26th February, 2016 – Passing of a customer

One of our customer died today. He used to work night shift at one of the convenience stores at Railway Station.
He had serious drinking issues. He consumed a 90ml, which he would have taken the night before, at 7.30 am after his shift ended. Then he would consume another 90ml at 10.00 am after our bar opened. Then, a quarter before lunch and then another quarter before beginning his shift at night.
I remember a funny moment related to that guy. Once, he was too drunk and he was taking support of our walls and counter to stand up straight and walk. He stopped exactly at the entry way of our bar and began to curse and abuse silently while looking at the floor. I could get fragments of his lines such as, ‘..left back..’ and ‘..cannot stay with me..’ and few foul words spicing up these phrases.
I tried to tell him to move away from the entrance but he was too immersed in his verbal abuse. I curiously looked at the floor wondering why he was cursing and then I began to laugh loudly by myself. He had his footwear on only his left foot and he was cursing his right footwear because it remained behind. He was trying really hard to turn around and I was trying hard to stop laughing. Finally, I asked a waiter to look for his right footwear. He brought it from under the table he was sitting at.
I am glad I have a memory of him which makes me laugh. RIP.

25th February, 2016 – Downgrade

We have a customer who visits our restaurant upstairs everyday. The charges at the Restaurant are slightly higher. He has been coming to us from very long time and he has this same order everyday and so we have named him ‘Mamooli’, meaning ‘Same’.
He has One quarter of Blender’s Pride, Three King cigarette, A 7up, a Packaged drinking water and complementory peanuts. There’s always an additional 60 or 90 ml more of that whiskey. Then he orders a dish Dal Fry and a Roti. When he enters, just one word is passed from Manager to Waiter or vice versa i.e. ‘Mamooli’ and all the same order is served to him.
His bill amounted to about Rs.730. That’s huge amount to spend everyday. Neither am I comfortable to spend so much cash on drinking or anything else, even though we have good income. I can tell you for sure he doesn’t even make half of what we do.
We were always sure that if no customer turns up the whole day in our restaurant, this guy will sure shot make it. But he was absent from quite few days and we were worried. For almost two weeks we had not seen him.
Then suddenly he turned up today and his order had changed. He replaced the Blender’s Pride with Imperial Blue. This brand is cheaper compared to Blender’s Pride. His daily expense and our income has cut in half. All that is left to see is how long he is going to stick to the new brand.

I apologize to my regular readers. I was too busy to update the diary. I have made notes on the events that I have happened and will update them with their respective dates.

22nd February, 2016 – Keeping an eye

I saw the cop, who had yelled at us yesterday, riding his bike in front of our while looking towards us. I knew for sure he was coming here. I was waiting for him but I saw him enter the kitchen entrance.

I tried to warn SM, ‘The cop has gone to kitchen counter. Go check if he is not rubbing something against the manager there.’ He was busy with some one else and he was not concentrating on me. I warned him again. When I tried to tell him the third time, the cop came right in front of me and instinctively nodded my head to him said, ‘Never mind, he is here.’

The cop stopped short and laughed an annoying laugh and said, ‘What did you think I was going to do?’

I gave an embarrassing laugh and admitted, ‘You were threatening the manager yesterday, so I was just being careful.’

He laughed again and said, ‘Don’t worry. I will not do anything in absence of your Dad.’

That was a relief.

21st February, 2016 – Angry for gravy

There’s a cop who comes who is big, strong and has a good sense of humor. He is generally a bad cop but he is on good terms with us. He never pays his bills full and always take something for free before he leaves. But he stands on our side if there ever was a commotion between us and any customer.

Yesterday, he was with two of his friends and had asked for a cup of gravy from the kitchen. But the manager of the kitchen did not serve him because it was not in policy to serve just a cup of gravy. He did not complain anything about it yesterday.

Today he was very angry with the manager and was yelling at him, at our counter managers and at me too. He was using the ‘Cop’ label to get us out of our comfort zone. He said he was insulted before his friends.

If we had known, we could have asked the manager to give the gravy, but the cop never came to us. We tried to cool him but he threatened the manager that he would embarrass him someday and left.

20th February, 2016 – Threesome fight

I was doing my usual business in my bar when suddenly three men started fighting with each other. One was wearing a Grey shirt and he was fighting two men wearing Yellow T-shirt and White shirt.

Yellow and White were pushing Grey out of the passage that was beside our bar. Grey got angry and slapped White, to which Yellow replied with his own palm. But Grey retorted with a back of his hand. There were just numerous slaps and jumping around and Grey was overpowering by alternating his slaps to both of them. He was receiving his own share of blows too. Grey gave one hand to White that was so strong, White could not let go of his cheek which had turned reddish. He got even more angry gave a weak slap but Grey was too strong for both of them.

Some guy interfered and scolded the Grey to walk out. He knew he had won for now, but if he had kept it longer he would have lost it. So he left without any retort. Yellow and White followed him for sometime but came back few minutes later. I heard them speak and they wrongly believed that they had the upper hand.

We could not find out why the fight started but it had happened due to some misunderstanding while they were smoking outside our parking.

19th February, 2016 – Where are the nicest people?

A waiter was waiting for me to say that he wanted to quit his job. I asked him why. He said that he informed his parents that he is working in a bar. He had told them that he worked in a bakery. I thought I could not help him anyway so I asked him to wait until the Big Boss i.e. my Dad arrives.

SM and me had a conversation that has quite stuck in my head.

SM – People think that working in a bar is bad. They think our character is low. They even think that we might get involved in vices and some think we already are.

Me – I think people working in the bar are some of the nicest people.

SM – You are right. You should listen to my cousin’s story. He is a living proof.

Me – What about him?

SM – My cousin used to work in a bar in our city. When he was there, he did not smoke or drink. He didn’t even dare to chew a betel nut. He was very faithful to his job and very honest. He arranged Rs. 3 Lakhs for his wedding and other functions that take place. When his wife was pregnant, his mother-in-law said that he should quit that job in bar. She was too adamant about it and so he abide by her. After he left, he lost his confidence and will. He was completely engrossed in drinking. He drank every time and spent every Rupee on it.

Me – That’s horrible. It’s hard coming back now.

SM – It’s almost impossible. He had once asked me for a loan to drink. I gave him which he returned. When he asked me a second time, I refused to loan him.

If you have read some of my stories, you will know that we have genuinely tried to help a lot of people around. We can be tough or we can be smooth depending on the person before us.

 

18th January, 2016 – Late on purpose

A man was waiting for one of our regular customer, AD. He is the one who had once rubbed against me for Re. 1. The man had luggage with him and he urgently said, ‘I am going out of Station. I have to catch a bus. AD told me he was going to come here now. Has he come yet?’
I replied, ‘Not yet but it’s almost the time he usually arrives.’
I asked him to sit inside but he politely declined and stood outside waiting for him. The man waited for almost 30 minutes. When it was close to the time of his bus departure, the man left.
AD came 10 minutes later and asked about that friend. SM told him he was here waiting for him for long time. He cursed himself for being late. SM observed that there was no regret in his tone for making his friend wait. He told me that AD probably did not want to pay for his drinks and so he was purposely late.
Typical!!