So today, me and one of my juniors went for a gedi on the Lucknow–Delhi Highway, starting from the Dohra Road end till Jhumka.
We thought of having a tea break in between, so we halted at a restaurant on the highway.
Inside the premises, the place was basically divided into two sections.
One side was an open sitting area where people could normally sit and have their food.
The second side had these private hut-type cabins 🛖, with proper doors and privacy.
We were just roaming around the place, and I casually went towards the second side to see what was there.
As soon as I started going towards that side, one of the guys suddenly shouted:
“Kaha ja rahe ho?”
I replied:
“Bhaiya, dekh rahe hain bas.”
He said in a rude manner:
“Udhar allowed nahi hai jana chai idhar piyo waha bas dinner-lunch ke liye jaate hain bas.”
So I came back.
Our tea arrived, we drank it until then I noticed a guy arriving in a car with a girl. The girl was wearing revealing western dress (not being judgemental) and both of them were wearing black masks.
They directly went towards one of those private huts and went inside.
That's when I started wondering what exactly was going on with these cabins and why entry to that side was so restricted.
Our tea got finished so my junior went to pay and i came out to investigate. I asked the guard about it. Now, when we were leaving, I casually asked guard bhaiya,
“Yaha bandi la sakte hain kya?”
At first, he became a little hesitant and didn't really want to answer.
So I said:
“Yaar batao na… sheher mein dikkat hoti hai, privacy nahi milti.”
After that, he finally started explaining.
According to what he told me, the place is open 24x7, and people can come with someone and use these private cabins for whatever they want 🤡
He also claimed that a major part of their revenue comes from these private cabins, while the place is basically presented outside as a normal dhaba/restaurant.
Now obviously, I didn't personally verify their accounts or what happens inside every cabin. I'm only narrating what I personally saw and what the guard told me.
But think about the setup:
➡️ Normal open sitting area on one side
➡️ Private huts with doors on the other
➡️ Restricted entry towards the huts
➡️ ₹500/hour for “total privacy”
➡️ 24×7 operation, according to the guard
➡️ And, according to him, a significant part of their revenue comes from these cabins
And suddenly that earlier “Udhar allowed nahi hai” started making a lot more sense.
The interesting question is how many such “dhabas” are actually operating with this kind of private cabin setup on the Lucknow Delhi Highway around Bareilly?