Indian Railways is considered the lifeline of passenger transport in our country. It offers the cheapest mode of transport for millions. However, anyone who has travelled by Indian railways can never vouch for the quality of the food served onboard. It is more of a case of filling your mouth without bothering about the taste and food quality. Apart from the poor quality, railway pantry cars are known to serve unhygienic food as well!
Fortunately, a lot of private operators have emerged as an alternative to the lacklustre catering service provided by Indian Railways. Food on train companies like Travel Khana, YatraChef, Thaliwale now 
provide unique food delivery services, offering a widespread choice of food for travellers. Not forgetting to mention that quality and taste are the topmost factor on agenda as far as food on train is concerned.
Travel Khana has been the pioneer in offering food on train, which established its business in 2012. The company offered something that Indian railway travellers never experienced – quality food from the restaurant of their choice! The website caters to multiple railway junctions and major cities, offering a choice of Indian, Continental and Chinese food cuisine for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian customers. Pushpinder Singh, the company’s CEO says, “Be it Bhopal’s Celebration Restaurant or the much celebrated Biryani of Paradise Restaurant in Hyderabad, we provide a wide array of food to our customers!”
“Travel Khana was never a pet project. But when we started, we have been customers to the food available on Indian Railways, which is distant from anywhere one can call a standard. We have travelled in public transport systems, including buses, but the condition of train food remains as sad as it was 20 years ago. The main concern is not because of the management team, but more due to the lack of choices, which Travel Khana promises to alter. As we all know, our website gives the best food choices on selected trains and stations, and that’s something we are not happy about. We want all customers in maximum stations to have choices for the food they choose to pay for,” added Pushpinder Singh.
The process of ordering food is easy. All one has to do is to pick up the phone or order online. Travellers have access to a few quality restaurants, which cover the route they are travelling on. These restaurants are verified and tested based on stringent quality parameters. To order food is an easy task: select the website first, and then choose the date and the focal points of your travel. Once this is done, a list of restaurants catering to that particular route will come up. Then, you need to pick your choice of restaurant, select the type of food and order it. Once an order is placed, you will get a confirmation in the form of mobile SMS.
When you place an order, convenient payment options are available in form of net banking, debit cards and cash on delivery. If you choose to avail the cash-on-delivery option, keep the exact amount of change in hand for a hassle-free delivery. You can also make advance orders for a future date of journey. It is not necessary that you have to travel to order food; you can also gift a packet of food for your near and dear ones as well.
The online catering of food does offer several advantages over the traditional way of ordering food. One can order food round the clock and the process is much faster. Secondly, one would be able to see a wide range of menu options. Last but not the least, one can see restaurant reviews along with their ratings, given by fellow customers.
With an aim to expand its reach to hundreds of stations and trains, Travel Khana will be soon adding new vendors for different states and include more stations and trains to its list for quick food ordering. The website is already in talks with many well known food chains and vendors and has given a handy railway timetable for its customers to understand bookings better. Currently, the website offers choices of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food along with Jain food choices for some of the stations listed and for special religious journeys. So with all these options, let’s hope the stale food on trains will be a thing of the past!
That intriguing story unravels in Poochanthe’s most famous novel ‘Karvalho’. The protoganist, Karvalho, is a zoologist studying these flying lizards in the Malnad region, who is well supported by interesting characters such as Mandhanna, Yengta, Prabhakara, Kariappa, etc. Throughout the novel, the scientist is on the hunt to find the elusive flying lizard, which finally appears at the end of the novel. However, just when the scientist and his team are about to capture it, it flies down a cliff and vanishes into the vast jungle.
In fact, in his short story collection, ‘Parisaradha Kathe’, there is an episode about a wild boar hunting activity done by his friends in the forests near Mudigere. In another episode named ‘Kukkuta Pishacha’, Tejaswi narrates a simple story which teaches a great lesson that nature has its own equation and tactics to survive in this wild world. A forest hen regularly appears in front of the passersby and provoke them to catch it. The idea is to take them to far away from its nest where it is hatching its eggs.
There are two or three benches, a few circular metal tables that are not yet broken and cement slabs where students sit and pontificate on Marxism, Feminism, Modernism, Writ jurisdiction, the Civil Codes, and gossip about who is dating whom, whose car got impounded etc., while the campus dogs sniff the bins looking for leftover. The two best advantages of this place are: it is shaded by a number of trees and is close to the classrooms for those who don’t wish to be late for their lessons.
