For some it is a snack, for some it is a meal and for others it is another piece of junk food but vada-pav has a special place in the appetite of every Indian whether rich or poor. The humble vada pav simple, tasty/spicy and of course cheap, available at every nook and corner selling for as little as 7 bucks (at least in surat) is savior of sort when you are hungry.
When I went to hostel I was like any other guy-had to leave home made food for the torturing food of hostel and finally when the torture exceeded all imaginations he looked up to road side kiosks/small restaurants for the evening snacks because they are the only place where you don’t burn a hole in the pocket. There on the same roadside, I used to see people eating the vadapav with sausage and the chilly. Initially it looked like something you must not ingest, and savoring its tantalizing flavors requires that you wilfully abandon all basic rules of gastronomy and hygiene. It was perhaps the least likely item I wanted to taste in my life but the Indian burger got me soon and it became a daily business to have bite of it with juice or coffee.
Theambience at a vadapav laari which no restaurant can provide is that you can find people of all sorts/strata of the society ranging from students to office goers biting into the piece of vada pav with “I’m loving it” faces. Soon I too became so obsessed with the ugly looking vadapav that even after getting a job vadapav easily found a special place in my evening snacks inspite of knowing that if I tell my folks that I eat a vadapav a day they are surely gonna kick my ass (no one can be as strict as the airforce/army parents when it comes to eating habits).
Though am going to leave Surat in some days for the dahi-parathas of Delhi but the evenings spent at the tea centre and the Vadapav laari at SVNIT are unforgettable, where along with friends eating vadapav, having a coffee with cigarette and watching pretty girls was always something more than fun.
No Pun intended: Marathi's are so fond of it that this year their State Finance Minister anounced to reduce the rate of tax on vada pav sold in restaurants to 5 per cent (from 12.5 per cent)..Please help this chap..do mumbaikars really eat vadapav at restaurants..may god help those who do..;-))
