Saturday, May 21, 2011

Sector 14, Gurgaon

Last Thursday, I visited Sector 14 after a gap of almost seven years. The place used to be the Connaught Place of Gurgaon till the malls came in. It still has its charm though, and if you are not too keen on brand-focused shopping, but want to have some great street food instead, Sec-14 beats Ambience Mall hands down. To my MDI friends, the update goes as follows:

1. Raju tea stall is still there! This must be longest tenure in the "chai-wala on a movable cart" category. He seems to be doing brisk business, even though the chap has shifted behind Mother Dairy, probably to take advantage of lower rents (these guys must be paying something to the police, wouldn't they?). For the unacquainted, Raju served the best tea within a 2km radius of MDI, especially in the winters, when you could enjoy adrak-elaichi chai lazing on the fence.

2. Om Sweets continues to prosper. The shop is still expensive for students, unless you are hell-bent on having mineral water golgappas.

3. The Calcutta roll shops have multiplied like rabbits, and most of them are also offering burgers now. The roll was okay, but I didn't try the burger, although a robust demand for the snack seemed to exist.

4. The Mallu Gang and Ramanarayana, you were born a little too early. A shop called the "South Store" has commenced operations where you used to get Amritsari Kulchas, and I can tell you, the stuff he doles out is as good as what you would get in Bangalore (It is no Saravana Bhawan though). The owner is an authentic South Indian - I could guess that from his "Sarrr, please have a seat".

5. Chinese corner is still there, but his prices have hit the roof. The American Chopsuey now sells for Rs 85 as compared to Rs 20 in 2002. If I adjust my salary to Chinese-corner-derived-inflation, I have not made much progress. I would rather use the prices of McDonald's Soft-Serve cone to map that. The price of this product is now Rs 10 as against Rs 7 in the year 2000. That translates into a CAGR of 3.6%! I won't be surprised if Sharad Pawar is caught saying "If they can't buy bread, why don't they have Soft-Serve cones instead?"

6. Like most of Gurgaon, there are a lot of Momo shops in Sec-14 now. Considering that half a plate of Momos just cost Rs 15, non-vegetarian students have a cause for celebration now. A little more calculation shows that the price of one momo is just Rs 3 (plate of 5 for Rs 15), which makes them cheaper than golgappas (plate of 6 for Rs 20). By Jove, chicken is cheaper than water now! On another note, you get the best golgappas in Sector-40, where the chap boasts of five different kinds of golgappa pani (information courtesy Ankit Jain). For the best momos, head to Vyaapar Kendra near the Marriot Courtyard (information courtesy Deepak Jotwani).

In case you have explored Sec-14 further, please let me know!

3 comments:

Ankit Jain said...

well there are a couple of developments which got missed out between the two eras that are being talked about here....
One was the amazing burger and dahi bhalle wala who used to be situated near the nokia store in the diagonally opposite corner of Om Sweets, and the other, a juice shop who used to be there on the enterance of sec-14....and both of these were unfortunately thrown out during the infamous "encroachment" drive by HUDA...Plus a new ice cream parler has also taken its place - "Gyanis"

Gaurav Sharma said...

You've become a pacca gurgaon waala..Rallan, enjoyed reading it. Let's meet sometime soon.

Aditya Rallan said...

Ankit - Gyanis should be useless, but I shall try it out. The lost dahi bhalle wala is a tragedy. Damn the encroachment drive. Gaurav - do let me know when you are in Gurgaon. You have my phone number. Let me treat you to the delicacies of Sector 14 ;)