When Women Dine…

Disclaimer: The characters and events mentioned in this post are 127% real and not born out of my imagination. The intention of this post is fun and fun alone, and not to demean womanhood or any person in particular. If anyone finds this post offensive, please email me or comment, and this post will be removed immediately. And I wasn’t eavesdropping in to the Eves’s privacy. It’s just a basic human curiosity, coupled with my crazy observation, which resulted in a post being born.

This wasn’t the post that I was planning to blog on. But I encountered this interesting episode in Gupta Bhavan, a chaat joint in Chengalpattu, when I was enjoying my fried Pav Bhaji one day. I came from the station and comfortably settled on the table just below the AC. I was waiting for my orders to come, when two women, of almost my peer level, came and sat on the table next to mine. In some time, the waiter came and they ordered for 4 RasMalais, stating that two more ladies will be joining them.

The RasMalais arrived and so did the other two women. It’s a usual women’s meeting, discussing about Madhavan and each others’ attire, and how the professors and some guys in the college ogled at them today. And all this, forgetting the fact that I was sitting beside them.

The waiter came, with a fair estimate that they would have finished the RasMalai, and to his shock, all the RasMalais were almost untouched. However, to comply with is professional ethics, he suggested they order the main course, and handed them a few copies of the menu card.

I knew that women were slow and extremely choosy with shopping, but food?? I was kinda astonished to hear a discourse on every main course. First, it was about how friend idlis are being made, and then came the most hilarious one concluding if one of the items meant Aappam or Appam. The discussion lasted for almost ten minutes, and I did not concentrate much on the discussion, because my order had already arrived. This was followed by a few discussions on the composition of Paneer, the nature of mushrooms, and how slim each person was.

After all these discussions, they (I thought) were ready to give their orders. There was still some RasMalai left in the cups when the waiter came to take orders for the main course. They started ordering. They were so confused with the dishes and with a total mess of the orders, they made the waiter discard the page where he took the order, and take it again on a fresh page. The waiter left their table with one forced smile.

Then discussions started all over again. I was done with my snacks and I paid the bill, and left my table. While leaving, I shot a last look at the ladies’ table, and some RasMalai was still remaining in their tables. Those poor Rasmalais, had been in the table for almost half an hour until then, and God knows when they got over.

I get emails about women driving, and using ATMs and almost every other thing that makes fun of how they act. I am no feminist and I ain’t a chauvinist either. I just have a subtle laugh and dismiss them, saying to myself, “I wouldn’t treat a woman this way.” But witnessing an even live, and that too in my hometown, I think I will reconsider my viewpoint. And I am grateful to my every gal pal, who have taken care not to put me in to this kind of a situation.