The ‘Dabba-walas’ of Atlanta

Its been 2 months since I posted something on my blog. A lot has happened since then. I visited my parents in Delhi. My sister got married. My Shengen visa application got turned down. My advisor is on a holiday in India. And I am stuck in fucking-HOTlanta. Lots to complain about. Apparently nothing much to be happy about.

Today I want to write about the dabba-walas of Altanta (thats what I call them). Like the typical dabbawalas of Mumbai, they deliver dabbas of Indian lunch. For a cheap and affordable $5. Food is cooked by I-dont-know-who at I-dont-know-where and is delivered to the Gatech campus. We have to collect our dabbas from the visitor’s parking lot where they will be parked. Pretty neat setup, huh ?  I am pretty sure it is illegal, but hech, who cares ?

Today was the first day I availed of their service. I called them up in the morning to let them know that I wanted a dabba for lunch. I was told that it would be delivered at around 1:15 pm. That was the first surprise of the day : Their email said they would deliver it at 12:30pm. Now, I am used to having lunch at noon and the prospect of having to wait half an hour more seemed a bit uncomfortable. Having to wait for 75 mins seemed a whole lot more uncomfortable !! But, heck, it was the first day, and I hadn’t had good Indian food for a long time (they claimed it would be good Indian food). So “teekh hai, ek dabba mere liye” I told them.

They claimed they would provide rice, dal, vegetable, pakora, sweet and roti/puri. All this for $5 they said. The second surprise was that it was no longer $5. Overnight it had become $6 !! Oh well. But a dollar extra for good Indian food is fine right? Right! … for good Indian food.

They arrived at the stipulated time. Parked their car at the stipulated place. There was a small crowd had gathered around to collect their respective dabbas. Karthik, Subruk and I paid $6 and collected our dabbas. The third surprise : there was no roti/puri. They instead had something like a bun !! Now I didn’t sign up for this. I didn’t stay hungry for over an hour for this !! What the hell is  going on ??  But the rest of the stuff looked interesting anyway. I made a mental note that this point will count against them in future.
We collected our dabbas and walked around looking for a place to sit and eat. Subruk didnt want to eat in Klaus. He gave some weird logic that working places are meant only for working and not for eating !! Oh well.
We found a bench outside Van Leer under a shady tree. We decided to have our lunch there. I started off with the pakoras. They were delicious ! They seemed to set the tone for the rest of the meal. Or so I thought. Next came the entree, which was highly dissapointing. Daal, rice and some soya + aloo subzi. Reminded me of the meals we used to get in our undergrad hostels ! But it felt good to have  something spicy after a long time. The same old watery yellow daal. The same old red color aloo ki subzi. And the same old fried rice (no adectives for this one). It tasted just like the hostel food too! The sweetdish, a rasagulla, was only the gulla without the ras ! Reminded me of the sweet-dish we used to get in iit hostels !! Sigh.

In the end I was pretty full. So its all good.  But I dont think I will want to have this everyday. I hope the new Indian restraunt in the student center(yes ! the SC is opening a new Indian restraunt this fall !) is good enough to sustain my interest for …  at least a semester. Dekhte hain ….

On an unrelated note, last week I went to Swapna. The food there was delicous !! finger licking good ! Thanks to Karthik !

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