measure balance. I just do whatever catches my fancy at that time of the day. Of course, some things are driven by Gangs of Wasseypurdeadlines and they balance themselves. I think I enjoy all of them equally and that’s why I do them. Stand up comedy is thrilling because of the instant feedback, lyrics writing is thrilling because I love the music-making process, and film scripts are thrilling because they involve sitting for long hours in front of my laptop browsing all the Internet and pretending to research for your script. Sabka apna apna alag rass hai and I am a bit of an experience-junkie.

A few in Bollywood started out with being behind the camera, but eventually made it in front of the camera. Farhan Akhtar, for one, comes to mind. Have you ever considered stepping in front of the camera instead of being behind it?

I don’t mind acting, but putting on make-up is one of the most excruciating exercises of human existence. I have done a small role in a film that should be out this year and have faced the camera for the online show Jay Hind. But no, I don’t have that ambition to be an actor. If I do act, it’ll only be for fun or if the role is something really crazy. It would never be for money.

Ankhon dekhiFrom Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur) to Rajat Kapoor (Ankhon Dekhi) to newer names like Ashish R Shukla (Prague) and Deepti Kakkar, Fahad Mustafa (KatiyaBaaz), how has it been working with these people?

Everybody comes with their own world view and all these films have a take on our times in their own way, so it was a great experience every time. Anurag Kashyap gives a lot of creative freedom and that translated into one of my (and Sneha K’s) best output yet. Rajat Kapoor is very precise with what he wants and that resulted in a very disciplined, old-school writing for Ankhon Dekhi. Ashish Shukla, again, had an aural space in mind and that helped me do something I never thought I was capable of (writing for rock music), and Fahad and Deepti had such a rooted film that it inspired me to go back to my Lucknow days and find the local idiom.

Your first full-fledged script Maa Bhagwatiya IIT Coaching was selected for the prestigious NFDC Screenwriters’ Lab in 2013 and you flew to Toronto for the lab sessions. What was your experience at the Screenwriters’ Lab?

The lab was a wonderful experience, not just for the experienced mentors but also for the opportunity to discuss and work out on your script uninterrupted in an environment facilitated fully to help you.

Nikhil Mahajan, of Pune 52 fame, has come on board as producer for Maa Bhagwatiya IIT Coaching. What’s next for this film?

The film will begin shooting late this year, not before October. I am busy with other projects right now, so I haven’t even started planning.

You can follow Varun on his Twitter account, @varungrover and on FB at https://www.facebook.com/vidushak.

(Varun Grover pictures courtesy Raj Kumari. Other images courtesy aspoonfullofworld.blogspot.com, bdnews24.com)

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Bombay, bas

Trailing Mumbai’s roadside businesses

All sorts of entrepreneurs abound in Mumbai – the most ubiquitous are the ones operating their business on the roads.
by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

It takes all kinds of people to survive in a city that despite being already overcrowded, attracts migrants in droves by the hour from all over the country. The lure of making it big someday, the hope of feeding a family in a better manner, the irresistible pull of the city that never sleeps – there are varied reasons that bring a migrant to Mumbai. But once here, reality strikes in and strikes really hard. The rose-tinted glasses are cast off in no time and one settles down to the grimy, grueling existence.

One soon learns that nothing in this city comes for free, not even the tiny stretch of pavement where one can plonk a basket or a cart and hawk his or her wares. One learns the hard way that there is something by name of hafta to be paid to the cops to claim even that tiny stretch of pavement. But what if you are so hard up that you can’t even afford to pay the hafta?

Here’s where ingenuity kicks in, and several ‘roadside entrepreneurs’ are born.

Idli seller in MumbaiMurali, who sells idlis on the street corners of Andheri on his impromptu ‘stall’ set up on his bicycle says, “I live in Jogeshwari. I ride several kilometres to come down here because I can find office-going customers looking for cheap breakfasts. For me, this is a good business that brings quick profits. My grandfather owned a shop in the village. He used to cook and serve his customers. Here, in a city like this, owning even a tiny shop is difficult. I cannot afford it at present. I hope to slowly save money from this and eventually buy my own shop some day.”

