SPOTLIGHT

Friday, November 04, 2005

Lunch time favors


Often on Fridays, a couple of us from office go out to lunch together. Today, the junta was in mood of going to the steak house and so I politely declined.
Now I had the goliath task of deciding where to go out for lunch. Burgers, fries, subway and tacobell were all ruled out as I have had an overdose of them this week. Other places that I could think of couldn't be enjoyed in solitude. So I figured it would be good opportunity to hit one of the buffet joints and stuff myself. And pizza hut lunch buffet it was, even if it meant sweating an extra hour at the gym in the evening.

One of the things that really scares me out at these pizza buffet joint is the obese people that you see around. No offense to them, but some of my friends would joke that these buffet joints are the sole reason for their obesity.
I filled my plate with a few slices of pizza and some salad at the side and took my seat. Now when you are all by yourself, you tend to look around to see what mischeif the people in the adjoining table were upto, you become more nosy, try to strain your ears to overhear some conversation. I had found my victim. They were sitting in the next booth. An old black "Momma" woman complaining (read bitching) about her "honey" "sweet" little daughter to her husband. The accent, the double negation in her sentences and the bitchy deed her daughter was upto formed an amusing conversation to keep myself entertained.
In the mean time, the table, diagonally across which was vacant finally got its occupant. A beautiful looking white caucasian lady with her 10 year old son. Now thats when my fun was interrupted.
Whenever I looked at her table, I found her staring at me. I thought she would have noticed I am becoming too inquistive about the black couples conversation, so I started to mind my own business. Now if you notice that someone is looking at you, you tend to check back after a few minutes to see if that is still continuing. Checked her from the corner of my eye and she was still staring. My hair was combed fine, pants zipped up and I had not spilled pizza sauce on my shirt. And this made me feel uneasy and uncomfortable. I decided to look straight at her and give her a smile, probably to initiate a conversation to see what was wrong. I got no response from her but now I was cent percent sure, that she didn't have a squint in her eyes and she was indeed looking at me. I scratched my head to think if I knew this woman even remotely or if I had ever seen her somewhere. This was the first time I had ever seen her.
Now had it been a blonde girl in her twenties staring at me, I would have felt happy and probably shamelessly gone and spoken to her. But this woman was making me loose my appetite. I wanted it to stop. I decided one last attempt to look straight back at her and make it stop, else I would approach her directly.
I looked up at her. She turned her face, checked to see if her son had eaten fine and walked off to pay the bill.
As she walked out I was sure she would look back and she did. (Now don't think of the DDLJ "Palat" scene...she wasn't the kajol of my dreams)
Good riddance I sighed! I couldn't stop wondering what was up her mind. She had walked in much later than me, had barely eaten and left. There was something amiss somewhere.
I had lost my apetite as well and decided to leave. I went up to the cashier to pay the bill and he said
"You have already been paid for! The lady with the kid that sat across, paid for you!"

I don't think I am ever going to solve this mystery....

12 Comments:

  • Whoa!! :D

    Either you're a freakin' good looking dude who just made her day, or she is a single mother and you have a face that says, "I can be a daddy to your son!"

    By Blogger Sayesha, at 4:59 PM  

  • whoa.. what goes around come around. Remember you paid for the hispanic lady, now someone is paying for you. I know there is a difference in amount.

    -thanu

    By Blogger Thanu, at 5:27 PM  

  • Spooky

    By Blogger N David, at 5:38 PM  

  • :)

    Way to go Parth!;).My calls...she had the day's resolution to feed a poor lil Indian ( a la Nangu Pangu fire eating kind ), or She is a Big Fan Of Mahatma Ghandhi or Amitabh Bachchan, or She read your blog entry about the Hispanic Woman, or she was showing her 10 year old on how to be nice to people from other races, or may be she has hots for smart Indian Geeks, or hmm err ok I cant say it in public ;). Enjoy the attention. Cheers!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:57 AM  

  • Wow, that IS kinda freaky.

    Maybe she thought you were someone else.

    By Blogger Abigail S., at 8:41 AM  

  • pyar hua ikraar hua...
    pyar se fir kyun darta hai dil...

    ;-)

    you should have gone and talked to her... she would not have killed you... :-)

    V..

    By Blogger virdi, at 9:24 PM  

  • @ sheela :
    Yup! fair enough...no complains...free lunch is alway welcome...

    @sayesha :
    Either you're a freakin' good looking dude who just made her day,

    Oh well, my heart wishes that was the true reason...

    @thanu:
    Remember you paid for the hispanic lady, now someone is paying for you

    Precisely..you just echoed the thoughts I had when I walked out of Pizza hut...

    @kd :
    It is spooky....eerie...

    @vikram :
    something tells me she's stalking you dude

    Hahaha...if she is...why do it stealthily...I promise I won't bite...

    @jaggu:
    Lol at your reasoning..
    a la Nangu Pangu fire eating kind

    hmm err ok I cant say it in public ;).
    hahaha.....samajdhar ko ishara kaafi hota hai...lol...no comments on it ;)

    @abigail :
    Thanks for visiting...
    you bet it seemed so weird...
    I don't know if she had mistaken me for someone else...but still she could have atleast said something....


    @virdi
    you should have gone and talked to her... she would not have killed you... :-)

    I know...I was making sure if indeed she was looking at me..mustering courage as to how to approach her and what to say..I didnt want to be impolite...and when I was certain, she got up and left...

    pyaar hua...
    lol...she could have come up and spoken..i wouldn't have killed her ;)

    By Blogger Parth Anand, at 5:58 PM  

  • Well, enjoy while it lasta! Sometimes, some mysteries are better left unsolved:)

    By Blogger Rays Of Sun, at 7:06 PM  

  • Wow!!!
    Amazing incident.... hope that u solve this cute little mystery some day!!

    By Blogger Arun R, at 2:32 AM  

  • Mind if I steal this scenario for my blog? Thanks!

    By Blogger Abigail S., at 3:54 PM  

  • @ROS:
    True....am not complaining much...it was free food after all :)

    @arun:
    I don't think I would be able to..unless ofcourse if I ever happen to run into her again...

    @abigail:
    No problemo...

    By Blogger Parth Anand, at 4:38 PM  

  • May be this was on her "to do" list:

    "Stare at a stranger in a restaurant long enough to make hime uncomfortable. Then pay his bill."

    By Blogger Raj, at 9:19 PM  

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