Food Fad Factor

The rising phenomenon of eating out.

- S Radha Prathi

If you are hungry, tech-savvy and have enough money to pay for your meal, you shall be fed. This is the new order. Every eatery worth its salt is ready to send steaming hot food whenever your innards crave for it at the click of a button. Having come thus far is a mega change in the food habits of us Indians.

These, among other factors, have made eating outside their hearths and homes no longer a taboo; this truth is revealed by the presence of eateries across the length and breadth of the country. A bird's eyeview reveals that these eateries span a wide spectrum of economic, social and cultural panels serving all genres of people.

The purpose of these eateries, whether they are starred or ordinary hotels, motels, restaurants, canteens, cafeterias, inns, bistros, dhabas, bakeries or vending carts, is the same. The people in charge of these eat-outs run this business basically in order to earn profit or a living as the case may be. Yet, we find that they are extending a great service to society though it comes with a price tag. As mentioned earlier, globalisation, liberalisation and industrialisation appear to have put the urban Indians on wheels.

Most of them do not seem to have any time for themselves. The ready-to-eat food available off the shelves, the takeaway food kiosks, the fast-food eateries and the roadside vada pav and chaat vending carts are proof enough for this trend. Even little villages with a comparatively negligible population have one or two such eateries, one at the railway station or bus stand and one elsewhere in the township or in the village.