Ordering in -All About Options

Ordering-in food at the work place is a common feature. Be it among those who order everyday for lunch or those who work late evenings or weekends. But what factors tip the vote in favour of some outlets?

Janaki Sabesh, Business Manager at Real Image, feels that it all depends on the occasion. She adds, “We constantly keep trying out new outlets for different occasions. If we have a meeting, and we want to order food for the people participating in the discussion, we normally order Katti Rolls from Bay Leaf as they are less messy than other snacks. If it’s a treat (or someone else is paying!), we order from Dominos or Pizza Hut. If we’re getting the food picked up, we get it done from Padmashree Foods in C.I.T.Colony. It also depends on how hungry we are and how soon we want to eat!”

Mirroring the sentiment of urgency and adding the dimension of home food, Bala Manian, Manager – Marketing Communication at Sundaram Mutual, says, “I very rarely order in as I live close to my work-place and prefer eating at home no matter how late. On some evenings or weekends, in the hope of completing work early and going home for dinner, I end up not eating till I’m ravenous. Then I end up ordering Cheese Toast or Sweet Lime Juice from Shamiana in Egmore as a stop-gap until dinner at home.”, says Bala Manian,

Location of the work place, often, has a lot to do with the choice of cuisine and outlet from where food is ordered. “We are in the heart of town, and Komala’s and Rice & Spice are right opposite our office. So, we normally order from there.” Says Ashok Srinivasan, V.P.Operations at ExpertUS Infotech.

Time is of essence to some. Especially delivery time. Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice President at Integrated Brand Comm, laments the fact that some outlets take too long to deliver. “If we get food picked up, it’s quicker. We normally send the Office Boy to Yamuna or the Java Green across the road. Jaishree Bikaner is also close to office and they deliver food for us sometimes. But delivery time is the key factor for us and we normally order from Dominos as they are very prompt. Red-E Drop Zone and Subway take way too much time – almost an hour, to deliver. And our office is in the heart of town, which doesn’t seem to make a difference to them.”

Sudha R., who works with E-Serve in their Credit Operations Team (Personal Loans), agrees with Vidhya’s point, but adds, “I personally believe that taking too much time to eat interrupts the work flow. I normally eat in our cafeteria. When some of us are bored with the cafeteria food, we go to Meenakshi Bhavan next door, where we get a quick bite. Some working Sundays, we don’t order in, we go out for lunch to places like Murugan Idli Shop on G.N. Chetty Road or Virudunagar Ayyanar Hotel on Usman Road. But the last days of the month are pretty hectic for us, so, we order Pizzas and Ice Creams from Pizza Hut. They arrive on time and are easier to eat, thereby saving time when it’s critical.”

At the end of the day, pizza outlets across the board, continue to have a pulse on the market and are the fastest, making them a popular choice. However, health-conscious people like Janaki Sabesh have struck a happy medium,“We order pizzas from Chef Express. But when we feel that it’s too heavy a meal, we also have the option of sandwiches from them, or Chinese and Tandoori from their sister-concerns, where we can choose what we want to eat or order different cuisine for different people.”

Soaring skyward - An interview with Aasma

“Something funny happens at each of Aasma’s performances.” says Sangeet Haldipur of Aasma. “At one concert, my leather trouser came apart along the leg - I had to keep it covered with my guitar and tone down some of my movements on stage. Another time, after a concert, one of the organisers mentioned to Jimmy that his fly had been open, possibly for the entire duration of the concert!”

It’s this heady mix of humor, zest and talent that seems to be the key to Aasma’s popularity. For the uninitiated, it’s a four-member pop band comprising Sangeet Haldipur, Jimmy Felix, Neeti Mohan and Vasudha Sharma. Although all four have visited Chennai at some point in the past, they performed here as a band for the first time yesterday at Lifestyle as part of a tour to kick off the store’s Lifestyle Weekends concept in Chennai.

Flashback to just over a year ago, when they were selected among 15000 hopefuls across seven cities in India, as part of the Coke [V] Popstars 2 Talent Hunt. While the selection process was gruelling, it was only the first step for the foursome. What followed was four months of a rigorous regimen to groom them in all it takes to be a pop band, be it voice training, dance or the look.

Vasudha reminisces, “We were trained by the best talent in the country and had the opportunity to work on our first album with some of the most respected music directors and lyricists. That was a valuable experience. And the biggest challenge for us was to learn to sing together as a band. We were no longer individuals, we learnt to complement each other.”

And look how far they've come already. They’re one album old and their debut performance was in front of a crowd of 40,000. They’ve opened the show for Bryan Adams at Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and performed international shows at Dubai and Malaysia. They’ve appeared in two television serials, ‘Saara Akash’ and ‘Shakalaka Boom’ as well as sung the title track for the Star Parivaar Awards.

Owing to the popularity of one of the tracks, ‘Chandu ke Chacha’ from their debut album, a second version of the music video was created showing the country dancing to the tune. Not to mention the fact that it has spawned off over 40 remixes on the web as well as bhajans written in the tune!

Neeti recounts one very touching moment. “When we performed ‘Chandu ke Chacha…’ at the Spastics Society at Mumbai, the kids got so caught up in it. You could see it in their eyes. In fact, we’re still in touch with them and their parents.”

And what’re their plans for the future? “Our second album is in the pipeline. We’ve just worked on a jingle. A dance track, composed by Salim-Suleiman and written by Abbas Tyrewallah is also on the cards.” Says Neeti.

Jimmy adds, “We’ve also recently created our website, www.aasmaworld.com, which our fans can check out and get to know us. They can write to us through the site and we promise to reply to each one of them. We’ve been doing that, but people don’t seem to believe that it’s really us replying to them!”

A recent development has been Aasma’s nomination under Best Indian Pop Band at the Sangeet Awards to be held in the Royal Albert Hall, London on October 1. “It’s an honour for us to be nominated and we’re looking forward to attending the awards.” says an exultant Vasudha.

Let’s hope Aasma’s visit and the response to their performance provides a much-needed shot in the arm for efforts to bring music bands down to Chennai for concerts. 

(Pic courtesy Third Eye, as published in Madras Plus)