Mumbai’s signature dish, vada pav, has made its way to Delhi’s busy streets. Even though chole bhature is a famous dish in the capital, many people now queue up to sample the vada pav that Chandrika Gera Dixit sells from her food cart.
Dixit, also known as Delhi’s “Vada Pav Girl,” gained notoriety quickly after food vlogger Amit Jindal uploaded a video of her serving street food in the Sainik Vihar region of Delhi. Dixit explained to Jindal how her son’s dengue sickness forced her to resign from her position at Haldiram’s. She added that her spouse was employed by bike-taxi aggregator Rapido but had trouble adjusting to his unusual work schedule. She explained that her love of cooking served as the impetus for her food cart venture.
But Dixit has been the favorite child of controversy.
In a video that went viral in March, Dixit broke down in tears and said the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was pressuring her to take down her food cart. She claimed that the officials persisted in demanding money from her even after she gave them about Rs 35,000. Dixit made the claim that numerous food carts in Delhi are operating without permits in a number of widely shared videos.
Her fame increased when she worked with well-known food vloggers and content producers. Dixit provided vada pav to a number of celebrities, including Dolly Chaiwala, Puneet Superstar, and Bigg Boss 17’s Tehelka Bhai, aka Sunny Arya.
Dixit first got to know well-known tea vendor Sunil Pati, also known as Dolly Chaiwala, in April. Pati asked his fans to support “self-made” sellers in a video. “We conduct business while standing in the street. In the video, he states, “No task is too small for us.”
Dixit refers to Pati as her role model, saying, “He is my role model.” Like me, he went through a lot of pain. When I learned that he was interested in meeting me, I hurried over.”
Many others in Delhi were prompted to open vada pav carts by Dixit’s rising popularity. Dixit can be heard stating in Hindi in a widely circulated video on Instagram, which was posted by food vlogger Foodie Maneha, “Yesterday aunty said she put her cart because I wasn’t there.” See, she’s here today too. Why would someone try to destroy another person’s company?
The “Vada Pav Aunty” acknowledges in the video that she set up the cart a day earlier. When questioned about “sabotaging” Dixit’s business, she argues that she is merely carrying out her duties and arrived here as a result of “Vada Pav Girl” becoming well-known in Delhi. Taste is important. “We are both providing taste,” she remarks.
She also got to know Delhi’s “Vada Pav Boy,” who told her that a lot of food vloggers had come to him with criticism of Dixit.
In April, news broke that Delhi’s “Vada Pav Girl” had been taken into custody by the Delhi police. This led to a social media craze on all platforms with the hashtag #DelhiVadaPavGirl. People reportedly staged protests against Dixit for planning a Bhandara on her son’s birthday near a busy intersection.
Following several days of disputes, fights, and mocking, Dixit was recently spotted driving a Ford Mustang. Dixit would allegedly drive the opulent vehicle, which is valued at more than Rs 76 lakh in India, to promote vada pav. Dixit was seen removing a plate of pav from the car’s trunk in a widely shared video, implying that there was “something big” happening
Delhi is excited for the adventures that lie ahead for the “Vada Pav Girl.”
