It's pouring outside, but it's toasty in the basement kitchen where Vishal Srinivas, 21, is busy preparing rajma and bhindi masala with capsicum and onions. The aroma of masalas engulfs us, as Srinivas gets directions from his mother, Viji. He sautés onions, chops coriander and stirs rajma, accordingly. Rajma is fine, he tells us, but his personal go-to dish, is chole.

Srinivas is one of the 11 autistic students, who are part of a new lunch service from Bandra East called The SAI Canteen. The students belong to the Support for Autistic Individuals (SAI), a charitable trust set up in 2004 by Kamini Lakhani and her husband, Anil. The canteen is a couple of weeks old, but has the efficiency of an assembly line and the excitement levels of children on a picnic.