The restaurant isn’t too big. Its kitchen (just a stove with a big frying pan) is housed in a small store. In front of the store’s door, there are portable tables and small stools. I have been hired just an hour earlier. I clean the tables and the stools and chop the cabbages. It’s not a big task.
“You’re not
good at cutting vegetables,” Limbanna yells at me as I try to work my knife
faster. He is chopping the onions. I look at how his big, thick moustache moves
when he speaks.
“I will
learn,” I say, trying to chop faster.
“That you
will, or I will throw you out,” he says, laughing. The moustache dances
and the belly follows.
After
cutting the vegetables, I become an assistant to Limbanna – he directs me to
serve Pao to the customers. He doesn’t risk me with the Bhaaji - that role is given to Prashant, the only other
staff member.
“Prashant
bhai, how is work?” I ask when Limbanna is busy getting the other ingredients
ready.
“It’s
bad on weekends. People expect fast service. But the pay is good and he pays on
time too,” he whispers, “Just don’t be lazy,” he adds.
It’s around
7 PM when the first customer arrives. Limbanna tries to talk to him but the
customer is clearly not interested in anything but his meal.
“You should
try the pulaao. Limbanna is great at it. You can check the reviews online,” I say to the customer.
He quickly gets
his phone out and orders the pulaao.
Limbanna
looks impressed. After the customer leaves, he beckons me. “You do that to
other customers too, okay?” he suggests.
I try it
with a few customers. It works sometimes.
At the end
of the night, all three of us are tired. Limbanna looks happy. “You did well
today. How did you learn about the internet stuff? Are you literate?” he asks.
“I have
studied a bit and read your reviews online before I joined,” I reply.
“Great,
great!” The moustache is dancing again. “You did well for the first day. But we
need to get you up to speed fast,” he says, not keen to show how impressed he
is.
It’s around
1 at night by the time I reach my room. It was hot at the restaurant. I get a quick
shower and change into my nightclothes. The AC gets my room cool by the time I
return from the shower. I fire up my PS-5 and play Spiderman for a while before
sleep gets me.
I look at
the clock the next morning. It’s 8 AM. My fitness watch says I got to rest
more.
I spend the day at the office. It’s a slightly
hectic day but nothing out of the ordinary – a couple of meetings, followed by some
Excel work, followed by emailing a presentation. I wait for the end of work
hours.
Evenings get me excited. I rush home and get
changed. I walk around the market area and ask around. After a few tries, I come
across a small travel agency’s office. By the look of it, they transport travellers
on overnight bus journeys. I enter and ask if there’s work. There’s a vacancy
for a ticket issuer. I accept the pay and begin right away.
Most travellers
already have tickets booked – they show me their mobile phones and I direct
them to their buses. Some of them walk in to book tickets. I tell them the
ticket rates, and point them to pay at the office counter where the owner sits.
Soon, I begin increasing the rates – especially, if I sense urgency in a
traveller. The owner has a questioning look on his face when someone pays him more.
I nod at him with a smile.
Before I
leave, the owner rewards me with some money. I reach home and get back to
Spiderman on PS-5.
Tomorrow, a new day begins. I look forward to going through the office work and keenly await the night when I’d find a new job.
