Never forget, however, that Almora is also the ultimate town of guppies—people who make up stories that are so real that it is difficult to sift the truth from the lore. Recently, I was told by a cousin, a champion guppi, that Joga Sah was actually a Christian, called Joga Isai, who had learnt to make fudge from two American teachers at the local Adam's School and what was called 'ball mithai' by them (after the little sugared balls studded on their fudge), was 'Brahmanised' by Joga, who changed his Christian name to a kosher Hindu one and baal mithai was born! "That is why," this guppi said, "the precursor of the baal was the 'chocolate' mithai." He may well be right, for there are still chocolate-looking fudge squares, made of caramelised khoya, wrapped in butter-paper to be seen in Almora's halwai shops.
"Don't believe him," the next guppi piped in. "We Pahadis call anything that is rolled up a baal. Don't you remember the roti ka baal that Ama would make for us? With ghee smeared on chapatis and sprinkled with sugar before being rolled into a baal? That is how baal mithai got its name. It is rolled-up khoya and sugar!"
But, believe me, whatever the ancestry of the baal mithai, for me and for all my Pahadi brother and sister guppies, baal mithai is the stuff our childhood memories are rolled up in.
