New Delhi, June 19 -- The "I Heart Biryani" sign inside D. Bapi restaurant in Barrackpore has its heart in the right place. If a bit misplaced. Unlike most of the LED installations in Kolkata, which are nothing but monuments local corporators build themselves, it tells you-in its own self-congratulatory way-something about the place and its people.

D. Bapi is in the middle of nowhere, like a dhaba on a highway. And yet people have queued up to eat here since noon. It's 5pm on a Sunday. Some have travelled long distances to get here. I meet a man who came on his motorbike from Hooghly, covering roughly 50km; he's a regular. I chat with a couple from Kolkata on my hour-long wait to get a table; they came here because they thought it'll tak...