Every
member of my family has a very fine sense of dining. The only purpose of are
existence is to delightfully feast on some mouth watering delicacies. I guess we should start worshiping goddess Annapurna
for the bountiful supply of some mouth smacking meals. One such awesomely scrumptious and hilarious
dining’s incidents was during our return journey from Nasik we had gone to
celebrate Infant Jesus Feast. Well my family on normal day’s goes bazooka over
food imagine if we are in mood of celebration then you can imagine what happens
to our appetite. Well since the bus showed up past two hour’s from its arrival
time all passengers were really flushed and my family members were
exceptionally hungry even after every member having two glasses of sugarcane
juice waiting for the bus in that wrenched hot sun. When our bus halted for
lunch at 3 pm every ones hunger meter had soared to dangerous level. Even though they were showing ‘Khalnayak’ in
the bus none of my dearest family members bothered to check out Madhuri’s ‘choli
ke peeche kya hain?’ as all taught cycles were busy decoding ‘Aaj khane mein
kya hain’. Interestingly at that juncture our bus stopped for lunch break.
We
stopped at a place which looked like Sholay’s Ramgarh apparently my eyes were
searching for ‘Gabbar Singh’. Since I did not find the classic villain who made
‘Kitne Admi The’ dialogue so famous I was little disappointed until I saw a man
with huge moustache sipping hukka, his look could give tough completion to Mr. Amir
Khan’s really hairy ‘Managal Pandey’ look. Well coming back to the hunger story
there were two joints one vegetarian nicely decorated, brilliantly lighted, marble
flooring and plastered with colorful ambiguous painting looked really inviting.
The other non-veg. joint absolutely disastrous looking Punjabi Dhaba that
looked like the whole structure could collapse any moment without any natural
calamities affecting it. It was filled with sweaty truck drivers and half of
are bus people. Some interesting marketing strategy was implemented here the
non- veg. restaurant though looked least pleasing to the eye was a clear cut favorite
among passengers compared to the cleverly decorated vegetarian joint. I guess
once you have a ‘chicken tangdi’ on a menu nothing can ever stop the highway
truck drivers to visit your joint, as it is one of the best tangdi they can cherish
on a lonely national highway. On my mother’s insisting we entered the high maintenance
joint without realizing a brutal fact that this place served pure vegetarian
meals.
A little sneak peak into my family’s non-veg. eating
habits so that you will understand the consequence’s of choosing the wrong
joint. Though the earth revolves around
the sun, my dad's world revolves around pork, beef, chicken and mutton. He is a hardcore fan of all things meat. So
when they politely informed us that at this place we serve pure vegetarian meals.
My dad pressure rose to alarming heights. I am glad the waiter sensing trouble
in the vegetarian paradise pointed immediately to the other non-veg. joint
situated a little further ahead. We had lost our precious food hogging 15
minutes on switching places which irked every hungry member of my family. Anyways we managed to crash in this non-veg. eatery.
Here there was only 3 waiters waiting around two dozen tables, have mercy on their
souls. There was this elderly waiter who had a very meek smile on his face. I
felt sudden rush of respect for him for having that smile just after being
trashed badly by 3-4 hooligan truck drivers for serving them cold parathas. I mean see this place do you think it’s a Dominos
pizza outlet with a slogan that reads ‘Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed”, dude
you are in a shanty looking dhaba where if you get what you ordered then you
need to be thankful to all the gods in the world. Today’s world people have completely
lost appreciation for little joys. I took the menu apparently I am quite picky
about eating outside when I choose a dish it has to be something really adventurous,
fantastic and not at all homely in taste. I think my adorable Dad prefers
homely food (why would anyone bother to eat outside if they want homely food, hopeless I say) so I wont give him the menu and my fairest of the fair Mum
chooses ‘Biryanis’ (She will say we are celebrating right so we should eat
biryani that also not ‘Hyderabadi’ or ‘Mugalai’ but plain biryani that is so
boring sometimes). I choose ‘Shahi chicken
lazedar handi’ well it was priced 550 and sounded completely out of the world. And
some butter Nan to go with it. Mum still choose to order the usual chicken
biryani. Well it was almost half an hour and all were going back to the bus
there was no news of the dear ‘Shahi chicken lazedar handi’ and Biryani which
we all were fantasizing about dearly. The waiter gave us reassurance that both
the dishes were under preparation and will be on our plates right away. All of
us were getting impatient now what if the bus would go. I did not mind leaving
the bus but nothing could stop me from having my delicious ‘Shahi chicken
lazedar handi’ with some highly fattening butter Nan’s. I was being blamed for ordering absolutely
ridiculous dishes instead of sticking to the usual. I some how took the blames
in the hope that my tummy will feel something yummy any moment now. We told the
waiter to inform the bus driver about our delay. Till then all the passengers
were staring from their windows in our direction thinking are they going to eat
entire ration. I felt like I should hide beneath the table I mean my selfish
cravings had got us into this sticky situation.
After the entire hullabaloo there came the ‘Shahi
chicken lazedar handi’, if you remember Marilyn Monroe iconic scene where all
the guys were mesmerized by her flying white dress. Well apparently on looking
at the ‘Shahi chicken lazedar handi’ sitting on the tray gently moving in our
direction we were all memorized by its presence. It looked like it was fit for a king’s spread.
‘Shahi chicken lazedar handi’ came in a huge curvaceous silver utensil
garnished with lovely delicate Coriander leaves and filled with one kg chicken pieces (mainly consisting of sexy chicken legs) it
smelled and looked absolutely majestic. At that point we all felt like this is
a true celebration of the feast. As soon as the waiter served us this beautiful
looking dish we all dung into the food as a pack of wolves feasting on its
delicate pray. Somehow no one noticed
that biryani was missing except my demanding Mother. She threw a fit that until
and unless my biryani will not come I am not going to eat anything else. Poor
dad had to pressurize the waiter to get it done quickly and convince the bus driver
that we would try to board the bus as soon as possible. Well after feasting on
that fabulous ‘Shahi chicken lazedar handi’ and butter Nan I,
aunt and dad were truly satisfied. Mum
seemed like all hell broken loose she was not fed her usual biryani and she
seemed agitated. She fired the waiter so badly that he came running with the
biryani this time I missed his meek smile. Also the waiter bought us the leftover
‘Shahi chicken lazedar handi’ which we told him to pack as we had no room for accommodating
so many yummy chicken legs. Finally Mum started with the Biryani but was not at
all pleased with it because it was plain rice mixed with Shahi chicken lazedar
handi’s divine curry and small chicken pieces. I felt so much better after hearing this
because of my daring choice and demanding cravings we had a really royal meal. Afterwards
we boarded the bus. All of them scolded us badly for making them wait till we
ate to our hearts content. Finally the bus started and we truly enjoyed a gastronomical
feast.
