Tuesday 4 February 2014

Food On Credit



It seems food and credit has an age old association. I remember during my childhood days how my mom used to buy the groceries for the entire month on credit. Every month she used to make payment for the previous month. Quite often she used to take me for her horrific monthly shopping on Sundays. By the time we returned home, Sunday was already gone. But after my 8th grade I think I was no longer useful enough for my mom, as far as her marketing was concerned. When I joined engineering college it didn’t take us much longer to fall into the trap of credit. The Dhaba close to our hostel and the cigarette shop used to maintain register for almost every hostel guys. No one ever had to worry about our food and fag. Every time when we used to receive money from our parents it used to vanish in the first or at max 2nd week of every month. But it was never a problem as those registers never disappointed us.

Years later the story remained the same. Even now days also as soon as I receive my salary it disappears within a couple of weeks, mostly in making the payment of previous month dues and not to mention about my dreadful EMIs. Over the years I've become very much dependent on my credit card and usually I don’t carry cash with me. Well, I really hate going to ATM’s and because of this lousy habit I had encountered some annoying moments. Many times it happened that my wallet went completely void without even a single penny. In such situation when I use to visit any ATM, the machine usually would be out of service. Ultimately I’m able to withdraw cash in the 3rd or sometimes in the 4th ATM I visit. Earlier it was ultimate painful as the distance between 2 nearest ATM’s was huge. But now days situation has changed. There are hell lots of banks and hell lot of ATM's, but only my account always remains deprived of currency.

I remember one incident that happened few years ago. It was a Friday night and I came home little late from office. It rained cats and dogs that night. At around 10:30 PM my wife started to prepare food. All of a sudden she realized that there was not enough gas left inside the cylinder to continue the flame. We had a private gas connection those days with a single cylinder. We decided to order food from outside and collected few restaurant menus piled up in some corner of the house. 

"I don’t have a single penny with me. Do you have cash with you?" I asked my wife.

"No, I don't have cash with me. Why are you such an idiot? You always carry the card with you. Why the hell you didn’t withdraw money?"

I looked outside the window and it was quite impossible to go out in such terrible rain. Ours is a residential area and the nearest restaurant was quite far. Also in those days I didn’t have any vehicle. Out of desperation I started to shake the cylinder. Obviously, it didn’t work. It was already 10:50 PM and I tried my luck to order food online. That was for the first time I tried such a thing. Well, I used to do a hell lot of things online but food was something new for me. I was so delighted when I came across some websites through which we could have ordered online food. But most of the sites had only cash on delivery option. Then I came across one which claimed to deliver food till 11:30 PM. The website specifically mentioned that they deliver food even in drastic weather condition and on top of that the option of online payment was also there. We were so hungry and we ordered hell lot of things. I was so happy, such a rainy night with completely empty stomach. I was already mesmerized with the tempting smell of the food we just ordered. At around 11:30 PM all of a sudden the phone started to ring.

"Hello Sir, you have ordered food through our website"

"Yes, I did"

"Thank you for using our website Sir. Actually we are extremely sorry to say that at this point of time we will not be able to deliver your order"

I was totally demoralized "Why, what’s the problem?"

"As you are aware Sir, it’s raining very heavily in Bangalore at the moment"

"But in your website it’s clearly mentioned that you guys deliver even in drastic weather condition"

"Yes sir, we do. But at the moment as you can see it’s raining very heavily. Your money will be credited to your account in 2 to 3 working days"

What a KLPD that was. Fortunately we had bread inside the refrigerator and had to satisfy our hunger with bread and pickle.

Well, that was several years ago and after that we ordered online food countless number of times. I always prefer to pay using my credit card rather than cash on delivery. Old habit dies hard you see. From last couple of years whenever I ordered food from outside, most of the time I did it online. The online food industry is quite matured enough these days and it's only improving day by day. It's a competitive market and such companies often come up with exciting offers. Few days back I came across FoodPanda and instantly liked it. The website looks simple yet so attractive. They are fully operational in all major Indian cities and they have tie up with a wide range of restaurants and several other forms of modern eateries.

Well, I always prefer Indian food and sometimes pizza's for a change, but my wife enjoys continental food a lot. Whenever we order food we usually end up in some kind of a controversy. With such a great food ordering website like FoodPanda, we no longer require to waste our time browsing over the internet for ordering food of our choice. Right from authentic Indian delicacies to all forms of mesmerizing Pizzas, from SubWay to RollMaal, from Chinese to various other continental foods, one can order just anything from FoodPanda. Apart from 11 AM to 11 PM Toll-free customer care service they also have a live chat in their website. My experience with FoodPanda was really awesome and I frequently visit their site to look for latest exciting offers.



