The Corona Conundrum

What’s a travel writer to do in this time of travel bans and self-quarantines? Give in to temptation or stay put? Continue writing or go bust?

By Raul Dias

Here’s a numerical glimpse into my current life status as a freelance travel writer. Two is the number of months since I’ve travelled anywhere farther than a 10-kilometer radius from my home in Mumbai. Five is the number of pre-planned trips that have fallen by the wayside. Two of those were to be within India, and three, internationals.
A little more than thirty thousand is the combined amount in rupees that I will never see again. Irreplaceable and lost in a gut-wrenching combination of cancelled airline, hotel and other miscellaneous booking fees. Yes, life as a ‘jet-setting’ travel writer isn’t as glamourous and envious as it is made out to be. Nor is it always about sponsored press trips as is the common belief. More often than not, I do travel on my own hard-earned dime too, you see.
Now, here’s where it really begins to hurt. Seven is the number of travel articles of mine that have either been junked or held over by the travel editors of the various publications that I contribute to. Each one of them deeming the publication of said pieces insensitive in the current scenario, which according to me is a rather sore, moot point. I mean, if people can’t travel, at least they can read about it, right? Zero is how many new travel article pitches of mine have been accepted since the last two weeks. And don’t even get me started on the figures of my projected income for the current month.
But before you accuse me of hideously exaggerating my ‘first world problems’ while carrying on with this soppy spiel, I need to let you in on something. Freelance travel writing, along with a little restaurant reviewing on the side (which again, is virtually non-existent these days) is not just the essence of my very being, but my only two sources of livelihood. Never mind the fact that both are grossly underpaid jobs here in India to begin with. Still, there’s nothing I love more. Or know to do better for that matter. So, do afford me the luxury of whining on.
It’s strange how the urge to pack my bag and head out into the vast unknown is even more heightened now, when travel is an almost forbidden temptation. Sure, I get my rocks off vicariously from my quotidien supply of the many travel vlogs that both Facebook and YouTube make sure to not-so-mysteriously send my way. But that’s not enough for me. There’s really nothing that comes close to the real deal of hitting the road and finding that elusive story along the way.
The last week’s been particularly tough, when for the first time in the last four years, I’ve been home for my birthday. I detest celebrating my birthdays with a vengeance and have consciously chosen to be on the road then to avoid any embarrassing, unnecessary hoopla. Usually, some of the first people to wish me are immigration officers and front office staff at hotels once they scan through my dog-eared bundle of stapled together passports. This year, I had to make do with soggy, early morning nose kisses from my trio of dogs. But no complaints there.
Chances are that by the time this essay is out, I would have succumbed. And no, I don’t mean to that omnipresent sense of boredom that I’m dealing with thanks to our new favourite phrase du jour aka. “social distancing”. Nor do I mean yielding to that rather virulent and surprisingly durable Chinese export that the world’s grappling with at this moment with all its might. At the risk of being conferred upon with a host of descriptors with selfish, careless and irresponsible being the top three most probable ones, I suspect that I would have fallen prey to my life’s one constant—the lure and love of a good travel story. Never mind how bonkers the process of chronicling it might seem!
Just as I was sitting down to pen this diatribe of sorts, an e-vite to be a part of India’s first ‘Isolation Getaway for Longevity’, nestled itself snugly in my inbox. “Utilise your quarantine with us,” says the Atmantan Wellness Centre that claims to be a ‘natural healing destination’ thanks to its location on the banks of the crystalline Mulshi Lake and only a 3-hour drive from virus-battling Mumbai.
As bizarrely inappropriate as it seems given its timing, I’d be lying if I said that this invite hasn’t intrigued me. Maybe I will accept it, maybe I won’t. Hopefully, time will tell.

(A differently edited version of this article first appeared in the 28th March issue of The Hindu Business Line newspaper's BLink section on page 20 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/takeaway/lockdown-and-the-travel-writer/article31180919.ece)

Bowled Over!

Known for its wholesome appeal and colourful components, the meal-in-one bowl is fast becoming one of the hottest international food trends—from its savoury to sweet avatars. Smart Life brings you a few such bowls from across the country.  

