The Hosts..

It was certainly not one of my best days..i got up in my lodge room to find that there was no hot water available. When I ventured out of my room to the so called recption, I could only find a sort of bell boy with his jhadoo who managed to communicate in oriya that the electricity was not to come before 10..anyways after this not so good start I got ready to leave to discover that I had to go to a dealer's place for breakfast as he was deeply "offended" when I declined his invitation last night (now thats another story).
I reached his place (I am yet to know his name honestly..let use Mr.X for convenience) flanked by my ASO and driver to find a virtual mansion of sorts. A huge 3 storeyed building with marble flooring n quite jazzy wod work but surprisingly with least bit of furniture. For once it reminded me of Arya Samaj temples with their marble floor and vast spaces. More so as the only prominent furniture in the living hall (really a hall) was a temple (lovely) and some bhajans were playing in the background (today being shiv ratri i guess).
Mr. X , with that kind of decency on his face,his round rimmed glasses, khadi kurta, pepper white head, tiny built and a serene smile, could easily pass for a goverment school teacher (bollywood ishtyle) rather than a marwari steel trader. Mrs X, on the other hand, could easily pass for our typical maru aunty with everything going for her- the gold, the bright lipstick and nail paint, a reasonably "healthy" body..pretty much everything including the accent.
Breakfast was served within minutes of my arrival. Upma, bhujia and rasogolla. Now, anyone who knows me any bit would know the kind of importance i give to my breakfast and how badly i need my bowl of cornflakes and coffee to brave the day ahead. Also, anyone who knows me any bit also knows that how much i HATE stuff like upma and sweets.
Someone rightly said that u need to adjust more than u think in sales jobs...pehle that lodge with its hard bed, worst dhaba food n chilled water aur ab royal nashta..man m so screwed.
Anyways, knowing where i was heading i had my expectation set right, thanking god that it was not halwa puri, I started ulping down the greasy upma, taking bits of bhujia now n den when aunty would insist. As if the nashta was not heavy enough, Mrs X started with the family talk..there 3 daughters and 1 son..all mba's (y r there so many of them..i almost feel lost in millions before i remind myself of the "top 5" mdi jargon ;)) Once aunty was done with her family biography she moved to mine...papa kya karte hain?? bhai behen?? education?? Salary kya hai...now thats too much.. Y is this sounding inccreasingly like a matrimonial interview...anyways!!
After an hour of chit chat and a chai to gulp down the upma..i am introduced to the mba son who starts talking about tata steel as an employer n all dat crap (wat company are u in anyways...n now i am seriously getting tired of smiling...u have tortured me engh with that upma n rasogolla..ur family details, my faily details..pls let me go, i have two districts and 200km to cover today)
Finally as i am done with my cuppa, Mrs X invies me for a ghar dekhai...given her excitement i could not refuse. So there we went room to room, washroom to washroom (comeon the last thing i want to do in the morning is take a view of ur intimate zones and listen to why you have both english and indian seats in the same washroom...mannn). After our kitchen round aunty ji handed me some special meetha ber and I finally bid goodbye to Mr. X, Mrs X and MBA son wondering y did i not make an excuse of shiv ratri n avoid the whole thing.
I am running an hour late already..maybe I can do the thinking in the cab.