The Vada Pavlov-ian Response

By: Suyash Garg

The swanky office of Bristol-Myers Squibb doesn’t house a cooking facility. This is primarily because of the legal tangle of approvals under India’s myriad labour laws and a strict adherence to them.  There is a sprawling cafeteria, though, where stacks of plates, china bowls and gleaming spoons await the grumbling stomachs.  However breakfast is sourced from a vendor and served at the cafeteria. Being the most important meal of the day, the significance the company attaches to breakfast seems heartening. However the admiration for taking care of the health of employees gradually dries up as a specific item stuck to the morning menu. It is the Vada-Pav. Calorie –rich and nourishment-deficit, Vada-Pav has a permanent presence at the breakfast table.  The company ensures a diversity of dishes on the menu each day but Vada-Pav retains its prized position.

Why would a BioPharma company which champions human health have Vada-Pav, inter alia on its menu?  This question swirls in the air-conditioned office and refuses to settle down.  However a patient reflection leads to startling revelations.

The humility of the Vada-Pav hits one before its taste- A crumby Pav encapsulating a fried, rounded potato cutlet.  The Vada-Pav doesn't hide its ordinariness.  On the contrary, it is precisely the unabashed but not arrogant acceptance of the same which makes it endearing. In an age of pretentious malarkey, it is its simplicity but wholesomeness that draws us to this plebeian food. Much before Mc Donald’s and its assorted ancillaries washed up on our shores, generations had subsisted on this Marathi gastronomic icon.

Interestingly, it needn't be the hungry who had feasted on it.  This culinary treat has been synonymous with the Marathi Manoos. The fibre of sons- of -the-soil has fortified the parochial palate - in more ways than one.  And this is where parochial meets plurality. Though its unassumingness belies its plurality, Vada-Pav is a binary food essentially; an amalgamation of two independent and atomic edible-the oil-rich, deep-fried vada and the humble, crumby Pav; the economy of the bread and the opulence of oil. In the age of singularity, Vada-Pava combines two seemingly disparate worlds which have little in common. Yet, it is this unison which lends the Vada-Pav its orgasmic flavour.

Best prepared in the state of unpreparedness, Vada-Pav still remains a gourmet's delight. .This is why its appeal remains undiminished. So much so that even Mc Donald’s had to kowtow. The McAloo Tikkification of its flagship product was not just a game changer in consumerist adaptation but the ultimate deification of this humble pie. But the Vada-Pav narrative is incomplete without its geographical indications. The modesty of the Vada-Pav may seem at odds with the outrageous extravagance of Mumbai, but much of it is a part of the city's myth.  Vada-Pav punctures this myth, gives it a reality check. It is the stubborn shibboleth of Mumbai's Marathi-ness. The answer of the Great Unwashed to Society: Satiety.

None among Bristol, Myers or Squibb may have tasted a Vada-Pav but the gastronomic delights dished out by this Mumbai item has certainly been lapped up by the employees of its only office in one of the fastest growing markets.

Suyash is a first year student of HRM LR in TISS Mumbai