Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.
Prosperous times.
Casting a glow of intense heat, a neatly arranged layer of charcoal bricks await the tending of a kitchen cook inside the Appayan – a small but popular Bengali restaurant, predominantly into serving an assorted variety of home made Bengali cuisines to a regular clientele that visit each day during the hours of lunch or later for dinner.
Well on its way to becoming a burgeoning metropolis with the amenities and facilities of a modern city gradually reshaping its long set townish contours and hungrily enveloping its open spaces with concrete triple story high buildings.
Ranchi, as the present day capital city of the state of Jharkhand has witnessed a rise in population and preferences as workers, businesses and particularly students have wend their way to this heartland in search of better lives and opportunities, and along with it ushered in an era of multiple eating establishments catering to vastly different tastes and pocket – with prices ranging from Rs 60 for a meal of chicken and Parathas to high end dinner rates.
The positive metamorphosis, however, has not quite soothed the minds of restaurant owners like Soojit (in the photo), who now having to deal with the escalating demand for prime real estate properties, fret his small restaurant misses out on a large chunk of both old and first time dinners, owing to its interior location that makes it difficult to find.
