SIDELIGHTS OF HIGH COURT

Enter the High Court and the premises will treat you with sumptuous aroma of mithai, pakoras and tea. Even inside when you will ask anyone for a teastall, everyone is sure to guide you to Bindu chaiwala, saying: “This is not an ordinary stall. There’s an interesting history to it.” and that’s true. The shop, serving delectable Lahore special ‘barfi’ and ‘malai mar ke chai,’ belongs to third generation stall runners, the trio of Sharma brothers: Pitambar, Arvind and Bhupinder. They got it as inheritance from father Pandit Prem Nath, who also was earlier at Lahore and Simla High court serving chai-nashta to judges and advocates like his father Pandit Parsuram. So as the Punjab and Haryana High court moved from Lahore, Simla, Amritsar (for a short span) to Chandigarh the family moved along.
“Our shop is as old as the high court,” says Pitambar, a graduate who is happily following footsteps of his father.
Talking about the tea-culture in India, that has become staple now. He says, “My dad used to say that decades ago none would have tea but milk. The British made it popular in India. We still serve tea with malai that’s a bit more nourishing than ordinary tea.”
As Pitambar is busy preparing tea, a tall man adorning that black robe enters the shop, with happiness written clearly on his face, and says, “Chal sab da muh mitha kara.” Be it celebrating a win, an occasion like Diwali or somebody getting promoted from peon to judge this sumptuous barfi is an essential part of all merriment in the high court.
Relishing a cuppa of tea, the advocate adds, “Bindu’s preparation is out of the world. Our off-shore relatives who visit us in winter holidays demand nothing else but the khalas mithai.” The recipe for much-talked about barfi is pure milk and sugar that’s made in a large karavi in the small shop. Arvind says, “Time has changed but not our grandpas’ recipe.”