Restaurateur AD Singh: “When I was 22, I wasn’t interested in anything but American fast food!”

The popular foodie flashes back to his younger days with a set of exclusively shared images.

Where were you career-wise?

I was studying Electrical Engineering at Lafayette College in the US.

Which were your favourite restaurants?

The neighbourhood pizzeria at college was my go-to and my favourite restaurant in the world.

What was your attitude towards food? Has it changed over the years?

I wasn’t interested in anything beyond American fast food then. Now, I’m interested in the different cuisines of the world.

What was your bank balance?

Almost nothing.

Your relationship status then?

Single.

Eating junk food on the streets of Easton during a college break

With his sister AY at her Mumbai house

What constituted your family and what was your equation with them?

We’ve always been a close-knit family. I was born in New Delhi in 1960. When I was in college in the USA, my twin brother AR was studying at IIT Bombay, and my little sister AY was at Mumbai’s Sophia College at the same time.

We couldn’t afford expensive overseas calls and there was no Internet, email or mobile phones. So, we used to send postcards to each other. Those postcards make for hilarious reading today.

Your focus in life then?

Getting to experience a new culture and meet people from all over the world.

What was your frame of mind like?

Happy.

AD with an acquaintance during 1982 his trip to Switzerland

Postcards that he exchanged with his family in the pre-Internet days

Your fashion sense?

I had none at that stage.

Your fitness quotient?

I’ve always enjoyed sports and I regularly played rugby, football and basketball.

The cuss word you used most then?

Damn!

What was your biggest dream then?

That India would open up and become more international.

Any hobby you were passionate about?

Reading. As a kid, I would enter parties with a book and read away, causing much mirth. It led to poor eyesight quickly.

During his college days, with his mother Amrita, while on vacation

Graduating from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, USA, with a degree in Electrical Engineering

Any anecdote from that time?

When I came home from college the first year, my parents looked right through me at the airport as I’d swapped my glasses for contact lenses and been working out.

From HT Brunch, September 12, 2021

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