“Taak” Dhina Dhin

This is a tale of 6 people(Including yours truly), 2 from Mumbai, 2 from Pune and 2 from in between the two legendary cities.

We all decided one day to troop in at Pune and climb up the Sinhgad fort and enjoy.

A major part of the climb was done by the diesel powered 4-wheeler (name is immaterial) and we reached the gate of the fort in a jiffy compared to the hardships our ancestors had when they actually built it and then defended and reconquered it.

Anyways, thats not the matter, what happened within the fort is more of interest.

Having nursed a wish for having some “ethnic” food up the fort, we didnt have any thing down the hill to keep our stomachs empty for “High” Lunch. So after a brief trundling around on the fort (of course after getting in there) and umpteen photo-ops amongst the SuperSix, we decided to settle into a cute (?) looking hut which was like a restaurant on the fort.

It had a long, narrow table, and equally narrow benches on both sides of the table. The furniture could have been classified as “Modern Art” in any corner of the world. Moreover the kitchen was right in front of us with the wood-fired chula occupying the prominent place.

The people who ran the place played the list of dishes available, Zunka - Bhakri and KandaBhaji and dahi and taak (butter-milk). Famished as we were, we opted for almost all of it except the dahi. The taak tasted good and we kept asking for more. Ultimately when we had our fill, we asked for the bill.

And then came the shocker, the Taak was at a price of ……………

Rs. 30 per glass.

The reason given was that each glass requires 3 pots of dahi each costing Rs. 10. Hmm thats really a 5 Star Taak, isnt it! Anyways since we had already consumed it, we paid up and left in a state of shock. (By the way, the taak was recommended by the future better half of one of us and since we had high regards for the lady and her knowledge, we couldn’t abstain ourselves from the Taak)

The after-effects have been too much…..

Two of the 6 are out of the country to avoid the haunting spectre of the “Taak”.

The Punekars are smarting under the fact that how this could happen in their area inspite of their presence and are planning to start a Early Warning System Against Taak for the Sinhagad Visitors (EWSATS-V).

And the remaining two are still trying to figure out how they can work out a business plan for exporting taak from all the corners of the country and flooding the Sinhagad Taak Market and bringing down the prices to rock-bottom (A la Reliance Mobile or Air Deccan)…

And everytime any of them sees or drinks taak, the wound opens and then…..