there aint no free meal

there's no such thing as a free meal.

as a rule i have found the people of hyderabad pretty hard working. but daku, dixit, alosh and i were to find that this attribute didnt quite extend to the city's restaurateurs who are among the laziest buggers that ever walked the earth. we went from place to place only to be told that they were sorry but they were closed between the hours of 3 to 7 in the afternoon because the chef was sleeping off his lunch of left-overs. thus it was that we went to taj krishna reasoned that the folks there wouldnt have this laissez faire attitude and an utter disrespect for the hunger pangs of the deserving public. another reason of course was that it was daku's long-due treat and we werent letting her get off merely with a pizza hut.

and when we did arrive there we werent disappointed and were offered a table by the window and a nice menu each. we were having a jolly good time of it and were nearing the end of the meal when dixit got this puzzled expression on his face. it was like he had stumbled upon some unseen stone or something but he rallied around and kept on ruminating in a cogitative soviet-russian manner. but the story wasnt to end there for he soon put a couple of digits into his mouth and came out with a piece of clear-wrap like one of those magicians who keep puking long pieces of clothes and somehow think that its entertaining to the people who have to watch it! if i had such weird dietary habits, i would at least try my best to hush them up.

anywayz we were now placed with the problem of what to do and after some soul-searching decided to inform our waiter that while we appreciate the plentiful bounty they bestowed on us we werent particularly keen on organic polymers. the guy was a bit of a disappointment as his face betrayed no emotion whatsoever and merely cleared away the dishes with a brief sorry. this sort of disconcerted us and alosh and i ordered a calming bowl of rice to sooth the nerves.

of course, they werent going to leave it at that :-)... the manager apologized profusely and was eager to explain how they were very careful with hygiene and offered to waive off the charges on the meal and was even very insistent when we offered to pay for the others' portion. all in all it was like a scene from dickens. however such happy things werent to last and even as the manager was basking in his bonhomie, alosh rather apologetically pointed at one of the table declarations and said that he didnt think much of taj trying to present, without the loss of their individuality, diverse tastes, in "hormony".

now there are people who can take their "hormony" and then there are people who cant. alosh obviously is of the latter kind. now i dont want to be all judgmental about it and i think the fellow is more to be pitied than censured. i for one completely enjoy my "hormony". however the manager somehow was of the opinion that this was an embarrassment for him and scourged around and managed to find another of those thingummies which was from the era wherein the taj group had given up their biological approach and opted for the more mundane "harmony".

soon we stopped spreading more light and happiness in the taj and decided to call it a day. and as were going out dixit turned to daku and gave her one of those patronizing looks. "so, daku... how was my treat?"