Fear Factor

One day while out in the city with my brother and a cuz, we received a panic call from 'I'. It seemed that she had rammed into a guy at high speed – she was coming down a flyover and the guy ran across the street. She was with her boyfriend and needed us to go come and take the guy to the hospital to avoid police trouble for her. Her car had a big dent and the best solution would be for us to take him and pretend that we found him after the other car had hit and run. We met up with her, she was totally panicking, we saw the guy – he was bleeding, and he was unconscious, and we also totally panicked. We shoved him into our car, and rushed to Safdarjung Hospital. I was scared. I don’t why I was scared, because I didn’t hit him, and yet I was scared. When we took him to the hospital, the cop on duty wanted one of us to write our name and address. I was too scared to write my name. I didn’t want to take on that responsibility. But surprisingly my younger brother wrote his name and address. And he gave true information, whereas I might have been tempted to give false information. That day he stood a little taller in my eyes.

As soon as we saw that the hospital staff had taken cognizance of that guy, we fled. Later in the car I saw that a single shoe belonging to that guy got left behind in our car. And I immediately felt terrible. I imagined him waking up the next day with only one shoe. How would he manage? I wanted to go back and give the shoe, but I also knew it was out of the question. So we threw out of the car. And that is the part that still comes back to haunt me – me throwing the shoe out of the car at a red light. Later as I was narrating this story to a friend, somewhat proudly, he responded with a couple of abuses for me and asked me if I even bothered to inform his family, to make sure that he was ok. After all safdarjung is a govt hospital and the staff is not likely to go out of their way for him. It was then that I realised what a terrible thing I had done.

I had previously written about another incident when I’d given in to my fears. I feel terrible for both the times, but I know they were necessary for to develop the courage for facing the same situation next time around. I recently witnessed another accident, and this time I was a lot more proactive. Though at the end I thought I could have done still more, but I felt good that I did not act like the others. Most people just stood there watching the poor man salivating and pretty much waiting for some authority figure to do something. Some said call the cops, some said call an ambulance, everyone circled around him, but no one did anything. Why do we have this really stupid crowd mentality? In most accident cases this is what happens. The junta crowds around the man, saying call the police/ambulance etc but no one actually does anything. Most people in such situations do not want to take responsibility. Calling the police means giving them a statement, a formal legal procedure. No one wants to get involved in such hassles. Doing anything for the victim involves taking responsibility, and that is where most people shirk away.

I think this is what separates a leader from a normal man – a leader does not fear to take responsibility. This is what makes Gandhi so great – he took responsibility for not just one person or a family or a locality, but for an entire nation. How many of us are willing to take responsibility to change the world we live in rather than simply saying “call the police”


“Give me the strength lord to accept the responsibilities placed on my path.”

The Nirula Brothers

My very first exposure to western style fast food industry began with Nirula’s. In fact I would say Delhi’s first exposure to western style fast food began with Nirula’s. Nirula’s was a groundbreaking concept at the time when it started. I’m not sure if it started in the 80s, but my first exposure to it is from the 80s. We started to go the defence colony nirula’s when I was maybe just 13-14 years old. It was right after we got our first car. It was a red maruti van, and we were the typical middle class family ecstatic at its own affluence – we had a car!

Nirula’s at that time was mind-blowing. There was nothing quite like it in the market. The restaurant we used to go to for a meal out was a Chinese place somewhere in kalkaji which was a place where a good family Chinese meal would be within 200. But it was a rather dark place with no AC, rather it had outdoor seating with a small kitchen where we could see the cook sweating away making wok after wok of noodles using generous amounts of soy sauce and chilli sauce. Compared to this, Nirula’s was a class apart. AC interiors, lot of wood and mirrors, bright fancy lights, all staff in uniforms, a man with a computer on the cash counter. And the food was also amazing. The pizzas of Nirula’s according to me are still the best in its price range. But not only that, there was such exotic stuff like meat chops, hot dogs, fish orly, and they also had stuff for the north Indian palate – tandoori chicken, shammi kebabs, ma dal, thali etc. And the killer was the ice creams, which according to me are again the best in its price range.

