Lunch time sees famished IT executives, bankers and other corporate types from companies like HCL Technologies, HDFC and Exide in Kolkata, make a beeline for the cafeterias or the mobile food vans near their office complexes where motherly women smilingly dish out steaming platters of sumptuous homemade fare. Food that has a home touch and is served just as the lady of the house would serve her own family members, is the USP of 'Astha Bhojon', a Self Help Group, whose 32 underprivileged urban women members use their culinary talents to feed hungry youngsters on the move even as they strive to become economically self-sufficient.

* 'I am from Kochi. I really missed my mother's cooking initially. The mobile food van saved me. The food is non-spicy and not at all oily. The aunties also take special orders some times. I feel cared for when I eat from their van.'