Poor young man (Raju) travels to Bombay to realize his dreams. He is awestruck at the first sight of tall buildings, broad roads, displays windows showcasing unaffordable goods and rich people invariably taking a carriage ride at the Gateway of India. So starts his seduction by capitalism. Eventually, of course, he will learn the evils of accumulation and return to the rural idyll and put his urban pleasures behind him as a bad dream.
For Urmila and I discovering UB city was nearly the same experience. Tall buildings! Shiny people! Mont Blanc, Versace, Louis Vitton, Jimmy Choo: all those shops Raju wouldn’t be allowed to enter!
We hopped from restaurant to restaurant like butterflies in a field of flowers in springtime.
Chinese, Thai, Italian, French! Outdoor cafe seating. It was like we had entered a parallel universe where flavours seemed to exist. The hotel where we have been staying for the past 4 months has been trying to convince us otherwise. Let me just mention that our current home serves what is popularly known as garbage. It sends your tastebuds into fear paralysis.
Words like wasabi and tenderloin ringing in our ears, we sat down to have our lunch at Café Noir, a French eatery. Urmila who has been watching her diet went for Ceaser’s salad, Parma ham tartine and I had a Beef burger.
(It pained Urmila to see Beef end up between two buns. It’s holy meat to her and may only be worshipped as a steak. Rare.)
Be warned they serve the burger in cold buns. The bread could be better but the beef was good. For the lactose unfriendly they have coffee with soy milk.
It was an average meal made great by the ambience.
(Urmila says it would be a below average meal in France. I believe her.)
By then we were already seduced and on a full and satisfied stomach we forgot our humble antecedents. Until Urmila got a good scolding from the toilet room attendant for using more than one tissue paper. Good thing we hadn’t bought a single Omega watch, the weight of irony on that hand would have been unbearable.
But it was a beautiful day, great weather and a very pleasant and refreshing experience for us jailbirds.
Sometimes the food may be average but it’s still the right place.
Can’t wait to go back with the other jailmates.
Jail mates, we are. Wonder how we will cope when we get back to the real world? Like Raju, no doubt.
…taming the urban monster with love and patience…