Other roadside entrepreneurs move on to become ‘permanent’ by establishing a fixed spot on the roadside, even paying the afore-mentioned hafta. But many others function along ‘makeshift’ lines. Thus, the city teems with shoe sellers displaying their wares on a cart with wheels, or the no-frills idli-wada seller who just brings a large aluminium dabba with a stack of paper plates and a rolled up bunch of polythene bags, or the woman with a large container of poha and some Styrofoam bowls.

Savitri cuts a lone figure standing at the corner of the road that leads towards SEEPZ. There’s a small table in front of her and on it are placed two aluminum containers. One contains poha and the other sheera. A stack of paper plates completes the ensemble. A couple of young men head to the table and are soon munching away. “How much is a plate of poha?”, I ask, “10 Rupees” is the reply. And sheera? “15 Rupees.” she holds up a paper plate piled high with sheera enticing me. I take a bite and find it delicious. She lost her husband a couple of years ago and her children are in school. To make ends meet, she started selling food on the road, using the one skill she really knows well – cooking.

How many of these find customers, you wonder. But they do. Middle class office-goers who crave South Indian or Maharashtrian breakfasts but can’t afford the prices of a restaurant roadside stuff that, though sold through such humble means, don’t lack in taste. Likewise, the persons who can’t afford visits to even a small barber salon throng the roadside barber stalls, where they can get a quick haircut or shave for as less as Rs. 20 or Rs. 10.

Nasir, who runs a roadside barber shop in Kurla, is in his 60s. He has been in this “business” for decades. He has had several scrapes with the local cops but being the sole bread earner of his largeBangle seller in Mumbai family, he finds a way to resume his trade again. Though these barbers’ cuts are cheap, they are by no means untrendy. These barbers are known to tear out pages from used magazines featuring latest haircuts and see TV to keep themselves up to date with what’s in vogue.

Likewise, in many areas of the city, you will also find roadside ear-cleaners, impromptu dentists, bone-setters, and so on. All these persons operate from the pavements but never lack customers.

Unlike people who can invest good capital into their business, these people start with almost nothing. There’s no one to fund them, no means to pay off loans, and they cannot afford the licenses that would be required to set up proper shops. So they turn into roadside entrepreneurs and hope to fend for their families.

(Pictures courtesy www.stockpicturesforeveryone.com, www.thehindubusinessline.com. Images are used for representational purposes only)

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Achieve

How a few youngsters are looking to heal Kashmir

A group of youths initiated ‘Project Pheran’, to help those devastated by Kashmir floods deal with the impending harsh winter.
by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

The natural beauty of Jammu and Kashmir is known all over the world. Movies, books, songs, poetry – all of these have celebrated its charms and scenic landscapes.

But the Kashmir of today is vastly different. Following the floods that wrecked havoc in the region September 4, 2014 onwards, the valley has been a site of devastation. Villages have been washed away, homes submerged, lakhs of people rendered homeless and property worth hundreds of millions has been destroyed.

In the last month, rescue and relief efforts by various local and non-local groups have managed to save many a life in the flood-ravaged state. It will be a long time before the former glory of Kashmir is fully restored. What is of immediate concern now is the impending winter.

Hence, to combat the challenge of providing warmth to the flood-affected people, a group of enterprising youngsters have come forward and set up an initiative ‘Project Pheran/Project Warmth’. Through this project, they are collating funds from all over the country and abroad and providing needy persons with warm clothes, pherans (long cloak-like Kashmiri garments), blankets, coal and so on.

The group is quite small, comprising six persons who are not even based in the same city but who scattered across India. All of them are students of higher education in India and abroad, but their hearts and willpower are enormous and their conviction that they will make this project succeed is commendable. The group, which calls itself ‘Heal Kashmir’ connected through social media after the floods, is now a close-knit group and collaborates excellently.

