We Chat With the Guys Making Sure Your Midnight Munchies Are Taken Care Of

“The first thing I do when I go to Mumbai or Delhi for work is order food late at night,” says photographer Vivek Keluskar who lived in Mumbai for three decades before moving to Pondicherry. “When you move to a small town, it’s city comforts like these that you sorely miss.”

Delivering these comforts from an app to your doorstep is an army of delivery boys. They are almost an omnipresent sight in metropolis, zipping around on their scooters often on pavements and wrong sides of roads at breakneck speeds to fulfil delivery orders, or lingering around outside restaurants waiting for the food to be prepped. It’s easy to spot them—with their T-shirts often sporting logos of online food aggregator app or restaurants. They are the ones ringing doorbells with packages precariously perched in their hands, often at ungodly hours

How do these batmans of food delivery actually manage to pull off this job? In a series of conversations, VICE learnt that the major relief for those working late nights is the absence of the crushing heat, as also lower ambient noise allowing them to enjoy music on their headphones while zipping through the city. But when a customer orders food at 4am, a Catch-22 situation often comes up. Should they accept or reject? One more tip and money means it’s often the former. So, they grab the late-night munchies from the restaurant counter, put on their helmets, and are on their way to deliver your food.

VICE took to the Mumbai roads to find some night riders. We found Siraj Ansari (with the restaurant Night Owl in Khar), Basudeb Mitra (with restaurant Jantar Mantar in Juhu), Mohammad Akhtar Sheikh (a Zomato delivery guy we found zipping around in Mira Road), Zayed Patel (a young Swiggy delivery boy who was listening to music on his headphones near Mira Road station, Mumbai, waiting for an order to come in), Moinuddin Rajput (from Elementaria Cafe at Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai), and Divya Modi (the managing partner at Elementaria Cafe, who doubles up as a delivery girl). We asked them: Khaane mein kya hai during the graveyard shift.

VICE: What kind of food do people usually order post midnight?
Siraj Ansari: Everyone loves Chinese food and momos are a big hit for midnight deliveries. Noodles and fried rice are a big hit too and so is traditional Indian food. Dumplings are on the menu as well and so are French fries and fried chicken. No one is a fan of healthy food for such orders.

Basudeb Mitra: At that hour, people usually order something small like starters. All the big orders are done before midnight.

Mohammad Akhtar Sheikh: Ice-creams.

Moinuddin Rajput: We do dessert, and customers often order for cakes, cupcakes, tub cakes and pastries. Post 12, we also get orders for savoury dishes like rice bowls, pastas, quiches and sandwiches. Coffees and milkshakes are popular too.

What time are you on the road till?
Siraj Ansari: I deliver food till 4am in the morning.

Zayed Patel: Till last week, I used to work as a pharmacist at a hospital. I’ve been delivering till 2am till now.

Basudeb Mitra: I’ve been delivering for almost three years now. I usually work till 4am.

Mohammad Akhtar Sheikh: I log in for my night shift at 12am and get done by 4am. (However, we met Shaikh picking up an order at KFC at Mira Road during the daytime). Sometimes, I work all day and only take a break around 5pm so I can quickly grab something to eat from home.

Moinuddin Rajput: We do home deliveries and also deliver food to corporate offices that are working late into the night. Our late night orders start coming in at 11pm and go on till 4am. I lead the night shift but if Zomato and Swiggy don’t have enough people, I deliver the food myself. Even the managers of the cafe deliver food.

What is the best part about your job?
Siraj Ansari: I prefer working as a personal restaurant delivery boy rather than working for the big online platforms. I have worked for these companies previously and I prefer working directly for a restaurant because the pressure is less.

Moinuddin Rajput: The best part about this job is when the customer needs are satisfied. We once had an offer where we gave our customers complimentary pastries on account of Independence Day as soon as the clock struck 12. Our customers really appreciated that and had given us good reviews on Zomato.

