Agra met Shir-Ali with stuffiness and tropical rain. Having caught on a rickshaw, he went to the hotel that he had previously booked. The trip, in contrast to provincial towns, was more expensive. Small-An, the taxi had no rickshaws, which surprised Shir-Ali.
Since inherited from the great northern empire, taxis remained only in the form of cars. The motorcycles with the cab only transported milk and fish to grocery stores. It was a culture shock for Shir Ali.
He arrived at the hotel late.
What surprised him was that in front of the hotel lay a human body wrapped in a shroud, near there were lamps, a sea of flowers. It was a different culture and tradition. He walked sideways into the hotel. The room was in line with expectations of a 3 star hotel.
Clean, pretty, well-groomed. Shir-Ali did not smile to go to the city at night without a guide, even though he was a cultivator. In a foreign country, you need to be polite and adhere to the traditions of this country. In the East, it is so customary.
Therefore, Shir-Ali ordered tandori chikin, kari chikin and masala dosa at the hotel itself. Of course, for the money it was twice as expensive as on the street, but you have to pay for the service. The tandori chikin was small, the crust was well baked, it sparkled with oil.
It was poultry, not from the factory, which is usually fed with antibiotics and growth hormones. Which spoils the taste and texture of the meat. But in the hotel, there was apparently a good chef who could choose great products and cook with all his heart. It is surprising that it was in this food that Shir-Ali caught some sparks of the culinary Dao.
Whoever ate this food slightly replenished his natural energy, his mind was enlightened.
The cook was either himself a follower of the culinary dao, or he was a descendant of one of the ancient cultivators of this unique direction of dao. This made him happy, since the trail of the culinary dao still led to India.
Apparently during the Silk Road, this culinary dao was passed along with knowledge and technology.
Not all of them were destroyed, some scraps, traces of the past have been preserved in different parts of the world. The puzzle of lost technologies was slowly beginning to be assembled. But the road ahead was not easy and long.
The interesting! In Agra, Shir Ali, walked around several restaurants of national cuisine, but did not meet the familiar aura of culinary dao again.
After visiting the red fort, Taj Mahall, looked at the Yamuna, a beautiful sight.
But then the guide told him a story about how, during the times of the Great Mughals, the artisans and builders who built this complex were cut off their hands. The figures were clearly exaggerated, that the hands were chopped off by 100 thousand craftsmen.
Before leaving for the mountains, Shir Ali visited the former principality of Hyderabad, its capital Mosur.
Visiting the Rajah's palace with a large gate made of gold, silver and precious stones. There were guards with antediluvian submachine guns from the distant 50s of the 20th century. In the palace, he did not feel any influence of the culinary dao. But in the fortress, in the moat, where during the days of the rajah they kept fighting elephants, Shir-Ali felt a strong aura emanating from one wall. Increasing his magical gaze, which he could control, he penetrated the wall.
There was a small cell, where on the table lay three scrolls - two with some sutras according to Ayurveda and the last with the method of cultivating the 4th level of culinary dao.
What he was looking for for so long. Shir Ali copied the information without taking the scroll, since it was the cultural heritage of India, which sooner or later will be found and it will take its rightful place in the national museum of the history of this large country.
From the scroll, he learned that in 1848, the followers of the culinary Tao, went from south to north. Into the mountains.
"Dara said that Dun, Almora, Nainital, Kumayun division had interesting food!"
"Maybe there are remnants of the culinary dao in there"?
Taking the train, Shir Ali headed north, the journey took 3.5 days!