The motley crew comprises Anup Achuthan, a senior finance professional based in Mumbai, Zayd Qureshi who takes care of on-ground distribution in Srinagar, Ruhan Naqash (from Chennai, Burhan Mir (Punjab & Haryana), Armish Riyaz (Punjab), Yasir Khan (Delhi, NCR) and Saqib Nazir (Bangalore) – they are the coordinators in various States across India, garnering funds and necessary materials.

The estimated initial expenses of the massive project is around Rs. 8 lakh using which they will  purchase the fabrics and get it stitched by local tailors who know the requirements of the region well. A textile factory in Sonipat has been identified which offers fabrics at concessional rates.

Says Anup, “We must do all we can to make sure people who survived the devastating floods do not succumb to the harsh winter due to lack of warm clothing and bedding.” He hopes that people of Mumbai will come forward with generous contributions to this project in monetary donations and kind. With lack of godowns and storage spaces, these student volunteers are storing the collections in their own apartments at the moment.

For Yasir, who is also the founder of J&K Disaster Helpline and Relief Organisation, it was a call for rescue that changed his fate. He and two other Kashmiri youths were working in their air-conditioned offices in Delhi when one of the team members, Iqbal Buchh, received a call from his friend who was stranded in his house due to rising flood waters. Yasir overheard the conversation and decided to call one Mr Singh to rescue the youth. After arranging for the youth’s rescue, Yasir had a brainwave – if he and his friends could manage to save one life, they could also try to save many more.

By then, phone lines on ground zero in Srinagar were almost dead, and network connections had fizzled out. Rescue operations had faced stumbling blocks at many areas. That’s when Yasir Khan, Iqbal and a third boy, Rouf Bhat, took two months unpaid leave from their jobs to start a helpline. The idea was to pave the way for smoother rescue operations.

“We started with a makeshift helpline in our apartments by posting our numbers on Facebook so that people could get in touch with us to rescue their families and friends. Within 10 days, we attended to over 45,000 calls, Whatsapp messages, and text messages. We were so engrossed in receiving and attending to rescue calls that we even forgot that our own families needed to be rescued. Fortunately, we soon learnt that our families were safe and sound,” recalls Yasir.

From rescue ops, the group has now progressed on their next mission – to provide warm clothes to the needy for the looming cold months.  As of today, J&K Disaster Helpline and Relief Organization is working in collaboration with Heal Kashmir for Project Pheran.

Armish says, “Mainly, we are collecting woollens, but if people donate other stuff, we accept that too. We have hired transport through a company in Delhi. They will deliver the materials to Srinagar by road. We are planning to put up collection centres in major colleges and universities across Punjab.” The team is hopeful of starting distribution by early November.

The team coordinator from Bangalore, Saqib, has been in touch with the Kashmiri diaspora in the city. Long before ‘Project Pheran’ started, he coordinated with various others to arrange for relief collection and dispatch to Srinagar.  With time, he became part of the Heal Kashmir team.

If you wish to support Project Pheran/Project Warmth, write to healkashmir14@gmail.com, or on Twitter @healkashmir, or Facebook: healkashmir.

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Deal with it

In the line of fire

There is no glory in death caused by negligence. A young firefighter’s death raises many questions about the profession and its hazards.
by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

In the line of fireOn July 18, 2014, Nitin Ivalekar (inset, on left), a brave Mumbai firefighter, died after being trapped in the burning building of Lotus Business Park. The top floors of the building, a 22-storey commercial establishment in suburban Andheri, caught fire at around 11 am.

More than a dozen firefighters were sent in for the rescue operation, Nitin Ivalekar among them. Unfortunately, for him, the rescue operation turned fatal as he became one of the casualties instead of one of the survivors.

Nitin belonged to the Borivali Unit of the Mumbai Fire Brigade and was among the first group which responded to the fire call. Five others who were part of the group of firefighters participating in the rescue operations on Friday are said to be badly injured. This incident brings to light the precariousness of firefighter’s lives and the inadequateness of fire safety measures in India.

