The Heartwarming Generosity of a Samosa Wala

Tatanagar tales from the chatty dentist

The samosa cook-salesman at his post. Photo by the author.

Last Saturday, I walked down the street from my dental clinic to this samosa cook/salesman to have some of his samosas. His name is Adalat, which funnily enough means, “Court of Law.”

Adalat makes amazing samosas and serves them hot with potato curry and some chutneys. I usually take his stuff home, but that day, I sat down on the little bench he has for his “dine-in” customers and ate the samosa there in the open air.

The homeless man in the shawl eating a potato bonda. Photo by the author.

My daughter, Gayatri (she studies computer science in New Delhi and was home for a long weekend), was with me. Gayatri and I were frazzled from wrestling with the software for my dental clinic’s billing system. We were seeking solace in the cheap street food calories provided by the samosas.

As we ate, we saw a homeless man who walked over to the pile of samosas and then back across the street, once or twice.

Gayatri and I were too deep in our hot bowls of samosa and potato curry to pay any heed to the homeless man.

Adalat, however, beckoned to the homeless man and offered him a potato bonda…