It was hot that day, hot as hell. I was walking back from an interview.hadn't really gone well. I decided to walk instead of taking the rick back to the station. It felt good, the hot sun on my neck, walking on the dusty lanes of Shivaji Nagar. Walking alone.
When you are always with friends "hanging out" you tend to lose yourself in the chatter, the gossip. But for a change, after a long time, it was just me, all me, me along with me. It felt good.

I started feeling hungry ( It was afternoon you see and I hadn't had anything since the previous night). Being a city bred guy, the first choice for food outdoors has always been a fast food place like Pizza Hut or a McDonald's. I am not rich, but once in a while I could justify it.
But just as I was getting into a rick, I saw a hand painted sign with " Rudrakwww.sh Bhojanalaya" crudely printed on it. Gut sense told me to take the chance and have a meal there. I could almost hear my mom screaming at me for going to a roadside food outlet with its flies and unhygienic food preparation techniques. But I just grinned as entered the "shop" cum "restaurant".
You have all visited a restaurant where there is a manager sitting right at the entrance on a chair invariably chewing a "paan" (India) and handling large sums of money in front of him. The waiters, dressed in their uniforms hurrying here and there carrying menu cards, food plates, utensils and what not from the kitchen to the respective tables. There is comfortable lighting and air conditioning along with it  the feel of being in a restaurant. The customers never talk to the ones sitting besides them.

"Air conditioning" consisted of a single wall mounted swinging fan, whose swing had just about gone south perhaps 10 months ago. There were a couple of tables with multiple chairs around them and people sitting having their food, but instead of staring at the intricateness of their respective plates' cracks, there was laughter and gossiping all around. No sign of the manager or the waiter(s)! I walked further into the dimly lit (pure coincidence I think!) place looking for some guidance when a young guy, smartly dressed in formal shirt and trousers told me to talk to the old guy sitting inside. I was greeted by a standard maharashtrian kitchen with ajoba (grandfather in marathi) was busy rolling puris while aaji (grandmother) was deep frying them. He asked me, or rather shouted at me asking me my purpose to which I meekly replied, that I was "hoping to have some lunch". He immediately toned his voice down when aaji glared at him, and told me to take a seat in the front of the establishment.
Even though the tables were crowded, the moment I was seen standing looking lost, some people shifted to allow me to pick up a chair and sit besides them. Within no time, the waiter, in this case the smartly dressed guy brought me a plate with hot puris. A common utensil held the dal and sabzi (currey and vegetable-potatoes) from which I took as much as I required, and sat down to eat.
The food was not special, it was not spicy, there was no decoration, nor was it "out of the world"
No. It was the homeliness of the place, the plainness that took me in, impressed me, made me remember my moms food in that brief moment of bliss. I was astounded to actually feel that such normal food had the capability to make me feel content, something which may not be achieved in those high class places with exotic sounding dishes.
I wont say that what I felt there would be felt by everyone going there but after a long time, I congratulated myself for doing something spontaneously. That I was rewarded by such an amazing experience notwithstanding.
As I exited the BHOJANALAY, I had made a new friend in the waiter, who was actually helping out since the hired help had not turned in that day. He informed me that all types of people from the white collar to the blue collar sat on the same table and drank from the same jug of water, without any hesitation and this, he said, was the reason for the place being different. A little far fetched I think, but still worth a thought!
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