The SteepingMemoirs by Dr Scion Sarma

The plates

An illustrated record

Bhogirath, the dahibara maker

A middle-aged, moustached, sighted dahibara vendor in a pale shirt and shoulder-cloth reaches to serve a green sal-leaf cup beside a brass pot of buttermilk and a tray of fried bara; in the foreground a smiling uniformed schoolboy holds up a small copper coin with a central hole, at a masonry school gate in warm golden light.
Plate Ia boy holds up a holed copper coin at bhogi's school-gate dahibara stall, cuttack.
Overhead macro of four golden dahibara dumplings in a folded green sal-leaf bowl, pooled in white buttermilk and scattered with black mustard seeds and red-chilli flecks.
Plate IIfour pieces of dahibara, one anna.
A white-haired elderly vendor with clouded, unfocused eyes stands tall and erect in a cream kurta beneath a large weathered umbrella, behind big aluminium pans of dahibara dumplings garnished with coriander and red chilli; behind him a busy modern street with a parked car, a helmeted motorcyclist, pedestrians and shop hoardings.
Plate IIIbhogi, blind now, stands erect over his aluminium pans as a modern cuttack rushes past.