M T R

Mavalli Tiffin Rooms as its name suggests is located in Mavalli, very close to Lalbagh. Lalbagh Botanical Gardens is one of the very famous landmarks of Bangalore comprising of about 200 acres of landscaped gardens and has four entry points. ‘Mavalli’ is the approximately 4-6 sq km area next to Lalbagh. MTR is on Lalbagh Road about one hundred meters from the Lalbagh main gate.

I can’t think of Lalbagh and MTR separately. I am sure  it is so for the hundreds of walkers who used to come to Lalbagh for their morning walk everyday and later crowded the footpath in front of MTR for the invigorating cup of coffee. Since the numbers were huge and the demand was only for coffee, it was served right on the steps and people enjoyed it standing and talking. I have not been there recently and do not know for sure if it is the same now. I think it is. Anyway, MTR and Lalbagh are always together in my mind and both jointly have entwined themselves firmly with my childhood. That being the case, I request you to kindly forgive some of my childhood memories creeping into this story of MTR.

To begin at the beginning, I understand that a hut with a thatched roof,  preparing and selling Idlis, was set up by the Maiya brothers on what is known as Lalbagh Fort Road, not far from the present MTR, in 1920. In a short while, it grew to become The Brahmin’s Coffee Club, popular for its idlisambhar and masala dosa and was housed in a bigger and better building. I vaguely remember reading about it in DVG’s book, “Smriti Chitragalu”. (Pictures Of Memory?) While reminiscing about eateries of that time, Sri DVG mentions this establishment and how, at a time when it was taboo for the orthodox brahmins to eat in a hotel, many youth, lured by the taste, would enter the hotel by stealth and consume their idlis and dosas. It seems one of the brothers, Sri Yagnanarayana Maiya was instrumental in making the hotel grow in popularity and status, and it was later named Mavalli Tiffin Rooms and shifted to its present location in 1960.

Cash Counter and the stairs leading to the restaurant

We visited MTR quite often during the period 1962 - 1972.  Our house was at a walking distance from Lalbagh and hence it was the preferred site for our Sunday outings with our father. We entered Lalbagh through the Southgate, climbed the hill, bought roasted ground nuts from the hawkers, sat on the hill eating groundnuts and straining our eyes to locate an air plane in the far away HAL air port. We climbed down on the opposite side of the hill to reach the deer enclosure, fed the leftover ground nuts to the animals which eagerly ate from our hands pushing their snouts through the metal netting, and walking through the glass house, reached the cages housing pigeons, parrots, guinea pigs and rabbits. We spent sometime there, walked under the huge rain trees close by collecting the fallen pods, (soaking and pounding which, we made a big mess in the house and one or two out of shape cricket balls) arrived at the statue of Chamaraja Wodeyar near the main gate, came out of Lalbagh and entered MTR. It was one smooth movement from entering the Lalbagh to ending up in MTR.

The anteroom where people waited for the tables to be free

MTR was a ground and first floor structure. The kitchen, storage and washing areas were on the ground floor of the building. The food was served on the first floor. As you entered, there were the cash counter and the stairs to the left and under the stairs was the refrigerator. The MTR’s famous (almost all their dishes were famous of course) fruit mixture was prepared right there. As one climbed the stairs, one could see the rows of clear glass containers being layered with finely chopped fresh fruits  and topped with MTR’s special ‘American’ ice cream. (As I have mentioned earlier, that was the time when every hotel prepared its own ice cream). The ensemble was then crowned with figs, cherry and grapes. It was too tempting a sight and only an extremely strong will and a look at the price of fruit mixture on the display board, prevented one from ordering it right away!

We occupied the table and placed the order. It was invariably Masaladosa and Gulabjamoon for me and my brother, and fruit mixture for the princess of our house, my sister. If he still had money to spare, which was rare, my father ordered a Kharabhat for himself and if not, just coffee. We never bothered to think why our father did not eat anything. I thought about it after I grew up and wondered why he took us there every other week even though he had to exert himself to afford that expense. It was only after I had my children that I experienced the joy of seeing one’s children relish what they were eating. And my son, thirty winters behind him, amply provides me with the pleasure, even now, if I take him to MTR!

Kharabhat with the MTR trademark tomato slice on the top. (The tomatoes of the size of a cricket ball or bigger. I have not seen them in the market these days. they were my father's favourite)

Every MTR preparation has its own fan group and for me it was and still is, Masaladosa and Gulaabjamun. And between the two the Gulaabjamun. This Gulabjamun is made of pure khova, fried golden and brought submerged in flavoured sugar syrup. I wonder how they keep it in shape till it reaches the table because, the moment you touch it with the spoon it disintegrates and once conveyed into the mouth just melts. Nowadays, however, I find the MTR Gulaab jaamun a bit too sweet for my taste but do order one even now. And my sister still insists on her fruit mixture but says some canned fruits have found their way into the container.  

