Vada Pav

Vada pav is the classic snack which is famous among all Mumbaikars. Anywhere you go you in Mumbai, you will definitely find at least one shop selling vada pav. Mouth watering Vada Pav is one of the favourite snacks of the Mumbai people. There are many stories associated with vada pav. This is one of my stories.

Near the railway stations there used to be a lot of eateries. Any railway station in Mumbai, you would find that outside the railway station there will be many small restaurants or food corners. Almost all of them used to serve vada pav. The place where I used to live we had a lot of restaurants which were dedicated to prepare varieties of vada pav. There was one eatery shop which had started selling Vada Pav for just ₹5. This shop was an iconic shop where there used to be a lot of sweet and savoury snacks available for easy snacking and snacking on the go. Their Vada Pav was equally iconic. They used to sell over a thousand vada pavs in a day. All the staff members of this shop were highly efficient and also polite. It was wondeful to see them in the action. They used to multitask. They would prepare the food, take orders from the customers, give them what they have ordered, and also take the fare from them. There efficiency was top notch.

It was the shops 25th anniversary. To celebrate this milestone the shop had come up with a brilliant idea. Instead of selling the Vada Pav for ₹5 they had decided that they will sell their vadapav only for one rupee. It was a brilliant marketing plan. Everyday people use to flock to this shop to buy vada pav. Since the price was dropped the footfall would be even more. It was a success.

The story does not end here. Rather it begins here. I was in college back then. I had returned from the college. I got off at the station. I was completely unaware that the shop had their celebration and also the celebratory reduced rate of vada Pav for that day. I got off the train and I was on the platform. I was walking towards the Railway Bridge so that I can go to my home. On the platform I saw one man eating the vada pav. It was very common to see since the street food shop which I mentioned earlier was very close to the station. We often used to see people eating Vada Pav on the platform. I did not find that strange. Then I saw one more person eating vada pav. That was not strange too. Then I saw a group of 5 or 6 people entering the platform who also had Vada Pav in their hands. Few more people were entering the platform as the train was about to arrive. All the people who were entering the platform were carrying Vada Pav in their hands. They had already started eating or they were about to start eating their vada pav. This was a strange visual. Almost every person on the platform had Vada Pav in their hands. Most people were eating vada pav. I felt as if I am in the flood of vada pav and I am drowning in it.

That visual reminded me of one of the classic stories which was shown in the movie Darna Mana Hai. In that story a woman goes to the market to buy vegetables. She sees a vendor selling apples at a very low rate. Everyone is buying apples from this fruit vendor. Next day when she wakes up she sees that the city is full of apples instead of human beings. Everyone who has eaten at least an apple the previous day has turned into an apple themselves. She sees the Apple vendor looking at her and offering her the last apple he had on his stall.

Looking at all the people who were at the platform eating Vada Pav reminded me of this story. I thought to myself that what if the people who are eating Vada Pav today would become Vada Pav tomorrow. I imagined that the next day I arrived at the platform and see that the entire platform is covered in vada pav. It was a crazy thought but I definitely did think about it. I laughed at my own imagination.

After so many years I still remember the incident as if it happened yesterday. This was their brilliant marketing campaign. Even after 15 years I still remember it clearly. It became memorable enough to write it in a story. This is how the people in my city are. They have sharp mind for business. They saw opportunities to create and bring more business. It did not matter whether business was big or small. They knew how to run it and they knew how to grow it.