The city has long loved its jhalmuri. Crisp puffed rice slightly softened by fresh vegetables and given crunch by nuts, with generous sprinkles of mustard oil strong enough to make the uninitiated sniff in discomfort.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign stop for a thonga of jhalmuri in the run-up to the Bengal polls turned the beloved street snack into a symbol of the state’s political shift.
“Jhalmuri is not unhealthy like telebhaja,” said a jhalmuri seller in central Calcutta.
Arjun Kumar Pandit, 41, runs his stall from a charpoy off Bentinck Street. The business has been in his family for three generations.
“Aloo chop is dipped and fried in oil. In jhalmuri, we use mustard oil only for flavour. It is much healthier,” said Pandit, who is from Motihari in Bihar.
His grandfather started the roadside stall around 60 years ago. The business was later passed on to Pandit’s father and then to him. He has been running it for the past 20 years.
“Jhalmuri in Bengal is like vada pav in Maharashtra or litti chokha in Bihar. Modi-ji has made it even more popular in Bengal. More people want to have it now,” Pandit said. “Modi-ji had jhalmuri during the election campaign and we welcome the change he brings to Bengal.”
On April 19, Modi stopped at a snack shop in Jhargram for jhalmuri, paying ₹10 for a thonga of the snack. “Pyaaz khate hai... dimag nahi khate bas (I eat onions... I don’t eat brains),” Modi had told the shopkeeper.
At his Calcutta stall, Pandit adds freshly sliced onions, cucumber and coriander leaves to the muri.
Every morning at 4.30am, he travels to Sealdah market to buy puffed rice. “The muri has to be fresh. I don’t have a place to stock it, so I go to the market every day,” he said.
Pandit also prepares his own spice mix. “The flavour comes from the masala we make ourselves. It has pepper, jeera, garam masala, salt and more,” he said, refusing to reveal the full recipe.
His jhalmuri comes with a twist: three chutneys — mitha (sweet), jhal (hot and spicy) and sattu chutney (sour).
“I cater to every customer’s taste. Some walk past and buy a thonga of jhalmuri. Some step out of air-conditioned cars,” Pandit said.
At his stall, customers cut across communities and classes. “Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Bihari, everyone comes,” he said.
Pandit serves around 250 customers a day and earns about ₹1,500. “If I don’t make this much, how will I run my family or pay my helper?” he asked.
He also had a message for the Prime Minister. “We work on the footpath and keep hearing rumours about eviction. Modi-ji should think about us because the footpath gives us our livelihood,” Pandit said.