The year was 1996. My office those days used to be at Basant Lok, just next to Priya Cinema, in New Delhi. The corner outlet of the market, as you entered from the Vasant Vihar side, was a Nirula’s QSR. Quite popular. Reasonably crowded throughout the day. One day, quite inexplicably, the Nirula’s downed its shutters. And in its place opened India’s first ever McDonald’s. There were hundreds in the queue on the first day, even first week. Even the first month. Braving the queue, I was lucky to partake the Maharajah Mac, the fries and the legendary vanilla milkshake as one of McDonald’s first customers in India.