Thursday, February 18, 2010

"All you can EAT"

I have to pose this question: has anyone ever been to an "All you can Eat" Joint?

Well I had the good fortune of going to 2 such places recently, one with MArwadi cuisine, and the other with Rajdhani cuisine.

For those brave souls who intend to ever go to one of these restaurants, kindly take note:

When they say " All you can eat" they actually mean " All you MUST eat". Seriously, I wise someone had provided a lathi along with my thali (lol hope you guys noticed that lathi and thali use the same letters) to beat away all the waiters coming to my table to offer me food i dnt want.

It was the same story at both places- there is no concept of enjoying food slowly, before you can say "table for 4" they have plonked you down on the chair and 3 different types of dhokla (all suspiciously tasting the same) are dumped on your plate. Before you can choke and cry out for some water 3 waiters assault you from all directions lomping (is that a real word) food on every empty space on your plate.

As the entire restaurant is in a drunken dhokla eating frenzy, you find yourself whipping up the enthusiasm to chomp down everything on your plate. everything tastes the same of course :)

Your bad times will start when you have finished 40% of the food on your plate. The Maitre d notices that there is 2 sq cms of free space on your thali (national disaster)
and signals excitedly to the waiters to bring MORE food.

The new waiters don;t know your preferences, so they will try and feed you all the things you don't like (all over again). Since there are 3 waiters carrying rotis in your section of the restaurant, all three will try and put 2 rotis each on your plate ( i think their compensation structure has that as a KRA).No use explaining to them that you are feeling full.

Things really started to go downhill when the captain asked me if I wanted Khichi/ Pulao/ Rice. Now the same thing happened at both restaurants, oddly enough. I refused the Khichi saying I was feeling too full/ don;t like khichdi. The Manager looked like he couldn't believe his ears. I think he took the refusal quite personally and gesticulated wildly to 3 passing waiters to put some khichdi on my plate. Thankfully for me, the 3 waiters were closing in on some other hapless customer (victim) at the other table (phew!).

Thank God for Indian sweets especially Rasmalai, they can make you forget anything, even "All you can Eat"!

**burrp**

:)

Sorry Seems to be the hardest word...

Hey anyone out there who is actually reading my stuff!
Im currently in the process of discovering that Sorry indeed is not the hardest word... it is in fact another popular word called goodbye...
It has been a long time since my last post, and since I've not proved myself to be a marathon blogger even before that, Excuse me if I am a little rusty:)
Now that apologies are out of the way... It has been a pretty slow day at work and I thought I should put my thoughts up on a blog(where else!)

Before I started rambling, was actually talking about the word Goodbye...

Well I came to this great city to do my MBA and it has been a wonderful experience... I've met so many wonderful people and some are friends for life:)... Trust me, this is a huge turn around from my first opinion of the city.. When the aeroplane was cruising to land and I got my first glimpse of Mumabi, I HATED it! There was absolutely no greenery and all i saw was a couple of dusty buildings. Coming from one of the greenest states of India, I was not excited at all.:)
I've stayed on to join a company which most would consider an unusual career choice, but I've learnt so much and gotten to meet some more awesome ppl, and yes, the learning has been awesome.
Yea, there are many people who choose to turn up their noses at the maximum city (My mom and dad included), its noise, pollution, dirt, grime, and hopelessness. But if you look at this city with kinder eyes, it is easy to see the beauty that lies beneath all the despair.
When I first came to the city, I remember seeing a poster calling people to enroll in an acting/ dancing school. It was an instant reminder that this city is where dreams are made and crushed every single day.
The greatest quality of this city (atleast for me) was annonymity. Back home, ppl are orthodox and that can make life pretty difficult. Here there is no aunty/ uncle who is ur Dads's/ Mom's nth cousin waiting to 'report' you lest you should , God forbid, be seen hanging out with your friends(only boys are a problem).:)
I think what makes Mumbai is its people... take that away, and the city fades to nothingness.
Enough of the eulogy, point is in one month, I will be saying good bye to this great city for some period of time. I have to say I have loved every moment of my time here.
When I went home this time, my aunt told me to become self reliant, all you have to do is spend one month in Mumbai.

I think she had a point.