Ali in Kohima
(thomas;2023-June-25)
Food in Kohima is at least twice as expensive as in other parts of the north-east. Nobody knows why (though everybody was complaining), but while a simple Veg Thali will normally cost between 70 and 120 rupees (100 rupees are roughly £1) the cheapest Thali we found in Kohima was 250 rupees. 
Well, enter Ali and his Rice Hotel. Ali is a Muslim (of which there are not that many in the north-east) and his Rice Hotel is a very basic kitchen-cum-sitting affair: everything happens in one smallish room and there's only one bench against a wall for a maximum of four customers.
BTW: a "hotel" in India can be a hotel in our sense, ie a place to sleep, but the word is often also used to describe a cheap eatery. So if you see an "XYZ Hotel" in India, it's as often as not a simple restaurant and not a real hotel. The photo to the right shows a typical menu, here for a "Hotel Victoria" in Guwahati.
Ali normally does meat dishes only and much of that is beef as Muslim restaurants are among the very few places where non-Hindus can find beef dishes (although we have seen Hindus in these places as well). However, when we asked whether he could whip up a Veg Thali for us, he was happy to oblige (and his price was a very reasonable 100 rupees). Ali is a cheerful, always smiling man but it was clear from what he told us that for him life in Kohima is very hard indeed. His eatery just about makes enough money to eke out a living but it's clear that his landlord (6000 rupees rent per month), the drinking water delivery company (every two weeks he gets a few thousand litres delivered, for a few thousand rupees) and others make more money out of his business than he himself does, although he stands in his kitchen ten hours each day, every day. His dream is to be able to try his luck outside of India, in the Gulf region or Saudi Arabia perhaps or, big dream indeed, even somewhere in the west. He was certainly very proud of his passport and asked us time and time again to help him with acquiring a UK visa... many locals have no idea at all how our systems in the west work and that we can do precisely nothing to help them with obtaining a visa.
Ali's family is originally from the hot plains of Assam and when we wondered why he had moved up into this cool hill station it turned that he had found life in Assam had been even harder... not so much money-wise but because he had sensed an increasingly hostile attitude towards Muslims (Assam is a Hindu-dominated state with Narendra Modi's BJP as the largest party). Apparently this is not so much along the lines of actual atrocities (though these do happen) but more about problems and slights in everyday life, both by officialdom and other people. Many Indians don't want to hear this (and won't accept it) but in our own experience the country has become more divided and polarised (and unfortunately polarised along religious lines, something Mahatma Gandhi always deplored) since Modi has taken office. A muscular Hindu nationalism is clearly a vote-winner in a predominantly Hindu country, but the large Muslim minority definitely feels under increasing pressure and it's not unfeasible that India ends up as a sort of "dictatorial rule by democratic majority", with very little the minorities (even sizable minorities like the Muslims) can do about it.
Want to read more? Go back to Lakshmi in Imphal or go on to The Shaman of Hari or go up to Meet the Locals
$updated from: Blog.htxt Mon 04 Mar 2024 16:04:39 trvl2 (By Vero and Thomas Lauer)$