A few good men (or women)

In India, where society has always urged youngsters to pick ‘safe’ jobs like engineers, doctors, architects, and so on, there are hardly any takers for firefighter jobs. Someone once said, “All men are created equal, then a few become firemen”. The brave young men (and women) who opt for this hazardous and risk-filled profession belong to that ‘indispensable yet invisible’ category of people whom we take for granted. A fire in some building? Call the firemen. Fire doused? Call them heroes and pay them rich tributes – and then forget all about them. The firemen go back into the shadows, waiting there 24×7, until the next firefighting operation starts.

Firefighting as a profession

Signing up to be a fireman is not merely a matter of building up a steely resolve or determination. You must possess the requisite qualifications and fitness too. Typically, there are two entry levels — Fireman and Assistant Station Officer and from there on, you can become a Fire Officer-In Charge, Fire Officer, Sub Fire Officer, and so on. The minimum qualification you need in order to be a fireman is, passing Class VII. To apply for an Assistant Station Officer, however, you must be a science graduate, with chemistry as your principal subject. This is because your task may involve handling chemicals or may need good subject knowledge of chemicals.

You also have to go through rigorous physical tests and procedures if applying for the position of firemen or ASO.

Tracing history

It was around 1477 that the earliest incidents of fire protection in erstwhile Bombay began to be noticed. Back then, there were no motorised engines. Men would operate makeshift carts and horse drawn carriages to put out fires. Only centuries later, the Bombay Fire brigade officially began as a part-time police function. In 1865, the Bombay Fire Brigade came under the joint control of the Government and the Municipality. A formal Bombay Municipal Corporation Act was put into place in 1888 and since then, fire safety and fire control measures became the responsibility of the Corporation. It was only around in 1907 that the first motorised fire engine was commissioned in Bombay.

Current scenario

The firefighting services in India are still not well-organised or well-equipped. Many State-level fire departments lack specialised firefighting appliances. The communication systems used by the fire departments are often archaic. Also, lack of adhering to fire safety norms by builders and proprietors of high rises leads to incidents of fire which could have been easily avoided. Besides these, it is the citizens’ onus too. Do we as citizens keep ourselves informed about fire safety measures? Do we take simple yet necessary precautions to prevent fires on a daily basis?

A number of corporate establishments are nowadays conducting fire drills and mock firefighting exercises to educate their employees. Such initiatives are needed in housing societies too. Any person using cooking gas cylinders on a regular basis must be aware of the dos and don’ts of using them and must be aware of precautions and disaster control measures. Likewise, people using inflammable items should be alert and cautious.

If every citizen were more alert, prevented fires, or took appropriate controlling measures in case of fires, the loss to life and property would be minimal.

As it happens, today, we take the department of fire services for granted. Lest we forget, these men who risk their life and limb for us are family men, too. Some, like Nitin Ivalekar, leave behind a very young wife and little kids. Others leave behind aging parents, who were probably dependent on his income.

A little caution on our part can go a long way in preventing fires and avoiding casualties.

(Pictures courtesy www.mumbaimirror.com, outlookindia.com) 

Categories
Eat

10 chutneys you can find in Mumbai

Mumbai is home to some awesome cuisines and the secret ingredient that rocks even the dullest fare – the humble chutney.
by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

In 1990, when an NRI woman entrepreneur, Namita Panjabi, opened her first Indian restaurant in Chelsea, London, she named it Chutney Mary to commemorate the humble Indian condiment that is today making waves all across the globe. Originally called chatni, this ubiquitous condiment has its roots in Eastern India as early as the 16th century.

Basic chutneysAs you move from one region to another in India, you will come across a variety of ways in which chutney is prepared.

Chutney may be raw or cooked; the former is a concoction of vegetables and the latter a mixture of chopped fruit, vegetables, vinegar and spices.