Apart from the usual fare which is part of the menu in all hotels, MTR had its trademark sweet ‘Chandrahaara’ which was prepared only on Sundays. It was a fried maida preparation made using a secret recipe and served covered in thick sweetened cream. It was not as appealing to look at as the dosa or the jamoon but I remember having ordered it once sometime later in life and feeling that I should have tasted it much earlier. It was enjoyable!

MTR was supposed to have been the first hotel in Bangalore to have installed equipment to sterilize the plates, cups and utensils and had gone a notch up in maintaining cleanliness - the result of Sri Yagnanarayana Maiya’s visit to England. And they had made sure that every one of their guests witnessed the facility by arranging for the exit only through the kitchen and the back door!  The sight of the hissing dishwashers, whirring grinders, and huge mounds of colourful washed vegetables contrasting with the spotless white dhoti of the cooks was very impressive and the picture has ingrained itself firmly in my brain.

Sometime during my BDS course, probably when I was in second year, Indira Gandhi declared emergency. I remember seeing L K Adwani, Madhu Dandawate and other leaders imprisoned in the Central jail Bangalore, brought to GDC for treatment under police escort and me being so hopelessly ignorant about the outside world and thinking that they were smugglers arrested under COFEPOSA.

The Corporation commissioner of the city of Bangalore (I am raking my brain but unable to recollect his name) decided to create his own version of equality in the city and targeted the hotels for the purpose. Using the unbridled powers that he enjoyed, thanks to emergency, he fixed the price and quantity of each and every item and ordered that all hotels coming with in the jurisdiction of the corporation shall serve the food as prescribed. For example an Idli had to weigh 60 gm and had to be sold at 50ps per piece along with 20 gms of chutney. Masala dosas should be a minimum of  8 inches in diameter having 50 gms of stuffing and be sold at rs 1.40, a rice plate should consist of a minimum of so much of rice, two vegetables of quantity ....gms, two chappattis of diameter .... and so on and so forth. It made big news and people thought that it would be a treat! We visited about half a dozen hotels out of curiosity and found that all that was available on the menu in every one of them was a tasteless lump of boiled Rava called Kharabhat weighing exactly 160 gms, costing 80ps and 150ml of a brown liquid called coffee/tea costing 40ps and prepared by pouring boiling water again and again over the same coffee/tea powder!

MTR was the only hotel, as I heard, that retained their full menu and maintained the same quality but priced their food as prescribed by the commissioner! If I remember right they only discontinued their fruit mixture. you should have seen the crowd in front of MTR then!  After three failed attempts to enter MTR, we gave up and so, I do not have first hand information. MTR did this for nearly a month and then the hotel was shutdown completely.

After about two weeks time MTR started a grocery store in the adjoining place owned by them which sold cleaned rice and pulses along with all other material and they announced a free home delivery for orders of rs 200 and above. Since this saved us the trouble of pushing our monthly groceries home on my bicycle from chickpet, and saved my mother the tedious process of cleaning rice and pulses we bought our groceries there. I remember taking a small detour when I rode to the college on my bicycle to hand over our list at the store and the MTR van delivering the goods by evening. After sometime they started manufacturing and selling their famous Rava idli mix which was followed by  idli, dosa and Gulabjamun mixes.  In no time they had a thriving ready to eat food business along with the grocery store. The hotel remained shut. 

Once the emergency was lifted, or may be after the commissioner realised his folly and  took back his order, the restaurant re started, the grocery store closed and ready to eat  business got a boost. Many more items were added and marketing was expanded. I remember reading in the papers about MTR collaborating with some multinational multiplying the production and spread. Today I understand that their ready to eat food business is many times more than their restaurant business and the MTR group have to be thankful to the commissioner of Corporation of the city of Bangalore for forcing them into the business.

While these changes were happening, the Maiya family, which controlled the business, had also grown in numbers and new generations were at the helm. Success, fame and money  were followed by  bitterness and fight for bigger share of them amongst the multiple stakeholders of the family and in due course the restaurant and fast food business got separated. Later one of the cousins - making use of the 'Maiya' reputation - started the Maiya chain of hotels and opened branches in other locations in Bangalore. The flagship MTR had to keep up and today we have branches of MTR also in many places. I have eaten in one of their branches and the food is definitely comparable to what I remember eating at the original MTR. And Maiya's have turned out to be equally popular. 

Bangalore has grown beyond recognition, the population has multiplied - reaching infinity - and new players have taken over in every field.  For the new generations, MTR will be one amongst the many good hotels in the city. Few grey heads like me may still remember the MTR that was and the coffee being served in silver cups! I may not declare the MTR Masala dosa was THE best, (But that was the only hotel from which people are known to have had the masaIsdosas packed on their way to the airport and carried the parcel to Bombay!)  may not say that the MTR service was THE best ( it was, in fact, a bit snobbish) but I say that for a few decades or may be even half a century, MTR was certainly the king of hotels in Bangalore, known for best of everything in the business. No other hotel had the reputation and stature of MTR. To describe it in one word, It was - class!

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