Hi Gentlemen!

It was almost 2 pm and my companion and I were walking along a 3 km deserted road on a Saturday afternoon. “I am so hungry” my companion blurted while briskly walking along with me. We already walked 2 kms and were yet to go another 1 km more. This place, where we are walking right now, is in the outskirts of the city and we are here for an interview in one of the companies in the newly constructed IT Park. After the interview was over, we were going back to our respective places. The IT Park was located far away from the main road and, unfortunately, neither we have transport of our own nor there transport facility which could take us up to the main road so that we could catch public transport from there to go to our respective places. “This place is like a desert,” he said derisively while mopping the sweat on his forehead with his new hanky. I nodded my head agreeing to what he said and pointed to a ‘dhaba’ located at some 100 metres away from we were standing now. My companion excitedly said “Hurray!” and almost jumped with joy. We both increased our pace and tried to reach the dhaba within as much short time as possible.

The dhaba’s name is “KARMA” and it is a 2-storey building with a/c restaurant in the second floor. The moment we entered the dhaba, somebody very politely greeted us with “Hi Gentlemen!” We are surprised to be greeted like this because, frankly, we both do not belong to that league. In fact, just 2 hours back, during the interview, we have outsmarted each other by lying to the interviewer about our achievements and years of experience and made them believe what we told them. We looked at each other sheepishly and smiled to acknowledge that we got a “sitting duck” here for our supper. We walked into the floor, and to our surprise, nobody was there. We looked around and heard the voice again from the corner of the room “Hi! Gentlemen!” Slowly a middle-aged figure with 4-feet height and rotund shaped belly got up from a corner and showed us the way to the a/c restaurant. My companion asked him, why nobody was there at that point of time. For that question, he smiled and replied that people would start trickling in within a few minutes for supper just like us. We kept quiet and promptly followed him to the second floor.

He brought us the menu and in the first glance itself, we could say that the rates were similar to a 5-star hotel and they were too high for a restaurant like this. He switched on the a/c, served potable water, and stood beside our table eagerly waiting to take our order. We took our time in going through the menu; after a long discussion of what we would have and not, keeping the exorbitant prices in consideration, we made a few meticulous calculations and finally arrived at a decision, which we thought the best ones, and ordered our supper. Our man (the steward) also chipped in some tips about the dish combinations and told us what is best at that restaurant to help us to make decision quickly. As per our calculation, since the prices are steep, by default, the quantity would be more. My companion is dreaming about hot buttered ‘paratas’ and ‘chicken 65’ which he ordered for supper. After the morning interview and this long walk, he was visibly looking tired. I ordered spicy 'biryani' along with ‘raitha’ for my own consumption. Nobody was there except three of us. After our man left, we started gossiping about our man regarding how we can manage him to give us something extra like cool drinks, etc, with no cost. We were so happy at that moment because there was no one else except us in that restaurant and we were feeling blissful for finding out such a calm and peace place at that hour and place. We were so tired at that moment and we do not want to get disturbed either by sound or somebody else physical presence. Moreover, this place was really serving us what we want at this moment.

Within 10 minutes, our man brought the order. He covered the dishes with white cloth just like how they do in the 5-star hotels. We were so thrilled by the way he brought our order. And we thought that for those steep prices, at least we must be treated this way. He neatly arranged all the ordered dishes on the table in front of us and removed the white cloth, slowly. Seeing the dishes, we were shocked!

The quantity of the food served was aptly suitable for children of some 7-8 years age.   My companion, who was taken aback, by this ghastly act of our man, was about to broke into tears. The hot buttered 'parathas' he was dreaming about, remained as a dream only. In reality, he was served with two small cold parathas with no butter. Moreover, the chicken 65 which he ordered along with parathas was served in a small plate; only four small chicken pieces were there! And coming to my ‘biryani’, it was served in a small round plate with little depth. The 'raitha' was also served in a small cup. Overall, we got exactly opposite of what we had been dreaming for 5-star hotel prices. We both looked at our man in shock and surprise. He slyly smiled at us and said, “Gentlemen! We should eat to live, not live to eat”, and shoved the bill in my hand, gently! We could not eat the food because it was cold and the taste was bad. Puzzled by what happened and shocked by the steep food bill slapped for a pity amount of cold food served to us, we were stunned and slowly hit the road again to continue our remaining journey relying on our old energy levels.