By Cyrus Gonda
I normally have an early lunch; between 12:30 and 1:00 PM.
Now it was past 2:00 PM, and yet hadn’t had lunch. I was hungry. I’d just finished a meeting and was now walking on the road to Santa Cruz station (the East side) from the highway, a walk of 10 minutes or so.
I wasn’t familiar with the area, and was looking left and right for a place where I could get some good North Indian-type food, which I was in the mood for.
Suddenly I spotted Banarasi Sweet Mart. It was a shop on the corner of a road, with an open entrance – on one side was a glass-counter where various barfis and other mithais were displayed. There were a few benches and tables behind the glass-display-counter.
I stepped in and requested to see the menu. I spotted that Chole Bhature was on it.
Ever since I was in primary school, Chole Bhature (with lots of sweet imli-jaggery and chopped onions) was one of my favourite snacks. I remember going for walks and window-shopping on Linking Road (Khar) with my mom during my school-days. There was a vendor in a wheeled-cart who served two items – Chole Bhature and Kulfi. I never had a sweet tooth, but the Chole Bhature (steaming hot chole with two freshly fried bhaturas) was the tastiest I ever recall having. Just to add, a plate of chole bhature at that stall was priced at Four rupees and Fifty paise, back in the early 1980s.
Back to Banarasi Sweet Mart.
The place didn’t look too hygienic, but I’ve found that such places often offer very tasty food (although the service there may not be that good).
There was no table empty, so I excused myself and joined up on a table where a young man was sipping a cup of tea and flipping through his smart-phone.
The wood on the table-top was slightly chipped and I had to be careful not to get my half-rolled-up shirt-sleeves to not get caught on the sharp edge. The steel bench was shining. The metal glass filled with water that was placed in front of me was not too clean, so I requested for a small bottle of mineral-water.
Then I placed my order for a plate of Chole Bhature and asked for an extra vati of sweet churner on the side. He nodded with a smile and left for the kitchen.
I waited impatiently, though I am aware it takes time to prepare bhaturas.
In a few minutes, the waiter came to my table – carrying a steel tray on which was a bowl filled with hot chole, a plate with bhature, and two small steel bowls – one filled with sweet imli-jaggery chutney, and the other with chopped onions.
I sniffed the combined aroma of chole, bhatura, and sweet chutney appreciatively, and let the steam enter my nostrils.
I poured a little sweet chutney over the chole, filled a spoonful of it, and then picked up the bhatura and tore off a piece.
I was about to put the spoonful of chole and the piece of bhatura into my mouth, when I paused.
I had noticed something.
I double-checked.
I had been right at first glance.
There was no second bhatura below the one I had picked up and torn a piece off.
I had been given only one single bhatura.
Normally, in a dish of chole bhature, in almost every place where its served, the bowl/plate of chole comes with TWO bhaturas accompanying it.
I have said I was hungry.
When I sat down, I had felt I could have eaten two chole bhatures – one after the other – which would have meant two bowls of chole and four bhaturas.
And here, I had been served just a SINGLE bhatura. I called out to the waiter and he came up to my table. “Haan jee, aur kuch chahiye?” (“Anything else?’ he asked politely.)
“Jee, ek hee bhatura serve karte ho kya? Do nahi? Itna bada bhi nahi hai yeh” (“You serve only ONE bhatura with the chole – this one is just normal size”) I asked him.
He smiled and said: “Jee – do hee bhaturae dete. Yeh aap pehle kha lo. Dono bhature saath mein serve karunga toh doosra thanda ho jaayega. Garam garm bhature khaane mein hee toh maza hai. Teen-chaar minute mein doosra laata hu. Yahan hum ek ke baad ek bhatura dete hain.”
WOW. I had never experienced such a thing before.
And they did this as ROUTINE – as a matter of course – without being asked, or without making a big show about it.
A couple of weeks later, I was in a Grade 1 restaurant, and ordered a chole bhature there also. The price of a chole bhature here was almost three times that it had been at Banarasi Sweet Mart. The décor was classy; the crockery and cutlery of a much better standard.
Just to test them out, I asked the order-taker if he could serve one bhatura first, and the other after five minutes, so I could have both of them fresh and hot.
He smiled and said: “That won’t be possible, Sir. Our kitchen doesn’t work that way. But I’ll get your order fast.
I smiled and thanked him and said it was all right.
He got my order fast, and the chole bhature was tasty.
But I don’t think that the SWEETNESS of SERVICE I had experienced at Banarsi Sweet Mart can ever be equaled – even in a 5-Star Deluxe.
(The author is a Customer Experience trainer and thought leader. Write to him at cyrusgonda@gmail.com)
