The restaurant Odyssey- Part 1

TIME:12:30

We were sitting in Freezeland:An uptown snackbar-cum restaurant-cum coffeeshop-cum ice-cream parlour-cum-cum-cum.....humph whatever. I, with 3 of My frnds.

The weather was fantastic (saying romantic hurts), and the only thing that was bothering all of us and which was left unsaid, was that neither of us wanted to be together. What the hell...!! Who wants to be with guys, when one can have a Beautiful female frnd. But all of us knew silently, that getting a girl for ppl like us, is akin to expecting Mount everest suddenly being the DEEPEST point on earth !

Result: 4 Goons sitting alone in a snackbar. The song playing in the background "Akele hain....Toh kya gum hai...." from Quayamat se Quayamat tak, did'nt help our cause either.All 4 of us were chatting, as though trying to ambush our coloured desires behind the veils of occasional chuckle n laughter.

The waiter was eying all of us with a malicious intent. He circled over our table as a STARVED vulture hovers over a DEAD caracass. Maybe he saw in us those 4 kids who did'nt pay his bill and ran out of the place.No, we looked of decent upbringing. So THAT could'nt be the case.

But then Y did he insist on us paying before we ate??This was'nt the rule in the restaurant earlier....!! Maybe they just changed the rule !!!

Even after telling him to let us ponder over what to eat for 12 times, he threw in the menu to help us ponder.

The going was already tough, when the eyes went on the right hand side of the menu, and there sprang the BOLT from the blue.All of us looked at one another, refusing to trust our eyes. All of us were speechless...Dumbstruck...Horrified...Aghast. The waiter was summonned. HE smartly obliged. Hell....What is this, Still HE...?? Can't they keep even a female waitress to oblige the starved but nevertheless doting customers? With much hesitation one of us spoke...."U increased the price by 5 Rupees???....Per sandwich????.....Really??

"The waiter looked at us askew, with eyes that would have made the ancient legend of dracula proud for the discovery of his legitimate heir, to carry on the legacy.
He nevertheless took trouble to explain to us, that the food price was increased to compensate for the decreasing fuel price, so that people do not get enough to spend on food, and get to be lazy pot bellied bums like us(well, he did'nt say that...But we had every reason to believe those prying eyes, that each polished word was a white lie). That it was a civilian restaurant, and killing people inside had been forbidden in their rule book, came to our aid.

Satisfied by his explanation, and patting ourselves on our literary backs for being a good citizen of India to demand explanation, and not taking the hike, on our STAPLE FOOD, lying low, we proceeded towards our wallets. Every1 was looking at the other, to see who dares to take out his wallet first. A wallet filled with 100/- note was a rare sight in an economic recession of 2006(hey...U did'nt know that there was a recession in 2006...?? Sure...?? U maybe did'nt take time to read papers buddy...!!)

I was the first one to take out my wallet, and the rest 3 hands in no time were folded adroitly on the table (Unless U see it, it is difficult to believe, that hands which were reaching for the pockets, can trace the trajectory to the table, in fermi-seconds.....). They reached their respective pockets only when the eyes were sure, that they saw just 10/- notes in the wallet.

Incidently, that was the reason, why my wallet came out aloud, like a knight in shining armour waging a battle against ferocious dragons.
A sarcastic smile flashed across every face, as if ridiculing the indian government, for the lack of cash in pockets.
Total: 110/- including postage stamps and Amber's Coin collection. He refused to part with it. As a result, French fries were dropped. Mortgage in the restaurant was not allowed, otherwise we could have done away with Amit's Shirt. It would have fetched us a few coins.

After much pondering over tussle between the nutrient requirements of growing youths, and their fiscal condition, it was decided to order a single jumbo sandwich costing 58/-. The poor helpless sandwich was to be shared between 4 hungry souls, that would have given a hungry King-kong a run for his money....It was akin to throwing a newborn baby before a pack of ferocious Sharks !

The waiter, who had desserted ANY hope of getting an order from our table....Leave alone getting the tip, hussled another of his peers towards us. I don't think that he would have been too obliged by the 2/- tip Amit gave last time we came to the restaurant.He heard the order....And he understood, why he was ushered to our table. Clever CHAP !!
He thrice confirmed the order, and after making sure that he had heard it correctly, and we did'nt miss out on any of restaurant's speciality, he left us pondering in Oblivion!

Maybe he was wondering over the fate of the sandwich too !