“where are we headed this weekend?” Supriya asked. It had been a long time since the two of had been out, alone.
“how about Copper Chimney? Haven’t been there for a long time!!” Shekar was food lover, in true sense. There wasn’t a single restaurant in city that he hadn’t visited, no cuisine that he hadn’t tried.

Married to his childhood sweetheart,Shekar was looking forward to the weekend.Life had been busy for last four months. With relatives, friends, family pouring in to bless the newly wed.

Home. Saturday, 7 pm.
“Let’s go, we have a movie to catch up after dinner” The thought of food was making him impatient, Chicken Briyani, that’s what he was gonna order!.

After maneuvering thro’ traffic for good one hour, they finally reached their destination

3rd Floor, Bangalore Central, 8.15 pm
Confirming their reservation, the manager led them to the table,perfect seating, a cozy table for two far away from crowd.Finally the part he was waiting for, placing the order, his favorite part of the whole eating out thing. Making sure the waiter had got it right (made him repeat the order twice) he was ready to enjoy the dinner and evening, of course LOL.

Food made its way to table, enjoying his dinner, he felt something funny in his mouth. It didn’t taste edible, and definitely not something his palate had tasted before.He was aghast at the sight of what he was holding between his thumb and index finger “Silver Foil”.
“Oh, no! this can’t be true!”
“What happened?” She was surprised, what could’ve spoilt his mood? After all he had picked up this hotel, and had ordered one of his fav.
he held out the foil! and while she took some time to digest the food, he signalled for the waiter.

Not interested in talking to anyone but the manager, the waiter got the manger for him.

The manager’s attitude did very li’ll for him, he was neither very nice to them nor apologetic. Irritated with his behavior he decided to take action, after all being a food lover, he was not going to take it sitting down. The ice cream was on the house, to pacify the couple, who had made it very loud and clear that they were disappointed at the service.

Office. Monday
“A BJN group hotel had a silver foil in their briyani, the manager was rude. They need to know, after all they are known for their quality!!” Next day, promptly, at office, he googled for BJN head manager.

After a searching, and making calls for an hour, he finally got the number of ‘Neeraj Agrawaal’, head manager for BJN group of hotels.

“About time! I swear he is going to get an earful from me” By this time, his wife was getting really worried at his obsession of talking to the manager. He was an ardent follower of BJN and this experience had left a bad taste!! He was not going to stop until he had spoken to the manager.

“Hello” a lady answered the phone
“Hello,I am Shekar Kapur calling from B’lore” surprised that a lady had answered the call, he expected Neeraj to answer his call LOL!!
“Yes Sir, How can I help you?”
“I wanted to speak to Neeraj Agrawaal, and no one else” trying to sound really important

“You can tell what is that you want to speak to him about? I will forward your request accordingly
“Ok, I had been to Copper Chimney,this Saturday. While eating the briayni…… .Can you believe the manager was …..” Ending his story 10 mins later

“Sir, I will forward your call to my Superior, please hold on”
“Superior” Excited, finally.

“Yes Sir, I am Mr Neeraj’s personal sectary’s assistant. Please hold on sir”

What? Sectary’s sectary!!
10 mins wait later “Hello, Mr Kapur, I am Shalini. Sir, Please tell me how can I help you?”
Great, explain them again?

“Well I had been Copper Chimney and ….. and foil and ….manager!” Phew!!
“We are really sorry about this sir, We at BJN group really appreciate your feedback, I will just connect to the b’lore manager of the branch of the restaurant right away.Please hold on sir”

Yippee, finally. Well he deserved it, they should not hire managers like this. After all it’s BJN group. He could actually imagine that guy being yelled at.

After good 5 minutes,he was back on line

“Hello, Mr Kapur, Thank you for waiting sir”

“The pleasures all mine” Smiling and feeling all proud

“Sir, We wanted to inform you that Copper Chimney does not come under BJN group”
“What?” Shocked
“Yes Sir, its not a part of BJN group, thank you for calling BJN group. have a nice day.”

LOL, that’s right, Copper Chimney is not a part of BJN group. In all his excitement of eating out , and the episode later, he had missed out the vital information that “Copper Chimney” did not come under BJN group ha ha ha and the whole calling,where the sectaries heard his story and didn’t realize themselves, had him laughing his heart out!!

“So did you finally talk to Neeraj Agrawaal?”
“Supriya, don’t you have anything better to do, let me work for a change” He was totally embarrassed and no way letting his sweet wife now how he had been royally fooling himself for 3 days now!!

P.S: I had got the copy right to publish this here!! Its not as great as hearing it from the person himself LOL! You bet, I couldn’t capture the expressions here ha ha ha