By Raul Dias

Almost instantly spelling out the words ‘Comfort Food’ in big, bold alphabets, the one bowl meal has a certain easy-going, pretence-free vibe about it and one that has achieved popularity and hipster-chic credence over the last couple of years. Not only are they a convenient and clever way to mix all of your favourite ingredients together, but for whatever reason food just seems more interesting when served from a bowl!
Be it an Asian-style Buddha bowl, a Korean bibimbap-influenced bowl or a fruit and oats-laden breakfast bowl topped with the very fashionable and au courant sliced avocado and chia seeds, the bowl meal is here to stay.
We’ve compiled a list of a few such bowls here in India that have left us, well…bowled over with their brilliance.

Hot Pot Bowl
At Pra Pra Prank, Gurugram
A hot pot is a classic Mongolian rice dish that is served with various vegetable and meat toppings which come sizzling hot in a stone pot. One gets fantastically browned brunt rice at the bottom of the pot, making this dish extra delicious. In this version of the one bowl meal, wok tossed Schezwan-sauced rice is topped with chicken, water chestnuts, roasted peanuts, sweet corn kernels, chives, mushrooms and fried garlic. What makes this dish even more special is that it gives the diner the unique experience of eating from a sizzling stone bowl into which all the ingredients are mixed in front of them. “I came up with this idea because when we were preparing for our new menu, winter was approaching. And so, I thought that I should present my guests with a memorable experience,” says Chef Aryav, the Executive Chef at Pra Pra Prank. “And I thought that there can be nothing better than a sizzling hot meat and rice dish which stays hot till the last bite!”

Morning Glory Bowl and Tokyo Pork Bowl
At Shibuii, Mumbai
Offering two distinct bowls—one vegetarian and one pork-based—this new Pan-Asian restaurant champions this food trend. To begin with, the morning glory bowl is composed of a serving of morning glory leaves tossed in garlic and chilly and then bathed in yellow bean sauce. This is complimented with steamed aromatic jasmine rice. To complete the meal, the bowl also consists of delicately hand rolled vegetable spring rolls drizzled with a tangy hoisin sauce, which gives the meal that extra something. To add to it, the bowl also includes some starch in the form of finger potatoes in a sweet and spicy sauce.
On the other hand, the Tokyo pork bowl is made up of delicious and succulent chargrilled pork belly slices glazed in a spiced curry broth made with the stock of pork, herbs and vegetables. All this is perfectly paired with steamed jasmine rice with prawn crackers and a hand-rolled spring roll adding some crunch to your meal-in-one bowl.

Chilli Tossed Tuna Poké Bowl
At Toast & Tonic  Bengaluru
Generally, this Hawaiian-origin one bowl wonder is a delicious concoction where soy- and sesame oil-marinated raw tuna cubes are served atop vinegared sushi rice. Predominantly a lunch dish, poké (pronounced poh-kay) has taken over the world as a healthy, highly nutritious and fun way to eat fish and rice. Dishing out one of the yummiest iterations of the dish in India we’ve had the pleasure of eating, Toast & Tonic in Bengaluru’s Ashok Nagar does things a little differently with their Chilli Tossed Tuna Poké Bowl. Here the traditional sushi rice is substituted for the short-grained and sticky Gobindobhog variety from Bengal, with the bowl topped off with a passion fruit and pineapple vinaigrette, a halved, beetroot-pickled boiled egg and fresh avocado cubes. All of this is then sprinkled with micro mustard greens, shards of nori (dried Japanese seaweed), fried onions and a sprinkling of the very fashionable chia seeds.

Hot Stone Bowl
At Molecule Air Bar, New Delhi
Drawing in great inspiration from the classic Korean dish called bibimbap, the super colourful hot stone bowl served here consists of warm jasmine rice accompanied by various ingredients like water chestnuts, broccoli, peanuts, sprouts, tofu, spring onion, peppers, chicken, with a fried egg sitting atop it. One also gets to choose a sauce of your liking. Here all the ingredients are mixed in a heated stone bowl in front of the guest at their table and served piping hot. “This dish has very warm flavours which are just right for the winter season,” says Mohammed Anas Qureshi, the Brand Chef. “And as it is served in a hot bowl, the dish stays warm for a longer period of time. The whole idea of this dish is to serve our guest something which brings warmth to their dining experience this season.”

