Magic Meals on Wheels

Imagine that your best friend is going to an unfamiliar city for the first time, travelling by possibly the Coimbatore Express. You wish to ensure that he has a comfortable journey. He has expressly refused to carry any food with him onboard. Did you almost wonder if you could produce his favourite food in front of him at dinnertime without him knowing? Imagine that you are aboard the Mumbai Rajdhani Express bound for the capital city of our country and that while approaching Surat, you are stricken by a fierce craving for fiery Butter Chicken or perhaps, a Gujarati Thali.

You reluctantly subscribe to the meals served in the train because you think that we may owe our railway tracks to the 190-year old colonial rule but we certainly do not owe anyone for magically producing food of our choice at our beck and call at a train station! Food delivery in train at Surat? Those things are unheard of! You would of course be entirely wrong.If meals can be prepared and delivered piping hot to your homes, offices, schools and social functions, why would train stations be an exception? Food delivery in train would be an extension of an already evolved delivery service in the country, and the world. It would necessitate a simple phone call or an online transaction half an hour to an hour ahead of reaching the chosen railway station. It would be no different than ordering a pizza from that shop around the corner or that delicatessen across your office to satisfy a sudden burst of hunger or to disengage yourself from the kitchen for one day.

Online portals and restaurant chains that cater to such requirements on the go are springing up across the country’s major train stations. A phone call or a mouse click away, these facilities are provided with utmost care and almost no room for complains. With options of cash-on-delivery as well as online payment available for a wide range of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, customers do not have to crease brows when they are craving-struck in the middle of their journeys. Another aspect of such modern services is the prepaid gift system. You can surprise your friends or family, who are journeying by train, with deliciously cooked food of their choice. You need only call ahead, mention the recipient(s) name(s), coach and seat number(s), pay the dues and expect the service to be rendered with a practised punctuality.So imagine again. Imagine that your best friend is riding the Coimbatore Express or that you are aboard the Mumbai Rajdhani Express approaching Surat, craving for Biryani or Pizza or traditional Vegetarian Thali or spicy Chicken Nawabi. A uniformed delivery boy with safely wrapped food pops up during the calculated seven-minute train halt at Surat at 7:37 in the night and leaves you cheery-faced, and the object of awe and envy of your co-passengers. Go ahead; tell them that it is your wand-yielding godmother who turns pumpkins into horse-drawn carriages.