Bending it like cook Raju
Tidying cupboards before Diwali, I idled through a yellowing recipe collation titled ‘Raju//Starters/Main Courses’. The image of Raju, our Michelin Star-deserving cook, flashed in my mind. Tubby Raju, our officers’ mess cook in 1776-raised 16th Light Cavalry, was a hard-to-manage master craftsman whom the cavalry fraternity revered. A die-hard Pele fan, Raju scored stunning goals through corner-kick variations, floating, bending the football’s flight into opposition goalposts well before footballer David Beckham would make ‘bend it like Beckham’ a household phrase.
The 1 Armoured Brigade inter-unit football championship in Patiala cantonment following the Pele-centric 1970 World Cup was a futebol war. ‘16th’ competed fiercely with rivals Hodson’s Horse, Fakhr-e-Hind Poona Horse and 20 Maratha LI; famous units with no quarter sought/conceded. Yet, when barefoot Raju took his ‘innocuous’ looping corner kicks, hushed silence followed the spinning, floating, bending ball’s trajectory past aghast goalie’s with Raju’s breathtaking Brazilian ginga; the 16th rank-and-file would rise in frenzied waves screaming ‘Vetrivel Veeravel!’ — the regiment’s battle cry.
Raju, an incorrigible rule-and-discipline bender, loved Bacchus. His physics-defeating goals; to-die-for smoked salmon/trout starters, mouth-melting mocha ice cream and succulent main courses; not least, his fine-dining fans crowded with dining-in members/recipe-seeking lady-wives were his protective armour.
Grapevine had it that he had a fairytale Mumbai connection attributed to brilliant Great War veteran Maj ‘Leslie’ Sawhney. Commanding the Humber/Daimler-equipped armoured car ‘B’ Squadron under Lt Col (later Army Chief) JN Chaudhari in Burma in Slim’s 14th Army, Leslie led the historic Allied dash to recapture Rangoon (now Yangon) from fleeing Japanese troops, linking up on May 5, 1945, with Capt Terence Glancy, ‘A’ Squadron 19 Lancers/26 Infantry Division.
Charismatic Leslie, having fallen in love with Rodabeh, the youngest sister of business tycoon JRD Tata, left the Army prematurely. His sterling leadership qualities were tested as director, Taj Hotel, leading to its turnaround physically and financially, reports Tata chronicler, Dr Shashank Shah.
Author/chronicler and Leslie’s friend Commodore Ranjit Rai writes that in the 1960s, the Taj informally trained Naval cooks. He highlights renowned Naval chef Bhattacharya’s scrumptious ‘Lobster Thermidor’. One guesses Raju was similarly trained through his fine-dining regimental fan, Leslie Sawhney. No wonder that his mulligatawny soup, almond soup, Waldorf Astoria salad or main courses like chicken au gratin and baked fish left diners’ taste-buds tingling.
Raju mattered much to us perpetually hungry dining-in bachelors. His golden-brown masala/plain dosas with sambar, mouth-melting idlis, delectable coconut chutney, fiery ‘gunpowder’ and frothy filter coffee had us captivated — so did his chicken shashlik cooked specially for us.
Raju, you made a difference with your food, Brazilian ginga; bending it like Beckham would come later.