An Indian housewife can transform an otherwise drab meal into an interesting fare simply by using her imagination and producing innovative varieties of chutneys. Raw radishes, tomatoes, onions even boiled gourd peels and dried orange peels have their own special chutneys.

Chutneys have exceptional medicinal benefits too. Chutney prepared from fresh green curry leaves is said to be an excellent source of iron and protein. Though they were never allowed to go outside frequently in the early days, Indian women nevertheless had extreme ingenuity and skill and demonstrated this in churning out one variety of chutneys after another.

When it was found that these raw chutneys could not last more than a day, the ladies applied further ingenuity and came up with yet another trump card – chutney powder. Spices were roasted and ground with bits and pieces of dried vegetables, peels or leaves. For instance, curry leaves were dried in the sun and finely powdered with roasted spices. The end result – a long lasting, tasty, tangy chutney powder.

Here in Mumbai, we can come across these 10 types of chutneys:

The fiery red lasoon or garlic chutney

The ‘lasoon chutney’, a concoction of garlic and red-hot chillies, garnishes meals to add a fiery dash or to just the local dialect, ‘mirchify’ the meal, be it a dal rice or a simple fare of bhakar. The lasoon chutney is also popular with vada pav makers, who liberally spread it on the pav before dumping the potato vada on it.

The green pudina/dhania chutney

The green chutney typically made of fresh coriander leaves (dhania) or mint leaves (pudina), ginger, garlic, salt and chillies is often used in preparing sandwiches. It can also make a drab chapati tastier when spread over it.

The mirchi thecha

A coarsely ground mixture of raw green chillies, roasted peanuts, salt and garlic and optionally, a few drops of lime juice, this is a quickie, in the sense that it can be made within Mirchi thechaminutes, with the slightest of efforts (in pic on right).

The coconut chutney

This goes well with sabudana wadas, steamed idlis, dosas, and the like. It’s often made of freshly grated coconut, salt, green chillies, and a little bit of tamarind, with a slight variation here and there.

The sweet-sour chaat chutney

Every streetside chaat vendor swears by this. From the bhel puri to the sev puri to the paani puri, this chutney is a given in every chaat dish. In swanky restaurants, there is a more elegant version on offer, but when it comes to lip smacking, finger licking taste, the street side version wins hands down.

pithlaPithle (also called Bombay chutney)

A typical Maharashtrian favourite, this one is made of besan or gram flour paste, and is served as an accompaniment to poori, chapatis, and so on (in pic on left). Though, unlike the other chutneys, this one is not entirely made of raw stuff but requires some amount of cooking on the stove; it can be made in a jiffy and requires very few ingredients.

Raw mango or kairi chutney

This is a seasonal chutney and is made only in the summer. The spicy tangy combination of raw green mangoes (kairis) with red chillies, topped with a seasoning of mustard seeds, is set to be a mouthwatering winner when served in any menu. People eat it with dosas, pooris, chapatis, and even mix it with plain steamed rice.

Tomato chutney

Though originally a South Indian delicacy, today it has been well adopted into the Maharastrian palate. Made from ripe red tomatoes, cooked for long hours on a slow flame with lots of oil and spices, this one can last a whole year and is often stashed away in bottles for a rainy day.

Radish or mooli chutney

Again, this is an import from other States, which has slowly made its way into Maharastrian homes. Ideal for the chill winter months, this heat-inducing radish chutney is made of raw radish, garlic, salt, jaggery, and either red or green chillies.

Pineapple chutneypineapple chutney

Yet another outlander to the traditional Marathi cuisine, this one has probably been smuggled into the State by the Maharashtra-Karnataka (food) border outlaws. It is sweet, spicy, and tangy in parts, because of the pineapple chunks, the red chillies and the tamarind that goes into its making.

Did we miss any chutneys that are commonly available in Mumbai? Tell us about them in the comments section below.

(Pictures courtesy www.iskcon.net.au, vegetarianzest.blogspot.com, www.madhurasrecipe.com, www.saffronsunshine.com, whatscookinginyourworld.blogspot.com)

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