All this good food was accompanied by prices such that a meal at Nirula's for our family would be within Rs300. So of course we did not mind spending that extra Rs.100, and so didn’t hundreds of other middle class families. A trip to Nirula’s would guarantee a certain period waiting for a table. The family would go together, we would place the order, and while the order was getting ready, we would stand guard at different tables where people were on their ice creams/deserts. But it was a really good time for the whole family. The music was good, the atmosphere was lively, the people were laughing and chatting, and there was so much for us kids to do. Get the glasses of water, check the order number, go up to the first floor and explore, go get the order, get forks and spoons, and so on and so forth. And at the end of the meal the family would share a hot chocolate fudge with extra chocolate sauce (our dad always asked him to put extra chocolate sauce) and we would go back home satisfied. And as always our mom would prompt us to thank our father by saying thank you papa in a sing song voice asking us to also do the same.

Nirula’s reigned supreme in the fast food market till late nineties. Wimpies opened shop in mid nineties, and I’m still not sure if that is an international fast food chain or Indian, and they had a only international fast food. Wimpey’s was popular only because it was a different place to go to. But the value proposition was never as good as nirula’s. The food was at best average. So it was never really a threat to Nirula’s. But then McDonalds opened up in around 97. And I remember a day or two after they opened their first store in Priya complex, I was there with friends and we decided to go to McDonalds, and we found a queue of around a 100 people snaking outside it. But the service was fast, the staff was well trained and we didn’t have to wait for more than 10 minutes before we were inside. And it was really flashy. Everything was very shiny and bright, the food was authentically international, though flavourless, the prices were competitive. And that was really the beginning of the end of Nirula’s.

Within two years from that Nirula’s had been written off as old guard, a place where parents went, not a young place like McDonalds. There was no longer a waiting time at Nirula’s, and it somehow seemed not as bright and happy a place that it used to be. Suddenly the staff seemed sloppy, they couldn’t speak English which was the norm in McDonalds, and overall Nirula's became in our minds what the old Chinese places had become. A fond memory, but no more aspiration value. No longing for it. Pizza’s were now home delivered by dominos in less than 30 minutes, Pizza hut had also opened up, giving us even more options, and all these places were authentic international stuff, we felt like we were part of the new generation sitting in those places.

I would have written off Nirula’s completely but then I suddenly became health conscious. I no longer wanted to eat the deep fried standardinsed tasteless food being served by McDonalds and co. I rediscovered the old childhood favourites – the pizza which was not all chewy but crusty and crispy. The toppings were amazing, the meat chop is still among my favourites, and the ice creams are still unbeatable. And whats more, they had not shut shop like we all predicted. Sure it was not as crowded as before, but people were still going there in enough numbers to keep them in business. And I frankly think it is the ice creams that keep them in business. Sure the other food is also great, but the ice-cream probably has the highest mark-up. I don’t think their other food would be bringing in much profit.

Recently I went to the Nirula’s restaurant at CP which is like a proper sit-in place with waiters etc. And I really liked that place. They had all the nirula’s classic, and beyond that they had many more things on offer like English Breakfast with the works, pastas, Mexican food, salad bar… you get the point. And even though it was not choc-a-block full, but it had decent occupancy for a Monday lunch. Later I read in an interview of Deepak Nirula, one of the Nirula brothers, that this place was their very first venture in the thirties. Both the Nirula brother were doctors and they started this place because they had no decent place to go for eating out. It really made me admire the vision of the Nirula brothers who really created a first class made in India restaurant chain. They were the true pioneers in this business. And now they have sold off the business because I think none of them have any sons who want to run the business. I hope the new owners take it out of the stagnancy it has fallen into.