Opened again, bus stand dhabas miss routine buzz

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“There are hardly any passengers now. We are barely cooking half a kg rice for the whole day now. ‘Bhaturas’, snacks, coffee, cold drinks and juices are off the shelf as there are no takers. Earlier, the passengers used to be in a hurry and we had to keep our stuff ready to serve them as buses would leave off quickly. But now there is no such haste as buses remain stranded for two hours or even more waiting to be at least half occupied. —

Amandeep, owner of Punjabi Tadka dhaba

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Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 17

Amandeep of Gopal Nagar reopened his Punjabi Tadka dhaba inside the food court of the Jaladhar bus stand this Monday after a gap of nearly three months.

Having run the dhaba round the clock with his staff working in three shifts, he never had a problem paying a monthly rental of Rs 1.75 lakh to a Punbus contractor. But things have now completely changed.

Opening in the morning, now his dhaba closes down at 4 pm as the bus stand goes completely deserted. While he earlier used to prepare ‘bhatura chana’, ‘paranthas’, ‘samosas’ and ‘bread pakoras’ for breakfast and had five dishes for the lunch and dinner, besides beverages, including tea, coffee, lassi, juices and cold drinks, most of his vessels remain empty now as he is preparing only a few items and that too in a limited quantity.

“There are hardly any passengers now. We are barely cooking half a kilogram rice for the whole day now. ‘Bhaturas’, snacks, coffee, cold drinks and juices are off the shelf now as there are no takers. While earlier, the passengers used to be in a hurry and we had to keep our stuff ready to serve them as buses would leave off quickly. But now there is no such haste as buses remain stranded for two hours or even more waiting to be at least half occupied. So, we have ample time to ready their order and pack their meals. But the point here is that no one comes this side”, he rues.

Amandeep adds, “There are no long distance buses from here. Earlier, buses used to ply inter-state and all those going to Delhi, Rajasthan and other states used to get down and have food at dhabas here in the food court. All of us used to have our hands full, but so far only two of us have opened and that too two days ago. We and our workers did not even have two minutes to spare to talk to anyone. Since there are no long route buses plying now and people are scared of having outside meals, they carry along their own food and water and are completely avoiding our meals.”

The dhaba owner says, “Past midnight, when the entire city used to sleep earlier in normal days, it was only the bus stand area that remained abuzz with activity. We used to have good number of people for meals even at odd hours between 1 am and 4 am. The entire city knew that when all dhabas would be shut, the food court at the bus stand would remain open. But you can yourself see now. It is lunch time and we are without a single visitor.”

Amandeep says he really does not know how he would manage the things. “Under the present terms of contract, we might not be able to go on. The contract amount needs to be revised at least for the time period till things come to normal”, he adds.