A Tennessee State University Course Takes Students to South Asia in East Nashville

“I'd like to try tikka masala,” said Kimora, referring to the tomato cream curry that is one of South Asia’s many culinary classics. “I’m down for saag paneer,” added Jaylen, his eye on an enticing image of curried spinach packed with chunks of soft cheese and ladled atop a bowl of turmeric rice.

Others opted for chana masala, black dal and lamb kati rolls. Of course, almost everybody wanted samosas and naan, particularly the garlic style, that edible utensil so savory, soft and spongy, so perfect for soaking those last drops of curry. And, speaking of ideal meals, that is precisely what this one was–an ideal, a projection of the perfect.

The Classroom

You see, neither Kimora nor Jaylen nor anyone else from the class was actually in a South Asian restaurant. Instead, all were inside a Tennessee State University classroom, learning about world cultures through a focus on our town’s increasingly international cuisine. Called Global Culture History: Nashville Fare Tales, the freshman course has its students researching and writing factually-informed yet fictional feasts, each story inspired by Nashville’s contemporary food scene and each set in a Nashville park.

The Lesson

For the spring semester of 2023, the students’ first assignment had them learning about India and Pakistan: cuisines, cultures and conflicts. They learned about 1947's Partition of India and the creation of India and Pakistan as independent nations; about Islam and Hinduism and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi at the hands
of a Hindu nationalist; about the wars that India and Pakistan–both now nuclear powers–have fought since independence; about the ongoing conflict in Kashmir and the Line of Control; and, of course, they learned about the twin passions that the people of the Indian subcontinent share, passions with the power to bring them together peacefully–cricket and cuisine. Thus, armed with accurate information, it was time to project a plausible picnic–a so-called Nashville Fare Tale–into a public park, the storyline calling for a chance encounter with a small, thin man with rounded spectacles–Gandhi’s doppelgänger–who appears mysteriously to ask the students to share with him their newfound knowledge. Now all the students needed for their imaginative menu was an actual venue.

The Food

Wind the clock back to 2019. Arjun Meherish, a native of Mumbai, India, has been living in Nashville for seven years, honing his skills in all facets of restaurant craft in places like Chaatable, the Mockingbird, Tánsuŏ and Chauhan Ale and Masala House. Then, at a bachelor party of a mutual friend, Arjun meets Qasim Farid, a man nearly his age. It doesn’t matter that one man is Indian and the other Pakistani; the male bonding takes hold faster than Gorilla Glue. “I would say something, and Qasim would complete the sentence,” Arjun recalls. “Qasim and I are soulmates.” The two new friends share stories of their similar, middle-class upbringings on the Subcontinent, playing cricket in the streets–the gullies–while chowing down on arguably the world’s best street food. They also share an idea for a fast-casual, South Asian concept that would combine the quality of fine dining with the value of buffet.

Thus it was, so to speak, that Gully Boyz entered the building, finding its home in East Nashville and opening its doors in November 2022. Like Chipotle, the concept is designed to be quick and easy, moving down a line while building a bowl from an assortment of choices. Qasim’s mother is the source of all the recipes. “She knows the Indian side of the menu, and she knows the Pakistani side,” Arjun observes. “She learned her cooking skills from her mother.” Since Gully Boyz’ location just happens to be around the corner from Frederick Douglass Park–a factual setting ideal for a fictional conversation with Mahatma Gandhi’s doppelgänger–the Indian-Pakistani place served as the perfect venue for the students’ ideal menu. They wrote about the fantastic food for which South Asia is so justifiably known and how that food (and people like Arjun, Qasim and Qasim’s mother who craft it) bridge divisions that separate humans into tribes and allow us to break some naan together in peace.