An Ali Mohammed tradition lives on

Over the summer I was all about documenting the queintessential Bangaloreans - and I missed out on the most important one. So, mom - this posts for you.

Every year, the Bazm (a social welfare-type NG organization that mom's active in) hosts a bazaar in Bangalore where they raise money for the programs that they run - notably the education scholarship program (scholarships for girls pursuing professional careers) and the working women/elderly women hostels that they maintain (they do alot more, check out the website).

This bazaar is a big deal - Bangaloreans flock to it because its the one time of year that you can be sure to get all the goodies. In true Ali Mohammed tradition, OP's pulls out all the stops and provides pies galore, and I think burgers and stuff, and of couse Mom brings out the biryani, chocolate cake and grape juice. Mom just sent me an email about it, and I felt the need to share ...

"It had rained the night before, there is a depression in the bay, so the grounds were quite wet and messy. But!!!!!the bazaar lovers who wait the whole year came out in droves, mess or no mess and the line for the Biryaniwas a snake. My cakes especially the German Chocolate was a hit. I sold 72cupcakes, 17 loaf cakes(pound cake) and 4 trys of Chocolate cake.Plus 100glasses of grape juice! all in 4 hours. But cooked for 3 days!!!!!!!!!! well hoping to make points up there!"

This bazaar is usually the talk of the town! My friends (and their parents!) have been known to show up with large containers to gather up all the biryani they can possibly get! I want to say that amma used to be the biryani-chocolate cake toting Ali Mohammed (correct me if I'm wrong mom) at these to-dos ... but mom's taken over now, and is doing a great job of keeping the tradition going.

mmm, biryani. mmmmmm, cake.