Humor
A lovely lunch and a chance meeting with an aunt
Our usual girl gang had not met since our famous Maldives trip. It was time to meet and remember the good old trip. A date was picked, the venue was sorted, and we met. 10 girls. Absolute cacophony.
The restaurant was lovely, and the dishes were amazing both in taste and in presentation. One of the girls was a veteran at that restaurant. She had it all figured out. The rest of us sat back, chatted, and let her do all the ordering. She did not go wrong with even one dish. They were all awesome.
Meanwhile the aunt made her appearance!
Group Photos and the Aunt
After the important task of ordering the appetizers was done, it was time to assemble and click the mandatory group picture. While we were all creating a ruckus and trying to figure out the best background and arrangement of bodies, we saw a family walk past us. I noticed the lady in particular because she seemed a bit familiar. But I could not remember her from anywhere, and she passed by without incident.
When we headed back to the table, my bestie pulled me aside urgently.
Bestie: “Hey, did you notice that lady in the green silk saree?”
“I think she is your aunt.”
Me: “I noticed her, but I can’t seem to remember her.”
Bestie: “Go and check. I think she is sitting in that far corner.”
Me: “Er…sounds a bit odd, what? Just sauntering along to check her out…?”
Couple of other girls (who were now keenly following this conversation):
“Let us all go and check her out. Let us pretend to click pictures. That way you can check.”
(Heh! As if I did not understand the ulterior motive here. They just wanted to click more selfies and group pictures.)
The plan was put into action, and more ruckus and more photos later, I had thoroughly checked out the lady in the green silk saree.
I just could not remember her.
We trooped back and attacked the rest of the meal.
Dessert Drama
The final performance of the day was the dessert section.
First came a bed of baklava layered with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This was followed by a waiter who carried a lovely rose in his hand. It was perfect, and frosted, and cold air was curling around it sensuously. As we watched, the waiter held the rose on top of the ice cream, and the menu veteran amongst us crushed the rose in one clean clap. The rose crumbled into a zillion tiny pieces, and fell gently all over the baklava-vanilla bed. It was mesmerizing. And it tasted sweet, and creamy, and rosy, and it was gone in a blink.
This was followed by a chocolate bomb on a plate. Well, what else can we say about a big, rich ball of chocolate that explodes when the waiter pours gooey hot chocolate on top. The explosion revealed a chocolate flower with the most delectable and sinful center. Aaah!
Time to Leave, Bye Aunt
After that hearty and heady meal, and several rounds of group and individual photos, it was time to leave.
The elevator was small and could hold only 4 people at a time. There were some folks already ahead of us. So we hung around some more and waited. First up in the elevator queue was, you will never guess this, the lady in the green saree.
We looked at her. She looked at us. Her husband looked at us. In particular, they all looked at my bestie. No, they stared at my bestie. This was getting interesting.
Why were they staring at my bestie? If anything, they should have stared at me. After all, she was supposed to be my aunt. Hmph!
And then…
The husband walked up to my bestie…
And spoke to her!
Suddenly, bestie broke out into a broad grin, and soon, bestie, aunt, aunt’s husband and others in the family were all engaged in animated conversation.
Bestie came back after a couple of minutes. She looked a bit shame-faced. Turns out that the lady in the green saree was her aunt!!! And the whole time, she was trying to pass off her aunt as mine.
It took the rest of the girls a whole minute to pick me off the floor where I was absolutely ROTFL!!
Anu Anniah Writes 