Indian hotcakes!

The other day I was in the saloon getting a haircut. Just outside the barber's shop there was a couple preparing and selling bhajjis (sort of fried edible things quite common all over the country, I guess). What surprised me was that there was never a moment of rest, neither for the woman preparing it, nor for the man, packing and selling it. It was literally selling like 'hotcakes'!

As if this was not enough, something else also happened. The ladle which the lady was using to cull out the fried bhajjis slipped and fell on the ground - the same ground with all the dust and mud and every other imaginable (and unimaginable) filth - those who know Kothavalasa or for that matter any town market area will not have to imagine hard. I took it for granted that she would wash it or at least shake it well or use a piece of cloth to wipe it before using it. I was proved totally and confidently wrong. She just picked it up and as though NOTHING happened she inserted the ladle back in the boiling oil and continued her cooking!

Perhaps it all adds to the taste of the bhajjis!