restaurant, more like a "mess". They even has a wholesale rate for
dinner orders - if you buy 30 dinners in advance, you get them at 15%
off, and you can use the dinners whenever you want. The place is run
by a friendly but meek Telugu guy called Seenu, but that's not the
reason I frequent the place. They have a good Punjabi menu that goes
with their usual dinner plate, "Chinese" and South Indian dishes. It's
cheaper than the Punjabi restaurant right next door and the dishes
taste really good. They even brought back their Pav Bhaji menu as of
last night.
Last night I reached my neighborhood much earlier than I have in the
past few days, so I wanted to just pick up something and eat at home
while watching TV. So I got a pulav and while waiting for them to get
my food ready, I picked up the Telugu newspaper and started reading
it.
The big story in the paper was about these two Engg. college girls who
had acid thrown on their faces by a guy who felt he was rejected by
one of them. Since this is a family blog I won't talk about what I'd
like to do to that guy. But yeah, I was very upset and started
thinking about how some of these criminal acts get carried out with
impunity and how the guy could imagine he could get away with it. I
didn't even finish reading the story when I became aware that the
unusually loud background chatter at the restaurant was actually a
full blown argument. I looked up from the paper and there was a
sizable group standing up and arguing about something in
Hindi/Marathi. Considering that the restaurant is smaller than my
living room was in Houston, it was pretty crowded. I couldn't quite
tell what was going on but it looked like Seenu had to pay these guys
some money and there were atleast two thugs who were arguing about who
owed how much to whom. There were a couple of guys shouting, a couple
of elderly statesmen type people trying to calm everyone down, and
then the usual 5-10 onlookers who can be counted on to show up
whenever voices are raised.
There was cussing and shouting and threatening directed in various
directions and I had to try hard not to make eye contact with anyone
because they didn't seem like the type you want to make eye contact
with. Slowly the crowd moved out of the restaurant and my food
arrived. But I couldn't pay Seenu since he standing out. I tried to
ask the head waiter if I could just pay him instead and he just asked
me to pay him later. Then he went into the kitchen and closed his
door! I didn't think I was in any immediate danger, and for that
matter, I have a feeling this was a "routine" collection of
"protection money" or something, rather than a loan that Seenu didn't
repay, which I would imagine would be a much more serious issue. But I
couldn't wait to get out all the same. I was dying to ask the waiter
what exactly the matter was but I had to keep reminding myself not to
get involved into this thing. I just hope when I go to eat there
tonight the restaurant and owner are both back to normal.
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