Kiwi Banana Smoothie Bowl
At The Daily Bar & Kitchen, Mumbai
We’ve truly saved the ‘sweetest’ bowl on this list for last with the fruity, all-day breakfast treat that is the yummy kiwi banana smoothie bowl at Mumbai’s The Daily Bar & Kitchen. This bowl is made by blending fresh kiwis and chopped bananas with yogurt that is perfect for people following a healthy diet. Coconut powder is incorporated into this mixture for added flavour, post which it is kept in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours. The dish is then served in a bowl and topped with slices of both fruits, delicious toasted granola and some chia seeds to add the right amount of texture. “Banana and Kiwi are my favourite fruits and I usually choose these when I am on the go. Being my staples, I decided to incorporate these two in a smoothie bowl allowing my breakfasts to be super healthy and easy to make,” says Liton Bhakta, Head Chef, The Daily Bar & Kitchen. “Since it worked so well, I decided to add this to The Daily’s menu and ever since it has been the most ordered smoothie bowl!”

(A differently edited version of this piece was first published in the March 2020 issue of The Week's Smart Life magazine)

Fusion Flavours!

Anglo-Indian cuisine, India’s ‘original fusion cuisine’ is a fascinating one that’s spiced with centuries of history and culture.   

By Raul Dias

As one of India’s most underrepresented cuisines, Anglo-Indian food and its wonderful cache of fusion dishes is all but a lost legacy. Once the mainstay of colonial-style gentlemen’s clubs and railway canteens overseen by khansamas, Anglo-Indian cuisine is slowing inching out of the woodwork. All this, thanks to efforts of people like Bridget White Kumar—author of several cookbooks on this unique cuisine who are seeking a revival of dishes that hold within them centuries of history and culture. The latest boost comes in the form of the recent opening of India’s first true-blue Anglo-Indian cuisine restaurant, Anglow in New Delhi’s Khan Market.
We look at some classic Anglo-Indian dishes that have stood the test of time here in India…

Jalfrezi and Pepper Water
This two-part Anglo-Indian dish is a strange one given its geographical antecedents. The former part of the dish was born in erstwhile Calcutta when it served as the capital of India right up to 1772. Derived from the Bengali word jhal parhezi which means “hot dish”, the vegetable stew—that’s tempered with mustard oil—is always served with a thin broth-like side dish called pepper water. The latter itself came from another British strong-hold of the then Madras Presidency, where the tamarind pulp-based dish is more-commonly known as rasam or saaru.

Chicken Country Captain
This three-way fusion dish is an amalgamation of the Italian chicken stew of cacciatore, a British roast chicken and an Indian korma. Named after the captains of the ‘country ships’ owned by the British East India Company, in whose galleys this dish took shape, the red-hued preparation is a sweet-n-spicy chicken gravy best mopped up with slices of crusty bread.

Ball Curry and Yellow Rice
Taking the very British dish of meatball stew and giving it an Indian flip, this quintessential Anglo-Indian classic sees the introduction of thick coconut milk added to the stew that’s further spiced width cumin and coriander powder. This Anglo Sunday lunch staple is always served with an accompanying duo of sides that take the form of a sunshine yellow turmeric rice and a devil’s chutney made from Kashmiri chillies, tomatoes, sugar and vinegar.

Spiced Allahabad Fruit Cake
This dense, rich confection—that is part of the edible legacy left behind by the once strong Anglo-Indian community of Allahabad—best defines this fusion cuisine. While desi ghee stands in for the regular fruit cake shortening of butter, giving the cake a slight savoury edge, local Indian spices like nutmeg, saunf (fennel powder) and sonth (dried ginger powder) make it typically Anglo-Indian. Further augmenting this mélange is the use of petha (candy pumpkin) that replaces the once hard-to-procure candied fruit peel that had to be imported in from good ol’ Blighty. Today, Allahabad’s famous bakery Bushy’s on Kanpur Road is one of the few places where one can still get a slice of this unique cake.

(An edited version of this article first appeared in the March 2020 issue of Travel 360, the in-flight magazine of Air Asia India)

(Not So) High Pie!

With a menu full of yummy pizzas in a range of sizes more than making up for the uninspired service and lacklustre ambience, this new mid-town pizza place gets some of its basics right, never mind its rather misleading name.     

