Bangalore Chronicles - 1

THE TREAT

The date was June 22, 2012. It was otherwise a normal day for me like every other day. I woke up, went to the office, came back and now sitting in front of my computer surfing the net pointlessly but then it’s not just any other day. Today is special. Why? To know that I have to rewind my life to May 20, 2012. That was the day when I shifted from my friend’s place to a PG accommodation in a place called Domlur in Bangalore. The city of Bangalore was still strange for me. It was just four days since I came here. The city was fast; everyone seemed to be in a hurry. And you can’t take your eyes off the road, it was impossible; the moment your eyes drift to the billboard on the roadside or that stunning girl passing by – BANG!!! You are hit by car. Yes, it happened to me while I was walking to the office from the bus stop that day.

My day at the office went well and it got over soon. I was new to the office and being kind of an introvert, I didn’t talk with anyone except my team leader. Although I couldn’t help but notice that the office resembled like a factory – a factory producing buildings. The people working were more machine – like than the computers they were working on. But let’s leave that aside for now. So I was returning on a crowded bus back to Domlur tolerating the irritating gossip of two girls about the previous day’s episode of Gossip Girl and the excruciating yelling of a baby which sounded more like a civil war siren. But then it’s good that it was just two stoppages till Domlur. I reached in ten minutes, crossed the road and started walking to my PG. Domlur looked quite a decent place with all the amenities available and most of the inhabitants were young people working in nearby companies.

As I was walking and searching for a place to eat something, I was a bit hungry. Suddenly I saw a bakery with a big banner which read ‘Winner Bakes’ in a red background. Besides that shop was a Shawarma joint. I was kind of tempted to have that so I was asked the guy about the price of one. He replied that it was forty bucks. I realized I was low on cash and to draw money I had to walk back to the main road. Since I was really tired I decided to chuck the shawarma for that day and I filled up my tummy with a samosa and a cup of chai – no it’s not tea, it’s chai : too much sugar , less tealeaves and more water than milk and you get a perfect cup of chai.

I had almost forgotten about that day, the day I so wanted to have a shawarma that but couldn’t or decided not to, until 22^nd June 2012. In the month that passed by, some days I used to remember about that shawarma but then sometimes I was somewhere else, other times I had already eaten something. So 22^nd June 2012 wasn’t quite a great day for me. I had to wait a long time for the bus and then after that much wait I took the wrong bus and ended up somewhere else from where I took an auto to my office. I was late for the office too. Work was hectic that day. The day at office ended fortunately and I walked to the bus stop as fast as I could as if my office was some kind of time bomb and was about to explode soon. I saw a bus coming and as soon as I entered the bus I had this sudden realization that the May 20^th episode of irritating teenagers and crying babies is going to repeat again; this time with a middle aged man talking loudly on a phone – a little louder and he doesn’t need a phone to make himself heard to the person at the other end. Thankfully the torture ended and I reached my destination. I had had a bad day was what I was thinking as I was walking back to my PG after I got down from the bus and all of a sudden I saw this shawarma joint. And in a split second, I remembered how I longed for that shawarma a month ago and today it seemed was the perfect day to treat myself with one. I went to the guy at the shop with a sense of achievement and asked him to make a shawarma. As he was making the shawarma, stuffing the chicken and spreading the mayonnaise over the roll, in my mind, I was already eating it. And finally the time had come; I took the shawarma and ate it savouring every single bite. I was happy and content. It was the best shawarma I had ever eaten in my life not because it was delicious but because of the wait.

It wasn’t a big thing but it’s the small things in life that makes you the happiest and this was definitely one. Like someone said – ‘Longer the wait; sweeter the moment’.