NIRULA'S @ CHANAKYA:

NIRULA'S @ CHANAKYA:

If you were living in Delhi in 1970s & 80s, and had not seen an English movie in Chanakya, even if it was a sleazy one like Blame it on Rio, and then did not go & sit in Nirula's Chanakya outlet, preferably with a friend of the opposite gender, then you were, well, a big, big ??????.

No other word for it. You were a social outcast. Period. You just couldn't move about in the chattering circles. You were banished to ??????? ??????? or ?????? ?????.

To quote Wikipedia "The Nirula's chain traces its origins to "Hotel India" which opened at the L-Block in Connaught Place in 1934, by Nirula Brothers, L.C. and M. Nirula; it had 12 rooms, a restaurant and a bar. In 1940, on request of the Indian Coffee Board, they opened the Indian Coffee Shop in Janpath introducing espresso coffee, which became an instant success. In the 1950s, the Chinese Room was opened, the oldest Chinese restaurant in Delhi. The 1970s saw Nirula's venturing into the fast food business with the opening of what became Delhi's first fast food restaurant in 1977, to which was later added a pastry shop, snack bar, hot shoppe, and an ice cream parlour. A subsequent addition was the adjacent, waiter-served "Potpourri" salad bar. By that time Nirula's was already a CP landmark, offering Western fast food such as burgers, pizzas, and submarines, plus an ice cream parlour offering 21 flavours".

There were Nirula's & there were Nirula's. In coolness quotient, the top-of-the-pops was the one at Chanakya Cinema, which had these wonderful wrought-iron chairs & played latest pop hits as piped music, followed by the two outlets at CP & then the one under the flyover at Defence Colony.

At its height, through late 1970s & 80s, the outlets were packed. And they were the only places in Delhi where you could get absolutely ravishing burgers, pizzas & ice creams. A whole generation has grown up on Big Boy Burgers, Mutton Chops, Footlongs & that God's gift to mankind, the one & only, Hot Chocolate Fudge. Nutty Buddy not very far behind.

In the 1990s, Nirula's became Nirula & went into some kind of a decline. And then disappeared, leaving people like me who had patronised Nirula's so faithfully, devastated. I still pine for that Nirula's taste & if you ask me, the burgers at McDonald & Burger King taste like cardboard to me.

A year ago, I found that Nirula's had reopened in CP. I went there with my wife & was sorely disappointed. Service was poor & the food lacked that taste & zing.

All good things come to an end. That's life.

Meanwhile I can quote that famous quip for ????? for Nirula's too:

"?????? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ? ????? ? ??".

"The one who did not eat burgers, pizza & have Ice Cream at Nirula's wasn't born".