There was also this incident where I had a delivery to Chunabhatti from Bandra. It was monsoon at the time and you know how unreliable the rain in Mumbai is. I didn’t carry a wind-cheater and unfortunately got drenched in the rain. But I managed to deliver the order on time and the customer, looking at my condition, really appreciated my dedication. This was another time the customer gave us a good review. It was one of the best days of my life.

Mohammad Akhtar Sheikh: I don’t like to work at this hour when everyone is asleep. No one would love to work at his hour. But I have to do it because I am in a difficult situation financially.

Have you had any weird encounters on the streets post midnight?
Siraj Ansari: Not really. The thing is you need to have confidence in yourself. Also, in this line of work, having a valid license is a must.

Zayed Patel: Once, I had a delivery in Mira Road when I met a group of drunk men. I didn’t know that they were drunk else I wouldn’t have approached them. I asked them for directions to the place I was to deliver and they were giving me absurd directions. Then they started taking my Scooty keys and playing with it. Then they started telling me that I had a lot of petrol, and asking me to give them some. They were shitfaced and out of their senses. I finally managed to get away and got to the customer’s building which was right beside the drunk men but they didn't even tell me. The watchman was fast asleep so I just went upstairs. The customer was kind and tipped me Rs 20.

Basudeb Mitra: Koi log doggie se darte hai (Some people are scared of dogs). Dogs will only bark but some delivery boys avoid going to a place that has a bunch of street dogs. I, however, don’t bother and do my duty regardless.

Moinuddin Rajput: Once, while delivering late night, there were a bunch of dogs after my partner and me. We tried to shoo them away with our helmets but that didn’t work. So we took a U-turn which almost landed us in an accident which could’ve been very bad. We were 15 minutes late for our delivery because of this incident. We also find a lot of drunk men near Kherwadi at Bandra East.

Do you get bizarre requests?
Siraj Ansari: Weird requests usually come on Saturday nights when people party. Even if the food is ready and on time, there is a lot of traffic especially because of the metro work all through Mumbai. The ones who are partying and are drunk often lose their temper on us if we our late.

Basudeb Mitra: It depends on every delivery guy. How the customers react totally depends on how we behave with them. Sometimes we get requests from the customers who tell us to get something from outside and if we don’t meet their requirements or forget about it, they get angry. We get customers like this once a month. Sometimes, we get fake orders where the customer orders food and is not present at the given location.

Mohammad Akhtar Sheikh: We mostly get drunk people at this hour. They start a feud with us because the delivery is late but after 10-15 minutes, they are calm and apologise for their behaviour. I have had about three experiences where a drunk customer has lost his temper on me.

Divya Modi: I have never had any weird experiences with my customers, Mumbai is a safe city in that sense. Or maybe I’m just lucky. Our customers are always surprised to see a delivery girl and, that too, at night. Sometimes the customers order from us but go to sleep and don’t open the door for a long time, which kind of bugs me. If there is a crazy party going on, the moment they open the door, the (cigarette) smokes gushes out. It makes me feel high by just standing there.

Moinuddin Rajput: We have reached early sometimes and the customer has not been there to receive the food. If it’s a corporate office, we know that they are in the building. But if its a housing society, it becomes a bit of an issue at that hour. But we never cancel the order most times. Some of them order food and go to sleep. Once, a customer had ordered for food at 3.45am and gone to sleep. I reached the customer’s location at 4.30am but had no choice but to wait there for half an hour because that is our policy. We somehow tried to get in touch with a Zomato representative and they gave us the customer’s number, and the order was delivered finally.

If a drunk person calls late at night for food, we talk to them politely because no matter what their behaviour, our customer relationship should be maintained. Sometimes, the customers call and ask us to get a cigarette while coming. We politely say that if it’s on our way we’ll try and get it or we say we didn’t manage to get a cigarette. But we never deny their requests.

We don’t mind even going out of the way to fulfil their request. Sometimes customers call in for birthday surprise cakes to be delivered to their friends. So, at 12am we deliver the cake to that friend. Our customers are like our friends and we will do anything to make sure that they get their delivery.

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