By Raul Dias

Over the years we’ve come to realise that expectations can be dangerous things. Especially in this context, when pitted against one of the most interesting iterations of the humble pizza pie—the Chicago-style deep dish. That gooey 2-inch high creation crammed full of molten cheese and other scrumptious treats like good old pepperoni and spicy chicken sausage is made famous by iconic Chicago pizza places like Lou Malnati’s and Giordano’s.
Driving by Mahim’s main L.J. Road, seeing this new pizza place take shape over the last couple of months, we couldn’t wait to give it a try. Hoping fervently that we’d finally find the deep dish at Chicago Pizza. After all, it’s even named after it. We’re sad to report that we didn’t! There’s everything but the said deep dish pizza on their rather extensive menu.
Greeted by an empty restaurant and a deserted counter, we sat ourselves down on the uncomfortably low chairs, fronted by an even lower table. It would be almost ten minutes later that the restaurant’s staff finally emerges from their hibernation in the back kitchen and we are beckoned over to the counter to place our order in typical QSR style. All payments made upfront; we waited another half an hour to see some action on our table.
Choosing the large (14-inch) thin crust Italian pepperoni pizza (Rs 529) from a wide range of sizes that range from a single slice (Rs 189) to an extra-large (Rs 909 for an 18-inch) one proved to be a good decision. Bursting with the gooey umami goodness of cheese with the spicy hit of the pork pepperoni, we were in love with this pizza from the first bite. Equally scrumptious was the medium sized (9-inch) four cheese pizza (Rs 269) where one could taste the distinct flavours of the Monterrey, cheddar, gouda and mozzarella cheeses in this creamy, tomato-sauce bereft pizza.
Sadly, our trio of mocktails were rather disappointing. While the Indian spice soda (Rs 99) was anything by spicy, the virgin mojito (Rs 99) was a watery, over-sugared miss. Faring a tad better, though flat and minus the fizz, was our strawberry cooler (Rs 99).
While wishing the pizzaiolo (pizza chef) was a tad more generous with their light-handed sprinkling of mini chicken meatballs, we still loved the herby taste of the large chicken meatball pizza (Rs 399). Packed with the punch of robust Indian flavours, our medium sized rustic mushroom pizza (Rs 269) rounded off our pizza action for the day perfectly with its savoury goodness.
Choosing to go a little ‘off-piste’ in our final selection of savoury items, the Italian chicken pasta in a white sauce (Rs 259) was composed of perfectly al dente penne with BBQ chicken morsels, corn and jalapenos, giving both the dish and us a spicy send off!   
     
AT: Chicago Pizza, 148-150 Kadriwadi, L.J. Road, Mahim West.
TIME: 10 am to 11.30 pm
CALL: 9833783615

(An edited version of this review appeared in the 24th February 2020 issue of the Mid-Day newspaper, India on page 21 https://www.mid-day.com/articles/slice-of-goodness/22638243)
                                                                 

Armenia via Dhaka

Once home to a bustling population of Armenian traders, Armanitola—the Armenian Quarter of Old Dhaka is a fine repository of history and culture, reinforcing the strong bond between Bengal and Armenia     

By Raul Dias

I’m pretty sure that I must have made quite a spectacle of myself that sweltering summer afternoon in Dhaka, waving a soiled 100 Taka note in front of scores of bewildered noses walking past me. Even my pithy attempt at mouthing a few Bengali words, seemed to fall on deaf ears. But finally—after almost giving up any remaining hope—my phone’s wavering GPS decided to kick into action. And thus, I found myself standing in front of a structure I had been staring at every time I coughed up a 100 Taka note over my previous two days in Bangladesh.
To put it all into context, I had made the trek down the dusty alleyways of Old Dhaka with the sole aim of visiting the rather unusual Tara Masjid. For the iconic and ironically named “Star Mosque” finds a place of glory for itself on the ‘tails’ side of a 100 Taka bank note. All this thanks to its four domes that are decorated in the rare Chini Tikri (Chinese art) porcelain tile mosaic work in star motifs.
But little did I know then that that wonderful thing called serendipity had something entirely different planned out for me… 

