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Dak Bungalow Curry

The British had set up rest-houses known as Daak Bungalow. In Hindi, Dak means mail. The officers used Dak Bungalow to collect taxes, pick-up or leave official communiqué. In 1950s I saw a Dak Bungalow located in Rupbas (Rajasthan). The Dak Bungalow was used during Shikar (Hunt). Somehow, there was always an Anglo-Indian woman who would found her way to the Dak Bungalow to keep the company of the traveling British officer. Every Dak Bungalow has a love story to tell, only if the walls could talk. I have heard similar stories about Anglo-Indian women at Dak Bungalow in Delhi. Someone should write a book about these Anglo-Indian women at the Dak Bungalows.

In the rear, every Daak Bungalow had chicken coup manned by 'Murghi wala', one or two cows manned by 'Gowala'. There was a resident Khansama.

Dak Bungalow was equipped with a kitchen, bath with Hamaam, bedroom. The Dak Bungalow located in Rupbas (Rajasthan) had no oven. It had a furnace (Bhatti) made of clay to burn wood. Bhatti allowed the Khansama to cook while standing up. In the morning, fresh-water fish from local pond was fried in a skillet, served with hard boiled eggs. The hunt was cleaned and cooked. Otherwise, the Chicken was butchered. The curry was made according to local practice known to the Khansama. He would reduce the number and amount of spices to make is very mild. Fresh vegetables were steamed, fresh butter was churned.

Dak Bungalow curry at Rupbas was mild chicken curry. The chicken curry was served with fried boiled potatoes or pumpkin, rice, bread and fresh white butter (Makhan).