Part
of the Indian tourists experience of coming to Rishikesh is to meet some of the
Hindu gods in person.
In
this Chotiwala's does not disappoint. Seated outside the restaurants on the
cobbled road up to Sri Nabootha Temple is the god Durga. Or rather an actor
playing the part - an overweight man wearing just a dhoti and covered from head
to toe in white makeup to make him look the part. People pose for pictures with
him and he acts as a fabulous advertisement for the restaurant behind him.
There are in fact
two Chotiwala's restaurants side by side. Once they were one great restaurant owned
by two Punjabi brothers. The two fell out and the restaurant was seperated
between them. Both are excellent though the one to the right has a better
reputation and the one to the left better airconditioning.
The food is
simple vegetarian catering to the thousands of pilgrims who pass through
Rishikesh and mainly consists of dhals, lentils, khorya paneer, thalis and
chapatis. The place is very busy and the waiter service is rather erratic but
this does not seem to disturb the families who pack this place out and give it
it's atmosphere. The food is very cheap, not more then 20 rupees a dish and
foreigners don't merit a second glance. Even if you don't want to eat their ice-cold
coke's are a tonic in the Indian heat.
When you leave
look out for an unexpected attack.
A man dressed as
the monkey-god Hanuman lies in wait to ambush unsuspecting tourists. This
tourist jumped ten foot in the air! It's quite a fright to have a 6ft man with
black painted face and tail jump out of you and then leap down the lane. I must
have been a very tempting target. Who can blame him?
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