The Other Armani!
Unbeknownst to me, I had meandered my way into Old Dhaka’s Armenian quarter. Called Armanitola, the small neighbourhood on the shores of the turgid Buriganga river was once the nerve center of Armenian life in East Bengal. For this was where jute and leather traders from the South Caucasian country in Eurasia decided to set up both shop and home.
And just a mere 300 meters south of Tara Masjid, is what is believed to be the ‘Ground Zero’ of this unique quarter. Simply called the Armenian Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Resurrection was built in 1781 by the traders on a plot of land that they had earlier used as a cemetery.
This edifice, with its hexagonal, crucifix-topped steeple and generous narthex reminded me not just of St. Peter’s Armenian Apostolic Church in my home city of Mumbai, but also of the similarly-structured Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth in nearby Kolkata. But besides Mumbai, Kolkata and other places in West Bengal like Saidabad, even a few other Indian cities like Chennai once had a thriving Armenian population and grand churches to cater to the growing congregation that had been settling in India since the 16th century.

Blast from the past
It is weeks after I return from Bangladesh, as I leaf through a copy of the Anne Basil authored Armenian Settlements in India at Mumbai’s Asiatic Library, do I realise that there was not one, but two separate waves of an Armenian exodus to India (which Bangladesh was a part of then). The first of which was in 1645 with the aforementioned merchants arriving in Bengal, purely for trading purposes. Interestingly, the book even references an agreement of 1688 between the English East India Company and Armenian merchants that reads “whenever forty or more of the Armenian nation shall become inhabitants in any of the garrisons, cities or towns belonging to the Company in the East Indies, the said Armenians shall not only have and enjoy the free use and exercise of their religion, but there shall also be allotted to them a parcel of ground to erect a church thereon…”
It was the second exodus, however, that is the most poignant. As it was in the wake of the 1915 East Anatolia Armenian genocide of more than a million people by Turkish forces. In fact, Basil even speaks of “hundreds of children of uprooted families…found shelter and a roof and received sufficient education…” at the Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy in Kolkata, that is to this day very much functional and a source of pride for the city’s small Armenian diaspora.

Sentinels of Solemnity 
Back at the church at Armanitola, Hafiz, the old watchman who had let me in earlier tells me the story of the last Armenian in Bangladesh. All this in broken English bolstered by his wild gesticulating, of course! Apparently, up until 2014 Mikel Housep Martirossian the Dhaka-born son of an Armenian jute trader was not just the caretaker of the Armenian Church but also its sole congregant who would say his daily prayers sitting quietly in the first pew. After a stroke five years ago, he moved to Canada at the behest of his children who live there and was never heard of again.
But there is some hope for the Church, I am told. The Armenian Embassy in Dhaka that looks after its upkeep has hinted at the possibility of getting down a new warden for the church from Armenia. Till then, it’s up to Hafiz to keep the fires burning. Quite literally, as he lights the altar candles daily at 7pm.       
As I leave the church gates, I make sure to squeeze a small tip into Hafiz’s wrinkled palm. And yes, it was one of those same 100 Taka notes that started it all!

(This article first appeared in the 22nd February 2020 issue of the Mint Lounge newspaper, India on page 17 https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/the-stars-of-dhaka-s-armanitola-11582468772877.html)

Notes from Armenia

By Raul Dias

Picking an accommodation option that sits cheek-by-jowl with a primary school is always a risky proposition. One that is fraught with countless somnolence-threatening annoyances. From loud, early morning assembly calls and mid-day playground cacophony to afternoon marching band practice, the ultra-light sleeper in me has encountered it all.
But my recent stay at a family-run B&B in Yerevan—the pink-hued capital of Armenia—that shares a wall with one of the city’s most popular public schools, showed me another, more surprising facet to Armenian academia. One that struck a home run in more ways than one…

By the Book
With one of the most ambitious school chess programmes in the world, the chess-obsessed nation has made the game a compulsory subject on the national curriculum. An initiative of the then Armenian President Sersh Sargsyan who was also President of the Armenian Chess Federation, since 2011, children studying in grades two to four have two weekly chess lessons that are graded just like any other school subject. And just like the one next door, these classes are often conducted in the school playground that have sets of purposefully built concrete chess tables in a designated corner.
To keep up with this new demand, Armenia now has more than 4,000 qualified chess teachers in its school system besides national champions like Levon Aronian as visiting faculty. The once number two chess grandmaster in the world, also known fondly as Armenia’s David Beckham, today, regularly coaches kids in chess at schools across the country. Interestingly, a 2009 BBC World Service report titled Armenia: the cleverest nation on earth shows that with its population of a little over three million, Armenia is among the world leaders in chess with one of the highest numbers of chess grandmasters, per capita.  

