Bogof's week

Grocer, April 20, 2002

Our esteemed editor, who has been known to sound off at will about food hygiene issues, has a new hobbyhorse this week -- the loos on India's railway system.

Having spent several days swanning around the sub continent and failing to correct the wallahs' impression that he was a direct descendant of Clive of India (well, he revels in being called "Sir" with all that bowing and scraping) our man was brought down to earth by the "facilities" in the sleeper class carriage on the midnight express between Bombay and Hyderabad.

For there, dear reader, rather than the gleaming porcelain structures we know and love, the appliances consist of a small hole in the carriage floor with a grim steel bucket chained to the wall.

However, decency prevents me from describing how our 6ft 4ins editor and other assorted UK food worthies coped, other than to say that they'll not forget the nocturnal experience in a hurry -- particularly after so many excellent curries.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, on arrival at London's Hilton the receptionist's insistence in broken English that Spar had hired the unsalubrious sounding basement for a press briefing seemed odd.

Demands for clarification from an equally linguistically challenged cloakroom assistant resulted in my being triumphantly hurried downstairs to a rather steamy looking entrance, to wit, that of a spa.

Eyebrows now firmly raised, I found no signs of the Spar contingent in there. Eventually heated discussions back at reception established Spar was booked in at the Hilton conference centre down the road.