One Evening At The Chinese Gully...

“Dekho, dhang se khilao! Sab gir rahaa hai!” ¹

“… hehehehe… And then she just turned around to him and said….” ²

“…market gayee thi, tu kahaan thi?....” 3

“Pehli Nazar Mein… Catch Atif Aslam all this month on…” 4

“Good Evening sir. Table for how many?” suddenly the waiter asked me.

“For two, please. Good Evening” I mumbled, and smiled at him.

I looked around. The place was half-full. At one table was a family of 3, the Mom giving instructions to the Dad to feed the child properly. ⁽¹⁾

At another was a young woman, sitting alone, talking away into the cell-phone to her dearest friend ⁽³⁾, or so I suppose. She seemed quite uninterested and insensitive to the people around her. Well, the volume of her voice told me so… She WAS the loudest of the lot. Whatever the reason, it made me feel a little uncomfortable.

At yet another table was a group of 3 college-going boys. One of them, presumably the leader of the group, was busy narrating an incident to his “minion-type” friends ⁽²⁾, paying no attention to others at the joint. He was loud too, but his levels dipped whenever he had to discuss something of “that” nature. “Boys…” I thought to myself, n chuckled not-so-loud.

Such was the scene at this small yet comfortable Chinese joint. Located in the famous Chinese Gully in Kamla Nagar Market, in North Delhi, this place seemed to be a regular hangout joint for youngsters and young professionals. Yes, yes.. the family at table 1… they were also pretty young!

Anyway, I entered the place with a friend of mine, who has decided that she will show me all the good eating joints of this part of the city, if not the country! She is pretty much aware that I live to eat, hence it is now her self-inflicted responsibility that I get to eat at almost every place known to the average North Campus student. How can I say no to such a noble gesture!

The place seemed ok to me. Not very elaborate in the designs-n-decorations, but decent for a joint of that nature. 9 or 10 tables to seat about 40-50 people, fully occupied. One small counter for the manager. Two doors towards the end of the hall, one leading to the kitchen, and another multi-purpose door, leading to the store-room, the restrooms, the fire-exit, the back-door etc etc. I almost felt like Alice, staring into the rabbit hole, wondering how far it would go!

Thankfully. I didn’t have to do it t find out. The waiter came to the rescue, breaking my chain of weird thoughts. He handed both of us the menu. We decided what to have, after putting in quite a lot of thought… “This would be spicy, that wouldn’t be enough for two. This is too sweet, that has too much of corn!!!” Finally, it was decided that we will have Crispy Babycorn with Salt’n’Pepper and Honey Potato, with two fruit-beers.

Til’ now things were fine. Well, I know they seem a bit weird to you right now when ur READING about them, but come to think of it, such is the scene anywhere you go! Probably we don’t notice it like this, and don’t pay much attention!

Then suddenly, another group of people entered. One lady, with many young girls, about 5-6 of them, and an even younger boy. They took their places at the table, and started chitchatting right away. They were a bit loud as well! By now, I had become accustomed to the loud voices!

There was a TV set ⁽⁴⁾, installed on some kinda TV holding contraption of a weird shape, on the far corner of the hall. I would look at the TV quite a lot. My friend would make sure that I’d be aware of her boredom, whenever I would start gazing at the TV. Somewhere along the course of time, the waiter decided he wanted to surf some channels. He stopped at a certain entertainment channel, dedicated to music and a Reality Show.

That was it! That was the point when every pair of eye in the joint turned towards the TV set. Yes, u read it right! EVERYONE started watching the Reality Show. Somehow, of late, this reality show (how much of it is REAL in Reality Shows, is a different discussion altogether) has become a rage amongst the youth. It reeks of attitude. Tough guys, tough girls, tough bikes, tougher challenges, a tough lookin VJ anchoring it, and some tough lines being muttered by the participants. THAT’S a lotta toughness there!

Anyway, since I haven’t been in the TV-Viewing class for about 8 years now, I wasn’t as amused as everyone else. And then, I started thinking. The latest group of people who came in started discussing about the show. They did discuss about one guy in particular, who belongs to my hometown. (For more on the city, go here.) Seems he is the highlight of the show.

Moving on, something that one of the young women of the group said struck me. What that was, I shall discuss soon. It will require some thinking on my part before I post it. (Half-baked ideas do not seem too tempting or appealing to me, to be posted here.)

By now, we were almost through with our order. My friend did complain about the fruit-beer being not as good as it was the last time she was there, and that we hadn’t finished off everything we had ordered for. But I was feeling quite full by that time. Not coz I ate heartily. Full because of what that young woman had said, and the chain of thoughts that started off in my mind following her statement. I am almost tempted to write about it right now, but as I said, it shall wait.

We asked for the bill, paid and left. Back on to the street, on our way home.

Love, Peace n' Harmony
Sam.



© Prateek Sharma Feb 2008