Mir’s meal…

As cold wave sweeps over north India, in street corners across cities, towns and villages, hungry people wolf down piping chole-kulche and feel better.  Chhole kulche is like haiku, the Japanese poetry form that says so much in so few words. With no oil, no fat and as light as a feather, it is still mealy. If office goers in the skyscrapers of Nehru Place have forgotten to get tiffin, they are most likely to go out to have a plate of chhole kulche. 

There is no pretension in its making. Made of maida flour, kulcha bread is mass-steamed in small-scale factories. Chhole, which here are green peas sun-dried to a pale yellow, are boiled in water and left at that. The art is in the garnishing. A good cart is stocked with an array of ingredients that gives it a colourful glow: green cucumbers, pink-ish onion rings, red tomato slices and yellow lemons. 

After you place the order, the kulcha-wallah bhaiyya ladles chhole into a leaf bowl, and with his fingers moving like an accomplished pianist, he quickly adds in the garnishes and squeezes the lemon dry. As he reaches for garam masala, he asks, “Very spicy, middle spicy or no spice?” The chhole is topped with chopped coriander leaves, slivers of purple chukandar and ginger julienne. If you like, you can get the kulcha re-heated in butter. Sliced carrots, mango pickles and green chilies make for the final touch. 

After you place the order, the kulcha-wallah bhaiyya ladles chhole into a leaf bowl, and with his fingers moving like an accomplished pianist, he quickly adds in the garnishes and squeezes the lemon dry. As he reaches for garam masala, he asks, “Very spicy, middle spicy or no spice?” The chhole is topped with chopped coriander leaves, slivers of purple chukandar and ginger julienne. If you like, you can get the kulcha re-heated in butter. Sliced carrots, mango pickles and green chilies make for the final touch.

 “Kulcha” was the official symbol of the Asaf Jahi dynasty. It is the only food product to appear on emblem of any royal family in the world! The kulcha appeared not only on their Coat of Arms but also on the official flag of Hyderabad stare. There is no similar precedent of a royal family having a food product as their emblem. The only equivalent would be if a French noble family would have a baguette or Italian princely house foccacia bread on their coat of arms!

To trace the story of the kulcha and the nizams, it is important to go back to the originals of the Asaf Jahi empire. The largest unit in the Mughal Empire was the Subah or a Province. The biggest Subah was the Subah-i-Dakhan or the province of Deccan. After the death of Auranzeb, the Mughal empire was in decline. The imperial court of Delhi was steeped in profligacy, debauchery and general state of dissoluteness. The old timers felt pained that the great imperial court and the “Mughalia sultanat” had sunk so low. One of these was Mir Qamruddin.

Mir Qamruddin was a old courtier in Delhi court and his family had served the Mughal emperors on high positions for many years. However, Mir Qamruddin was very unhappy about the state of affairs. According to his biographe, he grew to hate the "harlots and jesters" who were the Emperor's constant companions and greeted all great nobles of the realm with lewd gestures and offensive epithets. Nizam ul-Mulk's desire to restore the etiquette of the Court and the discipline of the State earned him few friends. Envious and malicious courtiers poisoned the mind of the Emperor against Mir Qamruddin. 

Mir Qamruddin was informed that he was appointed the “subedar-i-dakhan” or the governor of Deccan. He decided to take up the appointment and leave Delhi for good. Before leaving, he decided to meet his spiritual guide, the Sufi mystic Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia. Hazrat Nizamuddin invited him for a meal and offered him kulchas tied in a yellow cloth. Mir Qamruddin apologized for his hunger, on which Hazrat said that he could eat as many kulchas as he wanted. Mir Qamruddin wolfed down seven kulchas. Hazrat Nizamuddin then blessed him and prophesized that one day he would be king and that his descendants would rule for seven generations.

This prophecy came to be true. Soon after Mir Qamruddin came to Deccan, Nadir Shah invaded and sacked Delhi. All vestiges of Mughal power were gone. Soon the Nizams, who were simply governors, declared their de facto independence from the Delhi court. As prophesized, seven generations of Nizams would rule of the biggest kingdom in India. The seventh Nizam, Nawab Sir Osman Ali Khan joined the Indian union after the Hyderabad police action by the Indian army. The eighth descendant, Mukarram Jah would only inherit the title but nothing else. 

Kulcha still lives on, strong and proud. From its humble origins in the street corners of India, it is even available in supermarkets in UK and US like ASDA and Sainsburys. But I always wonder if Mir Qamruddin regretted eating only seven kulchas? Also, I don’t know if he was offered chole along with them, as I have no doubt that had those kulchas been offered with chole, Mir Qamruddin would have definitely eaten more!