There exists this tiny eating joint called Tulsi in front of my workplace, which is supposed to be the Fast Food sister of a bigger and cleaner restaurant next to it called Hotel Mahableshwar. Every evening, on some vacant land next to Tulsi, my friends and I notice a bunch of middle aged men dressed fully in white, with gold chains around their necks, chewing pan, sometimes with men massaging their heads. They are the kind of people I would approach if I noticed my neighbour's house empty for a couple of months and needed some help in occupying it and claiming that the property was now mine. The owner of Tulsi and Mahableshwar sits among them, of this I'm sure, though I don't know who he his.
Now, the point of this post is to explain why my attitude towards Tulsi is identical to that towards Sanjaya Malakar. We are quite convinced that Tulsi runs only to convert the white guy's black money into white. From our experiences at Tulsi the owner doesn't seem to want any business, which could only mean more investment into the damn place. At doing this, I must admit he is quite good. When you ask him for coffee, the waiter tells you there's no milk. When you ask him for lime juice, he says there are no limes. Idli sambar is never available after 5 in the evening. Pohe is available only in the morning. His waiters are rude and arrogant and there are a million flies all around. You would think by now that this strategy of his works. But no! You're wrong! He attracts loads of people, from construction workers nearby to software professionals from neighbouring companies. Yesterday, when I saw a family in a Mercedes stop at Tulsi, I wanted to shout out loud – 'Why God Why?!! This place sucks!!! Why do so many people still bother coming here?!!'. You should not be smart to realize by now why this attitude resembles that towards Sanjaya. The guy sucked week after week, yet people voted for him and threw him back into the race. I'm not so sure any human being would like the kind of comments he received by the judges in front of millions of people. Yet, I think Sanjaya didn't mind the criticism because of the tremendous fame it was bringing him.
I just hope Tulsi finally ends up the way Sanjaya did.
5 comments:
There's a small difference, my dear. Tulsi runs because its the only CONVENIENT place for me (and everyone else) to eat at... everything else requires taking out your bike.. and with the traffic on the roads and the insane one-ways that ensure you will never get back to work without a minor Pune-darshan, I'd rather just eat what I get! Sanjaya, on the other hand, didn't have a convenient-to-vote factor attached.. atleast not that I know of!
Quality-wise though, they are identical!
Howard Stern ensured in a big way that Malakar stayed in competition :). Here is one article:
http://www.theonlinewire.com/articleView.aspx?ID=2595
Actually to convert black money into white, he'd have to show that he's getting a lot of business so that he's got a valid reason to pump more money into the restaurant, but once you start to make losses or when u dont get enough business and you still choose to pump more money into the venture, you'd stick out like a sore thumb and the Income tax dept. would be on to you in 2 mins flat......
Many eating places do run only because some hapless ppl have no other choice! I am one such victim so I know!! Lol!!
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