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Lunch

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Austromate is unhappy so I write this Indian way for him and him only.Sometime early this week at a tiny beachside getaway we decided not to have lunch at our Lodge restaurant and go lunch hunting.My wife and my daughter were with me.The place is teeming with different kinds of fish sold fried or curried at many hotels at reasonable cost.

We went into the first pretty looking hotel and enquired whether whether lunch could be served. It was 12:30 p.m. The Manager replied that it was too late for ordering lunch since he'd have to go to the market, fetch vegetables and fish and only then the meal could be cooked. With long faces & growling stomachs we walked to another hotel "Kakra Budir Hotel" [Crab Old Lady's Hotel] A young man was seen having rice and curry so we gathered that lunch may be available.

The pretty young lady Manageress cum cook told us that a nice meal could be prepared but we'd have to wait for some time while she cooked the meal. We ordered rice with "parshey" fish curry and "pomphret" fry and also the "dal", "alu bhaja" "tomato chutney" "papor bhaja" cabbage with fish head curry and cauliflower curry.I began salivating instantly and began the expectant wait.

Lunch was served and we began eating in right earnest enjoying the nicely cooked warm meal.In the meantime a young couple [probably from somewhere in Russia] arrived with a toddler of scarcely an year old.My daughter and wife wondered aloud what on earth were they doing at such a remote place which even Kolkattans avoid to visit.The place could be accessed by road only after a hectic 6 hour journey including a two-hour wait at a ferry.

The husband was in a fix when the waiter [a small boy of fourteen or fifteen] handed over a menu printed in Bangla.I tried to help translate the menu the man but he didn't appear to understand English or maybe didn't like my looks or  maybe my accent wasn't his kind.The waiter was in a fix. Lastly the waiter fetched a small stainless steel platter on which were laid three kinds of fish : a lobster, a pomphret and a parshey. Now seeing is believing. The man instantly chose the uncooked lobster and soon a meal was served. They ate their meal while their daughter Sasha crawled around.

The couple left well before we did.Interestingly we again met them on the hot sea sands on the same afternoon with Sasha on the back of the lady.I wondered and wondered how such tourists get about in such small villages of India.Wherever they are now I wish them well particularly Sasha who gazed at me with her unearthly wonderful blue eyes.The world is indeed small.