Indian Connection
So, where and how did it all begin for this Armenia-chess love affair? Curious, I visit the Tigran Petrosian Chess House–the ‘Ground Zero’ of all things chess in the Caucasian state. Nestled on Yerevan’s leafy Khanjyan Street and built in the early1970s in the typical Soviet brutalist architectural style, the building is named after the Soviet Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian who became the World Chess Champion in the 1960s.
Here, I learn, that although chess was institutionalised during the early Soviet period, the country has always had a historical love of the game that goes way back to the Middle Ages. This was proven with the discovery of an ancient chess set in the citadel of Dvin—the medieval capital of Armenia, in 1967.
At Yerevan’s imposing grey basalt Matenadaran museum of manuscripts, a digital copy of Shatrang: The Book of Chess (1936) by Joseph Orbeli and Kamilla Trever tells me more as it augments the India-Armenia chess connection. Called chatrang, a word derived from the Sanskrit term chaturanga, which translates to “four arms” (representing elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers), chess apparently came to Armenia from India via the Arabs in the 9th century, when Armenia was under Arab rule.

Check, mate!
“Shakh yev mat,” is a victory cry I hear all of a sudden as I settle down with my 200 Dram (Rs 30) blueberry softy cone at a bench outside the Moscow Cinema on Yerevan’s arterial Abovyan Street next to a giant pedestrian chess set. But then, the Armenian equivalent of “check mate!” is something that I’ve been hearing at almost every public square and city park I’ve sauntered past in the last few days. There’s probably na’er a public space in Yerevan that doesn’t have at least a couple of chess tables, with players of all ages hunched over an intense game of chatrang.
On a free walking tour of Yerevan, as a passing shot, our guide Varko lets us in on a little-known chess world secret. As it so happens, Garry Kasparov, the former Soviet grandmaster, and easily the world’s best ever chess player, is of Armenian heritage, though he was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. Apparently, his original surname was Kasparyan—which has the ubiquitous finale of an Armenian surname, which usually end in “ian” or “yan”.         

(This article first appeared in the 9th February 2020 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 10 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/travel/notes-from-armenia/article30762980.ece)       

Borderline Bizarre

An illegal U.S. border crossing simulation—as both a deterrent and for some hair-raising thrills—is the number one attraction at an amusement park in the central Mexican town of Ixmiquilpan. 

By Raul Dias

The stillness of the night, that has for the last half an hour or so, been interrupted only by the drowsy hum of cicadas and the occasional sharp intake of breath is suddenly punctured by the shrill, polyphonic blaring of sirens. An enormous hummer, all lit up in flashing blue and red lights comes to a screeching halt. Four armored men wearing bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the words ‘U.S. Border Patrol’ spill out of the vehicle. Their 9mm handguns trained on our motley bunch of eight.
One of the Mexican guys in our group attempts an escape as he runs towards the river. “No van a cruzar el rio!”, a stocky border patrol agent yells at him in Spanish while firing a blank at the ground. “None of you are going to cross the river tonight,” he repeats, this time in accented English for the benefit of a few of us non-Mexicans.
We had been warned that this would most likely happen. And just like that we soon come to the grim realisation that our game is up. Quite literally.

The Night Walk
First things first. Everything mentioned in the above reimagination of that freezing cold night in September did take place. And no, it isn’t a fragment of some dystopian dream. Nor was I, contrary to what it might seem, attempting to illegally enter the United States of America.
Our ‘capture’ was, in fact, the culmination of a weekly four hour-long border crossing simulation activity offered by the Parque Eco Alberto, an amusement park in the central Mexican town of Ixmiquilpan. Earlier that day I had paid 350 Mexican pesos (Rs 1,320) to experience a ‘lite’ version of what thousands of people go through every single night of the year. All in the hope of making it to the ‘promised land’ on the other side, the United States of America.
Known as La Camina Nocturna or The Night Walk, the simulation has been taking place at the park every Saturday night since July 31, 2004. The walks are stewarded by locals, many of whom have tried to illegally cross into the U.S. themselves. And although the park is some 700 miles away from the actual Mexico-U.S. border, the experience can get alarmingly real as it creates conditions increasingly difficult to deal with.

