‘Pizza, Dominos Pizza!’ The surprising hawker call on a Mumbai–Ahmedabad train

“Chai, chai! Garma garam chai le lo!”
 “Pav pav! Vada pav!”
 “Saapad! Saapad!”

If you’ve ever travelled by train in India, these familiar calls form part of the soundtrack of the journey. They drift in and out of the coaches as hawkers weave their way through narrow aisles, balancing steel kettles, plastic baskets, or makeshift trays filled with regional snacks. 

In the North, it might be samosas and bread pakoras; in Maharashtra, vada pav; down South, curd rice or lemon rice. The food sold on trains reflects the diversity of the country – and the informal ecosystem that keeps millions of passengers fed.

Which is why what happened on a recent Mumbai–Ahmedabad journey left me genuinely startled. As we were unpacking our food packets and preparing to eat our light dinner, a voice rang out. But this time, it broke the familiar pattern.

“Pizza! Pizza! Domino’s pizza!”

Walking briskly down the aisle of the 2-tier AC coach was a young hawker holding a large, unmistakable Domino’s delivery bag. He paused at each bay, unzipping the blue thermal pouch slightly so passengers could peek inside.

“Ninety-nine rupees,” he announced. “Jain pizza, veggie pizza, cheese pizza, and corn pizza. Fresh!”

The scene felt almost surreal. Here was a global QSR brand, typically associated with app-based ordering and 30-minute deliveries, suddenly blending into the informal, hyperlocal railway hawker culture. While it’s well known that Domino’s lets passengers order pizzas to a train through its app, watching a delivery agent sell them like packets of chips or cups of tea was unexpected.

My mind was buzzing with questions. Was this part of a new distribution experiment by the brand? Had Domino’s decided to take their “anywhere delivery” promise literally and tap into railway routes as a high-volume sales channel? Or was this a delivery person taking some entrepreneurial liberty, turning slow hours into additional business?

Packaged and branded food can feel like a safer bet compared to the standard railway fare. Yet, the sheer unexpectedness of the setting made me pause. Even though it was Domino’s, the informality of the transaction made me stick to the theplas I’d packed from home.

To be fair, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen Domino’s step outside the confines of stores and delivery bikes.

Cricket stadiums across the country now regularly feature mobile hawkers walking up and down the stands selling boxed pizzas during matches. The brand aims to be present wherever Indians congregate, cheer, travel, or simply idle away their time.

Still, seeing a Domino’s-branded hawker squeezing down a moving train aisle felt symbolic of a larger shift. The boundaries between organised retail and India’s vast unorganised food ecosystem are blurring. And occasionally, that convergence happens not in boardrooms or marketing campaigns, but in the most ordinary of places: a coach rattling along the Mumbai–Ahmedabad line, carrying a bag of hot pizzas and a story worth telling.