Eating up a Storm...!

In that little fragment of living which passes under the name of college life, our gang found itself constantly haunting eateries…No, we were not the type to survive on fagging and boozing (you may add “only”)…good food beckoned us constantly and bad waiters beckoned us out! Of course there were the typical college\university canteens to hang around, but self-proclaimed connoisseurs like us couldn’t resist trying the greener/not-so-greener pastures. From aloof waiters to stinky food, from cash-crunches to candle-lit lunches (yes, you got it right! there was a power-cut)…we have seen it all!! And of course taken it all in our stride, there wasn’t much choice you see…While in the historic College Street Coffee House we encountered intimidating waiters in white, swooping in upon us like Satan’s fiery troop of rebel angels, demanding their share of a fat tip, in Jadavpur we constantly haunted an eatery which in turn was haunted by bad instrumental (almost weeping) melody and frequent power-cuts! I thought we were their special customers till time and experience taught me better…neglected orders, aloof waiters, constant queries of-“Arr kichu lagbe?”(“Anything else”), perpetual stare… it all had only one sentiment in disguise…which went something like-“ what the hell are these lazy, miserly, critically-analyzing, boisterous, quick-eating, late-leaving, no-tip-paying set of female gluttons doing here?” Sounds grand to me even today! On the greater/graver occasions, which included frequent but no-nonsense window-shopping, birthdays, post-class-test lunches, sessions on heart-aches\heart-breaks etc, we shifted base to the more lavish eateries in Golpark and Gariahat. No, we didn’t at all mind putting up with preposterous lovers, sinking and floating by turns in to each other’s eyes, or bloated mammas stuffing their untiringly yelling kids…They only strengthened our bond with the world and its miseries…we had other challenges up our sleeves…such as mustering the courage to gobble the hopeless new recipe we ordered for our connoisseur tongues and counting pennies to pay the unexpectedly high bill we frequently incurred! Of course we were also fond of promptly moving out, that is, before the waiter could discover he had been paid no tip…What little but strategic triumphs! I wonder whether they remember us! Whether they had nightmares the day we visited their joint. No…It wasn’t that bad! Of course they won’t recognize us! But I am sure the day they have an adamant set of noisy and miserly customers to attend…they will suffer from a sense of déjà vu!!