Bumping into fascinating trivia

I have been fortunate enough to have worked such that I have had to travel to diverse and distant locations across the globe, and in my very own India. Be it my travel to Kashmir and Ladakh in extreme North for Indian Army work, or to Kanyakumari in extreme South for a logistics assignment with Nuclear Power Corp. We (with my team) have also traversed the Egyptian deserts, and pathways of Turkey.

Travelling to diverse locations means learning not just about new cultures and traditions, but also picking up interesting trivia. I always wish to write more about all this, but my laziness gets the better of my intent (my friends will truly relate to this).

Well, one such fascinating trivia that I picked up was during my last visit to South Africa, amidst the streets of Durban on a chilly Saturday afternoon. After a good morning's sight-seeing, our local South African friend who was our guide for the day, took us to an Indian restaurant named Govendar's. There he introduced us to "Bunny Chow", a popular Durban dish with Indians and locals alike.



Legend has it that it was invented by a migrant Indian "baniya" (thus the name bunny) to South Africa in 1940s as a means to serve take away food to blacks who were not allowed in restaurants during the apartheid era. Just one of the pleasures of seeing around with a local, you bump into such jewels of information that really makes your day.

Wikipedia link to Bunny Chow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_chow