28 comments:

  1. Thank you for the info .. I'll try food panda website sometime :D

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    1. Hehe :) You should Namrota. Thanks for dropping by !!

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  2. ho... the perils of credit card.. :)

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    1. Haha :) We should handle with care. Thanks for dropping by !!

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  3. NOW NOW NOW...I am liking this! Must check this one out!

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    1. Hehe.. It's a great site :) Thanks a lot for dropping by !!

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  4. Jahid I enjoy the humour thrown in your write-ups even in the most disadvantaged situations you faced.

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    1. That's so nice of U Bushra :) Glad U enjoy my write-ups and thanks for dropping by !!

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  5. Haha I'm exactly opposite of you, I panic if I don't have cash and my card in my purse when I go out. Never tried FoodPanda though, will try it sometime soon :)

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    1. Haha ladies are usually quite cautious about carrying cash :) Glad U enjoyed the post and thanks for dropping by !!

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  6. Bread was a savior then and Foodpanda now :-) Nice post!

    -Shilpi
    http://shilp3005.blog.com

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    1. Hehe.. bread was a savior that night. Glad U enjoyed the post and Foodpanda is really awesome :) Thanks for dropping by Shilpi !!

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  7. I actually laughed aloud when your wife called you an idiot. :D Hahaha, but on a serious note, this is the story of our life Jahid.. money comes, money goes !

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    1. Haha, wives usually behave like that I guess :) Glad U enjoyed the post and yes, money comes and money goes. The input is directly proportional to output. Thanks for dropping by Pallavi !!

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  8. This brought a big smile on my face ..the way you described the incident..:-D..really a KLPD as your wife already said that you're an idiot.. ( wives generally say so , I know :-P )..

    Anyway..will definitely try it out..this Foodpanda :-)

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    1. Glad U enjoyed the post and yes, wives usually behave like that :) U should try out FoodPanda :) Thanks for dropping by Maniparna !!

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  9. hahahaha..... and you were spared by your wife that night ? you kept her on Bread diet and that is all because of your "I don't carry cash" habit.....I think this credit card or card swiping trend has ruined us.... I am sure every card user must have faced similar situation in his/her life, I am not an exception......In one such incident, one day I missed my office bus and then I had to catch a public bus, after sitting in bus I realized that my purse doesn't carry a currency not even a 5 rupee coin, by knowing that fact that bus conductor will not accept any cards, I requested him to drop me at next stop as I don't have cash, so he did, then I ran towards nearest ATM where I found a hand written card board saying "ATM is out of order" the I searched for other ATM which has another sign board "Re. 100 note not available"......then I decided to withdraw 500, it failed, then it gave me a 1000 rupee note, which again no bus conductor would accept, later I had to take an auto to the office who took re. 300.....

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    1. Lesson, always withdraw some extra cash in the beginning of moth and hand over it to Wife, and rest she will manage that your valet should pusses some cash every time when you step out...

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    2. Haha Pritesh U too :) Really enjoyed Ur bus and Rs 300 story. Even I also have many such small incidents. I remember one time i was having tea/cig in a bakery and later realized I didn't have even a single penny. The bakery guy was kind enough :)

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    3. Now days I do exactly the same. I withdraw good amount of money from our office ATM and keep at home in some common place. So whenever required we both take from there. But still history keep repeating sometimes :) Thanks for dropping by Pritesh !!

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  10. Very nice post. Shaking the cylinder is something I try quite often.. and yes, it never works! :) Will try Food Panda sometime..

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    1. Haha shaking the cylinder come naturally into our mind :) Glad U enjoyed the post and thanks a lot for visiting out here Payal !!

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  11. Hmm..Jahid Da, I can so very well relate to your situation ..but thanks to Foodpanda the saving grace to our plight..:P

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    1. Hehe Kim, glad to know that you could very well related to the situation :) Yes many thanks to FoodPanda and thanks a lot for visiting out here !!

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  12. my dear javed you really returned my old student days memories. Wives most of them keep hard cash in house to the tune of few thousands always and it is from your pocket,whether she is a housewife or not. i believe in your case this is an unusual exception. In my case in identical cases every time my purse gets debited twice for the amount I get from her. Very nicely read I enjoyed throuhout. My wife has gone for a kitty party and I paid the foodwala from her secret fund under the bed. don't tell her.

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    1. Haha.. Mr Pradip, nice to know about your secret fund :) Yes, U are correct, whether she's housewife or not but we should be ready to spend our money. Glad U enjoyed the post and thanks a lot for dropping by !!

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  13. Really very informative post about Foodpanda online service. If you want some exclusive Foodpanda Deals and Offers on a great discounts in India. Please visit here

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