I hate going to Adyar Anand Bhavan which is also popularly known as A2B. Not that food is that bad but I know better ones. But more than that it is for a very different reason. Most of the times I have visited A2B with extended family and parents. When you go there with parents and sit in that area where it is self serve, you get an extra responsibility on your shoulders. The responsibility of being the waiter for the family. I have played enough of that role but mostly in my own restaurant ( I used to run few in South Bangalore ). Being a waiter in somebody else’s restaurant is an all together different deal. First of all you have to ask everyone what they one and then remember that without having a pen and notebook in your hand ( I am old style waiter ). After that the job is to place the order, make payments and then wait with the token to get your order and then deliver the order to table. And by the time you sit down to eat what you ordered, you are already tired of this entire process and probably your food is cold too.
My father’s typical order in A2B will be idli and may be a vada and that also separate not dip. My usual preference is dip variety. Today my son had an exam not too far from BTM A2B and we reached the place well in advance. So we decided to walk to A2B for coffee. We ordered 2 coffees and single piece idli. I bought the tokens from the counter and passed it on to my son to get the things for me as I sat comfortably in the chair. I think I told my son to get the dip version but finally what came was separate version. Not sure my son forgot to tell him or it was some magical coincidence.
The circle of life continues……
PS: Yesterday ( 29th Apr, 2024 ) was my father’s third death anniversary.