FIVE STAR FOLLIES

The best part of working in an IT company is that you get to go to most of the Five Star hotels in the city. The primary reason for these visits/treats is due to the team building measures taken by companies so that people can get to know each other well. I do not know whether this is very effective or not, but I can surely say that we surely get to know all the specialities and delicacies of each Five Star hotel! During these visits, the general ettiquette says that you should not be outwardly explicit about your eagerness for the food. From what I have observed people do try their best to engage in a serious business or technical conversation, although all their inner thoughts are about the food and the surroundings. It is a general tendency to show that you are not too impressed/eager about the food and the place and that you have been to better places. People think that this is a sign of their sophistication and urbanity. But alas how long can the mind rule over the stomach? Soon all the irrelevant conversation ends abruptly and then all signs of decency
vanish in a jiffy and people rush to grab their plates.

It was one such visit to the Oberoi hotel in MG Road Bangalore. This was my first Five Star hotel visit. I was quite amazed at the elaborate table arrangements and the display of arrays of exotic food varieties. I was terror struck seeing the fork and spoon beside my plate as I hardly knew how to use them. Then I was relieved to see that most people around us in the hotel were not using fork and spoon, but just the God-given hand. We began the treat with a general dull conversation. Most of us were really hungry by then and soon one saviour mentioned that we begin our meal. I was quite relieved at this suggestion and immediately made a grab of my plate and walked over to the food counter. There were so many dishes, half of which I could not even recognise the names. Then I decided that I would taste only those dishes whose name I recognized. So it was just the usual North Indian Dal,Rajma,Roti I had. I tried to scram in as much as food possible into my plate so that I could avoid the frequent akward refills. After I finished this course of my meal, my colleague casually glanced at my plate and remarked that "Hey dint u want to try the starters?". Of course I wanted to try the starters, because god knows when I would visit such a hotel again. So after my main course I started munching on the starters.Here I was having my meal in an upside down order.

When asked, the chef there told us that the speciality of the day was "Avial Kootu" and "Bindi (Lady's Finger) Poriyal(Curry)". These dishes are so commonly made in South Indian households that I wondered how it could be called a speciality!


Finally everyone finished their meals and we marched on to conquer the deserted dessert section. I would have surely gained a few solid pounds that day that could be directly associated with the amount of fat content in the desserts. Then came the formal session of thanking the sponsor of the treat, the team consultant, who was visiting from the States. Poor guy he had hardly eaten during this treat.Probably he could not digest the fact that so many of us were digesting his money !!