A trip to Andhra Bhawan canteen

Today was the last day of one of my colleagues. Ho ho ... party time. We decided to go Andhra Bhawan’s canteen. It is located in the heart of Delhi, around India Gate. It is famous for it’s tasty and finger licking south Indian food. We five stared at around 1PM by the departing colleague’s CNG fitted Hyundai Accent car. First topic, how will it take to reach from NOIDA to Andhra House, Delhi. One says, 15 minutes one 30 minutes, finally we settled for half an hour J. It’s been quite a long time since he bought the car, but whenever we go with him, we always praise his Accent for some or other aspect. This was the time for the seat covers to get some praise. He purchased them from car market located in Karol Bagh, Delhi for Rs6000. 

In mid-day, it was quit smooth to enter into Delhi. We took the Akshardhaam mandir(temple) flyover. We entered from the pragati maidaan cut. There was bit traffic as it was the first day of International Trade Fair, organised every year from 14^th November to 27-28 November. 14^th November is the birthday of first prime minister of independent India, Pandir Jahawar Lal Nehru, also famous as chacha nehru. He was supposed to be the person who initiated the industrialization in India. Going through India gate and Ashoka road, we reached Andhra bhawan in more than 30 minutes. 

The canteen is not very big but looks good. One person stands between the counter and the tables, collects the coupon’s from customer’s and creates a queue and asks about the number of people in one group. He keeps track of tables getting empty and asks the groups to sit accordingly. There was a wait time of around 5 Minutes. We watched the table getting cleaned by a cloth, I did want the table to be re-cleaned as I could see some remains on it and it was a bit sticky too. The waiter said, “saaf to hai” – it is already clean!!! I surrendered, as you wish. There were some salt, ghee(clarified butter) pickle etc on the table, Now comes the thalis. Thali is supposed to be the main platter/plate which contains other small ‘katories’. Or it can have some inbuilt shapes which can contain some dishes. It already had katori for sweet dish, some rice etc. Now comes the person with five different dishes, some daal, sabzi, etc. Then comes the poodi man. So, the main course starts with all this stuff. Food is really tasty except one ‘kankad’ encountered by the departed colleague J.

Suddenly phone rings and gives the news of a bomb blast in sector 22, NOIDA. The topic changes and we start discussing “what is this happening”. But, the food and surroundings are so good that very soon we come back to the light mood. The food was unlimited and the waiter kept coming to serve more good. There was only one ‘papad’ per plate, though J. Food is so tasty that everyone wanted to eat more and more J. Finally it was the limit and we decided a have paan. Paan is the traditional food item eaten after the meal. It does contain ‘paan ka patta’, supari, kattha, chuna etc. But it was not that good as it contained some unbalanced ratio of katta and chuna. No one could complete the full paan. It is supposed to be eaten full, by chewing slowly slowly. 

It’s time to start back, people start reminding their IIT days, school days, all kind of bachelorhood fun, fultu masti J.  Everyone was feeling sleepy but rushed back to office, “kaam kaun karega!!!”