Flora Fountain (13) (14) (15)

Vendors at three compass points.

E: I hit the first, on V.N. Road, for breakfast. This fry-wallah/hawk-wallah combo is the only team I've seen working in tandem to fill orders with vada pulled fresh from the oil into your bun. Which, let me tell you, is the way to go.

NW: On my way back from the office round the corner closest to Churchgate. The juice stand here is perfectly situated so that you get not only a balanced meal but a full narrative arc. Exposition (shuttling between the stands to place your orders), rising action (plunging through the crowd to grab your sandwich), climax (biting into a stinging salted mirch), and denouement (a delicately salted grape juice). They're out of grapes today, so I'll just make it an anecdote.

SW: Finally, just before the stand-up act, I catch the guy in front of the University just before closing. Still warm. Maybe these guys did a brisk business as the festival crowd made their way to the station — no tickets or tokens at this food court — but here above Sassoon Library the street is already asleep, the chana-wallah no longer roasting and the kerosene lamps coming down off their hooks.