Strangers on a Train

I stare out of the window, waiting for the Rajdhani to take me away from the city I have grown to loathe so much. A young executive with his face partially covered by a newspaper sits next to me. An elderly man walks in with his wife and his luggage in tow, and a retinue of servants and porters follow them into the coupé. I close my eyes at the distraction, waiting for it to pass, before I board my train of thoughts again. The persistent cries of hawkers selling their wares rent the air at regular intervals, accompanied with the excited shouts of children enjoying the last few days of summer holidays. A throng of porters swarms the platform outside my window, as the train signals the commencement of its journey.

New Diamond Café, Pahad Ganj

Somewhere on the Main Bazaar Street of Pahad Ganj, between Sang Trashan Marg and Chitragupta Road, is a dingy eatery called New Diamond Café. The narrow entrance is easy to miss if you don’t know it exists; I would have ignored it as well, had it not been for billing counter that sits neatly at the edge of the road, and the stack of menus parked precisely along the periphery. And anybody who evinces a slight interest in the petite joint is thrust with a carte du jour, one look at which will be enough to get hungry stomachs inside.