Every morning in Mahim, Vijay Raut sold cutting chai to taxi drivers, construction workers and bank staff, until the BMC's pavement drive took away his stall. Now he serves from a flask. He's not alone: across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, street vendors are caught between clean-city drives and a system that never gave them secure space. In this episode, we look at India's Rs 8,000 crore-a-day street food economy, the real hygiene risks, why regulation without infrastructure backfires, and what Singapore's hawker centres might teach us about keeping street food safe and visible. Lijee Philip and Nirmal John report, Anirban Chowdhury narrates for audio