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The Barter Deal


This is also an old story. However not as old as the previous one. This happened during our under grad college days.

We famished hostel girls were invited to one of our teachers’ daughter’s wedding. Ahh… a wedding invite! We were all so thrilled. That evening, we discussed the rituals of a Brahmin wedding. We knew the wedding would last for three days, but were not quite sure if we were invited for all the three days.

An invitation is supposed to be for the whole wedding and not for just parts of the function. Right?”, one of us tried to clear the doubt.

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I have heard that Brahmin wedding starts early in the morning and will go on till late in the evening”, somebody was kind of sure about it.

Oh! Is it? Well, that means breakfast, lunch and snacks. Three days. Three meals. Wow; nine times in a row, we can treat our taste buds”, she just couldn’t hide her excitement.

While I had a different point of view, “It is not only about food, you see. Our sir will be so glad if we participate in their joy from start till the end.” I looked at others and saw giggles and grins on all the faces. The next minute, there was a burst of laughter!

A dozen of us, decked-up exuberant girls attended the wedding with much vigor and fervor. Our twelve heads were a common sight on all the three days. We kept ourselves busy being the bride’s happy maids, posed for a number of photographs, consumed limitless starters, main course & deserts and laughed our hearts out while we had lots of fun.

We showered the bride and groom with our love and blessings; the grand wedding thus came to an end. At the closure of each day, everybody was given a fancy pouch, with a coconut and some tidbits in it.

We, hostages of the girls’ hostel had no idea what to do with all the coconuts we had collected. The idea of donating them to the mess was immediately rejected as they were unkind and merciless folks who did not feed us well. So they don’t deserve any goodies from us! After a rigorous round of brainstorming, we decided to give the coconuts to Subbannan the next morning if he is ready to offer all of us free breakfast.

Who is Subbannan, by the way? He is the God-sent alternative to the awful food served in our hostel mess. Subbannan owns a small eatery very close to our hostel building and we loved him because he allowed credit to the hostel girls.

The next day, we skipped the ‘so-called’ idlies in the hostel mess and rushed to Subbannan with the bag that contained our prized possession! Our man was seated in his chair, all set to feed his hungry customers.

As we had no time to explain, without beating around the bush we came to the point. “Subbanna… Keep these coconuts. Instead, please give all of us breakfast” saying that, I winked at him and we took our seats.

Totally confused, for a couple of minutes he just starred at us. Then he shot, “Look at you girls… lipstick and high heels. But to eat two idlis, you had to steal coconuts. If you don’t have money now, you may give it later.

We were trying to understand what he was grumbling while Subbannan continued, “I wonder, why they don’t lock the store room in your hostel!” 

In shock, none of us could react immediately. That was obviously the least expected!


PS: This post is part of the Write Tribe Festival of Words 2. The challenge is seven posts in seven days and this is the second one in the series, on the theme Food. 

32 comments:

Pratikshya said...

haha... nice anecdote... you all should have told him the real reason.. interesting read..

Jairam said...

The last few lines of this post had me doubling up in laughter. Lovely anecdote :D

SG said...

That is hilarious. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

:) :)

kalpana solsi said...

loved Subbanan's conclusion that you girls stole the coconuts. LOL.PL. REMOVE THE WORD VERIFICATION.

Anonymous said...

Tht was superbly told.. Loved the narration Shalini

Unknown said...

Lol! That was hilarious. :P

Anita Jeyan said...

ROFL he thought you girls stole coconuts from the hostel store !! ?? :D omg this is sooo much funnn :D

Shilpa Garg said...

LOL :D That was a funny barter deal. But did the deal went through? :D

Unknown said...

Very hilarious. I am tickled.

Dentistry in Doha said...

Haha. Hostel, food and friends always make up for interesting anecdotes !
Well written !

Obsessivemom said...

Well subbannan isn't too wrong. Hostel food has known to do worse.

Pixie said...

LOL!!
That was hilarious!! :D

Anonymous said...

Talk about hostel food. The post was hilarious :) Loved it

Pink Mango Tree said...

@pratikshya - yes... we did explain what happened. Hope he believed us :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@Jairam - glad that you liked it :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@SG - thanks :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@chaipakoragupshup - more smilies :D

Pink Mango Tree said...

@kalpana solsi - hope he believed the real story which we explained later

Pink Mango Tree said...

@soumyaav - glad that you liked it. Thanks a ton..

Pink Mango Tree said...

@sheethal - thanks :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@Anita - thinking of it now... yes, fun indeed. But back then it was so embarrassing!

Pink Mango Tree said...

@shilpa - yes it did. :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@Usha - thanks :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@iihahs - thanks and I bet on that :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@obsessive mom - ask me more abt it, I can go on and on abt it.

Pink Mango Tree said...

@pixie - thanks :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

@I wrote those - thank you :)

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan said...

you gave him coconuts ??? Wow...just wow!
if i were Subbannan, I would have said the same thing :D

Pink Mango Tree said...

@Roshan - looking at such innocent faces I wonder how he even asked!! :p :p

Richa Singh said...

hehe funny you guys actually thought about the barter :D :D That was more funny than the guy's reaction :P

Richa

Pink Mango Tree said...

@richa - hostel girls... we wouldn't waste a penny even if it takes the form of a coconut. And.. anything for food :) :)

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