Addiction

They say the first step to solving a problem, is admitting to it. So here goes. Yes, I am addicted to KFC.



It all started when I was 9 years old. Not old enough to remember the details of moving to a new city and a new country, but not young enough to remember the taste of my first ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ Meal. What can I say..its been 13 years and I still get that same feeling; like my first time :)

While growing up, I had a McDonalds barely 50m from my building entrance. Soon another one came up also 50m from my building entrance, but in the opposite direction. Though I’m a hardcore KFC customer, I’ve probably spent enough time and money at McDonalds as well. But lets get one thing straight and clear : KFC is MUCH better than McDonalds.

The only reason I went to McDonalds was because of the proximity factor. KFC was a good 15 min walk, which in the Dubai heat and humidity will either kill you or leave you uncomfortably numb. Plus eating was a group activity, and since the majority lived near McDonalds, we usually ended up eating there. But I still managed to get enough KFC..how come you ask? Well McDonalds has one flaw.

They don’t Home Deliver. Its in keeping with their corporate belief that home delievered food is seldom warm enough and hence product quality takes a beating, hence no delivering. Before McDonalds came to India there was only one McDonalds outlet which home delivered; McDonalds@Wallstreet. Hey! Can you blame them?! Not just McDonalds, but a LOT of businesses have modified and abandoned all sorts of ‘corporate policies’ to adapt to the Wall Street way of life. As they say boys, Money talks ;)

McDonalds in Bombay is the only second place in the world where McDonalds home delivers. Can’t blame them, with Bombay traffic people will pay that extra 10 bucks to have it served to their door. Hats off to McDonalds management for realizing this.

Coming back to Dubai. KFC home delivered; hence many a dinner and evening snacks were spent lickin’ my finger. I think its time I threw in some numbers to give an estimate of how much KFC has profited from one single customer. On an avg I would eat KFC 5 times a week. I almost always had it on the both week-end days. Many dinners were spent ordering because my mom wouldn’t have made enough food during lunch such that leftovers would feed us. Funda being me and my bros ate in school, so the only person my mom made lunch for was my dad. My mom doesn’t eat, she claims to be dieting for 22 years…and couting. So out of the 5 weekdays, I ordered atleast 3 times. And over and above this I ate at McDonalds. So keeping count of how much junk food I ate is actually pretty ….pretty…sad. Mind you, Ive always been a thin boy though..with a little tyre :)

And since 1990, my addiction continues. In 2000, I ended up in Bombay. No KFC there  but they had McDonalds. So I made my peace with that. Right to my third year , McDonalds, the closest McDonalds was in Bandra. And I stayed in Powai. And on whims me and my roomie(and first love Ab: refer pic) would drive down to Bandra, a good 45 mins on traffic-ky days(17 kms away) just to have a bite.



So temporarily, McDonalds was my KFC patch. And it was fine, their burgers suck, but its better than nothing. Actually while at IIT, I ate more pizza than I did McDonalds. Dominos was right next door in Hiranandani. And they guaranteed delivery in under 30 mins(or its free!) In a 2 year period, including 4 months when I was out of the city, I ordered 250-odd pizzas. Yup Yup. After about a year, they’d recognize my voice and vice-versa. And conversation where mostly short and sweet.

Dominos: Hello, welcome to Dominos..today we are offering…
Me: Yo..Allen..its Monu here!
Dominos: Oh Hi Mr. Monu..how r u..shall I send the usual..
Monu: Yup
Dominos: Thank you for calling Dominos..Buh-byee

Short and Sweet.

Anyway..now getting back to McDonalds vs KFC. So after college I ended up here I Bangalore :D

Believe it baby, that I went straight from the Airport to KFC whenever I came to this City :)

And fortunately for me , there happens to be a KFC damn close by in Forum. So as would be expected, I hang out there a lot. So initially in my first sem, I went there quite a bit. No worries and never gave it a second though. Then sometime somewhere someone mentioned something about eating a lot of junk food and its ill effects on health. And that got me thinking..this stuff is so deep fried, it surely is bad for me. Actually I figured it was bad for me because it taste’s so darn good. This is a generic rule that I figured, that anything that taste’s good is Bad for you. Think about it…Chocolates, Ice-cream, Sugar, Butter Chicken, Cheese…
All Bad!!
And KFC taste’s so damn good..means….:(

So I made it a point to cut down on my consumption. So about a month back I took an oath that I would not eat KFC for a month.

I’ve eaten there about 9 times now. In my defense, of the 9 times, I ate there only thrice out of addiction and innate want for KFC, the other times I had no choice but to eat there. Everyone else was eating there or there was no other place to eat etc…

Actually some to think of it…am I really addicted to KFC or to junk food??
Ah fuck it. Who cares. I aint that fat and I don’t think ill ever get that fat and if I do, I’ll lose it. So screw it..I’ll keep eating junk till I see noticeable changes in my physique.






Thank you Colonel Sanders