Perilous Beginnings 
Just like an actual illegal crossing deal, we are first introduced to our ski mask-clad guide, Macario Simon Reyes. The 38-year-old plays the role of el coyote as the human smugglers are known as in this part of the world. We assemble for prayers and a briefing in an abandoned white stucco Catholic church. It is here that we are warned about everything from the threat of kidnap at the hands of narco-traffickers to the possibility of dying from desert condition extremes such as heatstroke and hypothermia and even being eaten by wild animals.
“And if this seems extreme, reality is a whole other deal,” says Macario. “Many think that the simulation serves as a sort of training for illegal border crossings. But what we are doing couldn’t be more opposite. Our mission is to help stop the emigration by acting as a deterrent to those who might be thinking of doing so. It’s very difficult in reality. It’s very ugly”
For close to five hours one is expected to belly crawl through tunnels, march through mud and ford the Tula River that stands in for the infamous Rio Grande at the border. All this, while trying to avoid getting caught by la migra, as the border patrol agents are nicknamed.

Nunca Más
The park itself, I’m told, is partly funded by the government and communally owned by the indigenous Hñahñu tribe who live on 3,000 acres of land scattered across the state of Hidalgo. Interestingly, Macario tells me that at one point over 80% of Hidalgo’s population was lost to emigration, leaving Ixmiquilpan almost a ghost town. But not today. The population has increased over the years by almost an eighth. This he attributes not just to the deterrent message that the simulation conveys to the town’s youth, but also to the many jobs that it has created for the community. So much so that a recent report by U.S. Customs and Border Protection suggest that illegal crossings along the southern border are down by 72% in December 2019 compared to May 2019.
As we silently cross a barren field that we’ve been told might have rattlesnakes slithering around, I get talking with 19-year-old Pilar and her twin brother, who ironically shares my name, Raúl. “We left Mexico with our parents and illegally crossed the border into the U.S. when we were 10. But after being deported five years ago and to warn us of not attempting it on our own, our dad sent us here as an important reminder of what we went through.”
As we get debriefed by Macario after being ‘released’ by the faux border patrol agents, I ask the twins if the simulation was what they had expected. “We thought that it would be a lot easier. But it isn’t,” says an exhausted Raúl. “Since we’ve been back from the U.S., our whole family has come to cherish the liberty we have here in Mexico. No more running and being chased anymore. Never again. Nunca más!”         

Travel log
Getting There 
As there are no direct flights linking India with Mexico, one can get into Mexico City via connecting flights from most major US airports. From Mexico City, Ixmiquilpan is a pleasant three-hour bus journey away. Travel within Ixmiquilpan and to the Parque Eco Alberto is relatively easy with plenty of transport options including inexpensive taxis and public buses. Indians require a Mexican visa to visit the country that can be procured from the Mexican Embassy in New Delhi. However, the visa requirement is waived off for those in possession of a valid multiple entry US visa. 

Stay
Being a relatively small town, accommodation options are limited in Ixmiquilpan, but there are a few decent, if a tad basic, hotels and guesthouses to spend a night or two in. One such option is the super low-key, but spotlessly clean Hotel Avenida Ixmiquilpan (www.hotelavenidaixmiquilpan.com.mx) with rooms overlooking a garden on the Avenue Insurgentes. Here, one can expect to pay around Rs 1,882 for a double room without breakfast. One for the few three star properties in town and one with an outdoor pool, Hotel Posada Centenario (www.posadacentenario.com) in the heart of the city has some really nice double rooms for around Rs 2,447 without breakfast.

Tip
* Besides being a hot springs town that is full of places where you can enjoy a soothing outdoor mineral bath, Ixmiquilpan also has a strong cultural side to it. The convent of San Miguel Archangel is famous for its blend of decorative styles. While the church’s wings on either side have murals in the Spanish style brought in by the Augustinian priests, its central nave has on its walls and ceiling frescoes by the indigenous Otomi Tlacuilos tribe.

(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 8th February 2020 issue of The Hindu Business Line newspaper's BLink section on page 20 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/takeaway/simulated-illegal-border-crossing-in-a-mexican-amusement-park/article30751969.ece)