CH 37 : MY FIRST HOTEL VISIT

as i learnt afterwards, it was beji's idea to form a group with us. as a group, we used to sit and used to talk a lot apart from academic activities like reading book of applied anatomy.one fine day, jasmine and beji came.

" hey neh, how about dining outside this sunday together?" proposed beji. to say no to any one is one of the difficult task of my life.secondly, when something is proposed by one of your first girlfriend how can you say no? more over,the student mess remained closed on sunday evenings and we were forced to manage sunday evening's food outside somewhere.. two decades back, options were limited.there was no any restaurant in the campus. nearby karamsad had a few laari walas to rescue us. there were some fine hotels at vallabh vidya nagar, but that were too fancy and probably costly for a middle class student like me. still, you forget your class when invitation is from some one special.

" okay" i thought for a while " but where should we go?" i hoped she would say to some udipi like place.
"avre" said jasmine enthusiastically. oh! i saw that hotel on the way from anand to karamsad. it appeared one of the costliest hotel i never wished to go in. but i always wondered what type of food they served.

in fact, though as a city, bhuj was not a very small town and also it was not that as a family we never dined outside home, i was exposed to only a few kinds of outside food- gujarati and madrasi. since my mother was a working woman, my father many a times allowed luxury of dining out. mostly we would stop at darbargadh, a place near palace and tower of bhuj where all sorts of outside food was available- dabeli, bhel, ragda petis, bhajia etc. that food was far more tastier to my test buds than what we were preparing at home. or, we would go to bus station where masaladhosa was available on a laari called nityanand. But the greatest luxury for me and my only sister neha was to go to anando, a south indian specialist restaurant near our hamirsar lake. it served best quality of all kinds of dhosas, uttapas and vada idli. i remember as a small kid to have read the prize of dhosa rs 5 only! and as i grew up, anando remained my favourite place to eat. i had voracious appetite then- i could finish three big plates of dhosa, uttapa and bhel! all costing around from rs 10 to 15!

there were some other costlier places also like hotel prince but we never went there. as i grew up, i realized that outside food was very much harmful to our health. our family's outside eating was far more than any other family around us. teenage somehow brings idealism to all of us. i felt we should not eat outside and gradually became staunch fighter that would prefer even khichdi alone over outside food- be it my favorite masala dhosa! i became a staunch proponent of home food.

and here, the girl power -designed to melt almost the convictions you have in life- dragged me! so despite all my beliefs and arguments against outside food. i happily said 

" thik hai...jayenge.."

jasmine looked happier. she had that innocence to not to hide whatever happening in her heart. while beji was on the other pole- she was able to hide or mimic anything. it was not possible to read her.

on the sunday evening, i and tapasvi went to avre. tapasvi had cancelled his routine weekly home visit to be able to join us.

jasmine, beji and anu were waiting there for us. they all were dressed nicely and looked pretty (if not heroines!). to dine with pretty girls is a kind of kick for any teen boy-who would disagree? ( probably my dear friend hemant would!)

the hotel was just on the road. it had a big glass entrance. as we reached the door, the guard sitting at the door stood up and opened the door. he lowered his head and said "welcome..sir.." that was the first ever salute in my life i received for spending money!

as we entered, there was one other guy who guided us to the table.i felt, he was a real useful man since he safely took us to a table situated in one of the side rooms of the main dining hall in horribly dim light.  some instrumental was played from hidden speakers. almost all the tables were full. we appeared lucky enough to get the table. the sound of plates and spoons were adding background music to murmuring voices of the customers. there was strong spicy smell in the atmosphere.

the place appeared far different than our 'desi' anando at bhuj which i thought as a big hotel till now. there were no door keepers who would welcome and salute you. it was properly lit and you easily could see the empty tables to choose from.

we sat down and arranger ourselves on the table. i and tapasvi were on one side while three dolls -beji, jasmine and anu sat in front of us. the dim light was adding beauty to their faces. that must be the reason to keep such lighting sparked in my mind. the hotel was decorated luxuriously. wall paintings, show pieces looked gorgeous.there were no fans. it was centrally air conditioned. i never had dined in such a big decorated ac hotel.

soon, one waiter came and served water (those were not the days when mineral water was offered as a choice to the customers).He also put menu cards. i was curious to know the type of food they served. i picked up one.

the card was full of items i never heard of! there were soups, subjees different kinds of pulaos and rotis. but the most shocking part for me was the cost. each of the dish was about or more than three times the cost of my favorite masala dhosa! though we were to divide the expenses, the rates made me perspire!

jasmine, tapasvi, beji all looked very comfortable. probably for them, this was nothing new. a suited booted polished man appeared from the dark to take the order.my friends ordered many things enthusiastically. jasmine looked expert among all.

it took quite a long to deliver the order. but naturally, we enjoyed talking and sharing with each other during that time. the food was served. each item was new for me. it was first time i saw what they called roti and how a naan looked. i realized all the food was immersed in butter and oil. and it was called punjabi food. was that the daily food the punjabis eat? i think no one would dare to think that question after seeing any tall and healthy sardar!

i do not remember the amount of bill we paid but i enjoyed the company and that was the cost for that.

Nothing is more costlier than a girl! this was the first lesson in my life to justify.

soon, the chocolaty evening got over. with one more paid salute at the exit, we re incarnated to middle class students from 'sirs'!
" oh man, my stomach is full like never before.. i think we need a walk." i said. probably it was true for all of us. To get out everything possible from single paisa spent, we forgot we had limited capacity stomach!
every one agreed. we started walking towards vallabh vidyanagar. 20 years from now, the road was almost free from the traffic and almost lonesome. ideal to walk. it was about 8.30pm  late evening.
--suddenly we heard a man's cry just nearby "save me...save me.." it was horribly loud and was coming from a slum like area just near the railway track. before our brain could deduce anything further, a completely naked  young man appeared from the dark running towards us. we all were shocked.
"save me .. save me.." he was running and crying. like a lightening he passed by us making quick way to the other side of the road and vanished in the dark. soon, a mob of men came rushing from the rail side. all of them appeared furious. they wanted to catch the naked man.they steered to the same direction but the naked man was gone in the dark. vanished to save himself.

everything happened very fast within a couple of minutes. it was simply beyond any ones imagination what happened. was he a thief? but what about his clothes? torn by the mob? but in that case there had to be at least some torn cloth on his body. there was none. he was anatomically completely naked.

probably that guy might had been caught while trying to have sex with some lady. or might be trying for rape? this was the sole reason that could explain whatever happened shocking all of us.

i think we would have witnessed a murder if the naked man was caught in front of us. the horrifying moments left lasting memory.