Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Entertainment | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

For a run of the `mils' show

The good old Madras Cafe in Green Park market is still an ideal place for a good South Indian meal, feels RAHUL VERMA

A FULL MEAL INDEED The Thali at the Madras Café is a delight for lovers of South Indian food PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

Life was tough if you were single and living in Delhi in the Sixties and Seventies. It was tough for everybody, but especially for my South Indian friends, many of whom had left their home and hearth to move to Delhi for higher education or to pursue a career. And they found it difficult to fend for themselves in the city because, like other bachelors elsewhere, they had been suitably pampered by their doting mothers when they were at home. They managed breakfast (you don't need a hotel management diploma to boil eggs and butter toasts!) but were all at sea when it came to cooking a full meal. So, to help their floundering sons, South Indian canteens sprang up in different parts of the city. The boys could now have their hot rasam, and eat their rice with a peppy sambar.

Home away from home

One of the first such canteens was the Madras Café in Green Park Market. Madras Café opened its doors to the city's growing South Indian population in 1964 - and hasn't looked back since. For many of my friends who lived in barsatis in South Delhi, this was a home away from home - at least during lunch and dinner.

There was also the Karnataka Hotel in Yusuf Sarai and Udipi in Munirka. We - I was there with my friends whenever a meal was being contemplated - would go to one of these places and order what in local parlance was called a `mils' - a full thali with everything, from rasam and veggies to curds and payasam - thrown in.

Even now, I keep in touch with the Madras Café because it evokes fond memories of an exuberant youth. In fact, some of my South Indian friends who married non-Southerners also occasionally sneak down to Madras Café (next to McDonalds ) to relive their carefree days - and have a good thali, besides!

The other day, I did the same. And I was happy to see that nothing had changed much in Madras Café. S.S. Sundaram was sitting behind the counter, lording over hot cases of bondas, namkeens and chocolates. I took a seat and asked for the usual - a South Indian fixed thali (Rs.50) and a glass of buttermilk (Rs.15).

The thali came with two pooris, some rice, rasam, sambar, two vegetables, curd, papad and a sweet. The menu card had mentioned a chutney, but the day I was there it failed to make an appearance. The sambar was hot and flavoured and the vegetables were especially well-cooked. The yoghurt was a bit runny - but overall, it was a good meal. I was, however, saddened to see that the vegetable portions were decreasing in inverse proportion to the prices. All in all, it was fun. And when I left, chewing a South Indian paan, I felt invigorated. A sudden glimpse of the past does that to you.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail