Spice it up

Deepali Gupta, Workshop 8

I love my Dal-Chawal – a perfect mix of protein, fat and carbs for health-conscious me. No offence to the humble meal, but it can get boring after a while. I also want my occasional fried rice or biryani, so to say.

Of late, my life had become dal-chawal, 9-9 work, weekly Friday night binge-drinking, groceries on Saturday and dinne -cum-movie date with husband on Sunday.

After an excruciatingly difficult week at work, I decided to book myself into a spa resort in the northern part of India. I reached this beautiful resort spread across acres and acres of flora, fauna, and artificial waterfalls. The scenic change immediately worked to change my mood! I decided to go for a quick drink at the bar after checking into my room. 

Sitting at an almost empty bar on an afternoon in a hotel an hour away from Delhi, I had nothing better to do but observe a group of younger men sitting on a table at the far end. I could discern from the logo on their tees that they were here on a company retreat. They were almost freshers -young software engineers working at one of the topmost IT firms in India. One of them looked a bit older than the rest, perhaps their team leader or manager. He caught me looking at them.

Suddenly, the older guy looked at his watch and the rest of them got up to leave. I figured that maybe their break time was over.

Once everyone had left, the older looking guy came to the bar to settle the bill. It seemed like a personal treat from him to his team on accomplishing a target. 

We casually glanced towards each other and said “Hi”. I went back to enjoying my drink, when he came and sat next to me after settling his bill. He was carrying two drinks, one for himself and the other, a refill for me. He introduced himself. We parted ways on Monday morning, never to meet again. 

He was sev to my bhel, garam masala to my chana zor. A luscious Biryani which spiced up my weekend.

Banker-turned-Lawyer, Deepali is ‘high on life’.  An alum of SRCC, IIMC, INSEAD. Travel junkie. Connect with her on IG @Deepaliraju