Note: All characters and venues are totally fictional; any semblance to real persons or places is merely coincidental.
Synopsis:Sheila and Munni go to dinner
Munni's LIA - Episode 4
Sheila and Munni go to Dinner
As they walked back to the car, Sheila said "well…the freeway will be full of cars now….let us go somewhere nearby and celebrate our meeting, shall we ?". Even though it was close to 7 PM, there was still daylight. At the car, Sheila opened the trunk and laid her jacket and the bag with the sweater in and shut it. She then opened the back door and put her bag on the seat and looked at him and said:"shall we ?". MGR didn't know if all these "shall we's" needed any responses from him. This time he said "umm…ok" and wondered what would be some equivalent pattern in Telugu, Hindi or Tamil. They both got in the car, and she drove to a restaurant that was about 10 minutes drive away. It had a slanting red slate roof. There was a roast cheesy aroma wafting out from the restaurant. There was a A-1 Hardware, a Snyder's Drug, and the restaurant, Trattoria Torino. The car park seemed common for all the businesses. Much later MGR would learn that such things are called "strip malls". Behind the restaurant there was a large hotel, also within the mall. Sheila parked the car, they both got out, she took her bag from the back, shouldered it and as MGR came around the car, she tapped his elbow and said "come". He went. There was just too much distraction, lights and scenes for him to take in anything in any detail. When they entered the restaurant, he didn't quite understand what his companion said to the two girls in the foyer and what they said to his cousin. One of these greeter girls took them to a table. The restaurant was mostly full already. Sheila pointed to a chair for him and as he sat, asked him,"do you like it ?". And before he could grasp what she said, she sat down and added,"you hungry ?"
He said "yes..yes.. " He resolved to pay attention to his cousin's face and see if he could catch more of what she says…instead of dreaming off looking elsewhere. They were sitting more or less side by side, with their backs to the wall and with full view of the dining room and the pizza oven on the very far wall.
"Can you help me drink some wine ?" she asked, and then immediately noticed his confusion and rephrased it "Can you drink wine ?"
"yes..wine is ok", he said. He had't made any promises to his mom, like Mohandas Gandhi had done.
"OK, then..." she said, taking the drink menu in her hand.
"Do you know about Napa valley?"
"..No"
"It is not far from here; I will take you there some weekend….they make some good wines…..let us drink one of those….ok?"
"yes..yes..sure", MGR guessed this Napa valley must be like Coorg or Kashmir.
Sitting in a restaurant with a girl and talking about drinking wine were all way way beyond the realm of what MGR had done in his life. A waitress came with glasses of water and the menus and said in their general direction," Hi….I am Jeanine…your waitress for this evening…have you guys been here before ?" and then turned and looked at him. MGR wondered if he had to answer that; but then Sheila came in with "..No ..this is our first time…we would like to order a bottle of this.." pointing to a wine she had selected and went on "… and then you can tell us more about the food…". After that, the waitress ignored MGR and went to Sheila with"…yes..we have a menu here …with all items in smaller portions so that you can order a variety of larger number of items….", and pointing to the stack of smaller round plates in the middle of the table," ..and share them ". Sheila said,"…oh…. that is nice…and I have just the guy here who's been looking for some variety….." and tapped Reddy's hand that was resting next to the water glass. The waitress giggled. Reddy didn't know what that was about. Sheila continued to the waitress,"…what would you recommend ?". Jeanine went on to say that pizzas are very authentic and their seafood is fresh. When the waitress turned around and left them to fetch the wine, she told MGR, " I ordered a Beringer… from napa valley….you will like it". He was puzzled by this….and looked every bit of it; but then Sheila had already opened the food menu and began looking at the choices. Reddy looked around. It was an italian restaurant with a large clay oven at one end. He could see a guy taking the pizzas out of the oven. Pizza is something he had eaten in India. He wondered if this pizza restaurant made as good a pizza.
The waitress returned with two very large wine glasses and a bottle of wine. The huge bulbs of the glasses looked like they could hold half a liter. She showed the label to Sheila, unscrewed the cork and handed it to Sheila. Then she poured a small amount in the glass that was in front of Sheila. As Reddy watched, Sheila took the glass by the stem, smelled it, twirled the glass and smelled it again; then she took a very dainty sip, raised her chin to the waitress and said," yes..it is fine…". The waitress poured wine into both glasses and set the wine bottle on the table. MGR noticed that the amount the waitress poured was very little in that huge wine glass. Sheila told the waitress to come back in a few minutes. The waitress said,"I will get you some bread now" and walked off. MGR wondered if he ought to ask her anything about what she did with the wine. Then decided not.
"OK.", said Sheila looking at MGR,"..let us drink" and raised her glass by the stem.
Reddy raised his and Sheila leaned towards him with her glass and touched his wine glass and said "to cousins.." and took a sip.
As Reddy took a sip of his wine, Sheila asked him,"…so…tell me…did you leave your girlfriend at home in India ?".
It was a miracle that his wine didn't go down the wrong pipe. This turn of conversation was a complete surprise and it startled him. It was a huge wine glass with only a little wine that the waitress had poured; so he was saved from a spill. He wanted to say he does not have one,… a girlfriend; but then something moved him to say, "..yes..yes….I had to" and added a vehement affirmative head-roll to emphasize. The head-roll may have been subliminally induced, because he did not want to be that emphatic about leaving "her" behind, as if he was thrilled about it. No way he could take that head-roll back.
She raised her eyebrows as if she didn't expect that answer; however, she pressed forward with glee:"….ok…Moonagala….give us more"
"ha'nh ?"
"Oh…I am sorry…. tell me more about her…", she said, smiling and taking another sip of the wine.
Now Reddy was in a fix. He didn't know what to say. As he was trying to run through his acquaintances from Chennai for a possible girlfriend-able one, she noticed his nervousness and said, "…ok…first look at the menu now ….and after you decide on something….. then tell me only those things that she let you say about her…….ok ?" and she winked at him. He was glad for that reprieve and took a sip of his wine.
The waitress came back with white towel wrapped bread in a small basket.
Sheila ordered the pizza he had chosen, a pizza margherita, a caesar's salad and capelli d'angelo with mussels. She retained a menu so that she can choose more dishes later. As Sheila was ordering the items, Reddy thought the inquisition about his girlfriend was over; but then,
after the waitress left with the order, she came back with, " ….so what does she look like …and ...what does she do in chennai ?"
Now, a lot better composed, he answered:
"….she is studying in college"
"….come now…you can do better than that …"
" …she is a very nice girl…"
" you like her a lot ?"
" ….yes…"
"beautiful ?"
"……..mmm……no…but.."
" NO ? she is not beautiful ? what are you talking about ?"
"….well….she is not ugly but not beautiful…just a girl…good girl", said Reddy.
"…you are in love…aren't you ?", said Sheila and put her hand left hand over his right and held it on the table.
She raised her wine glass and said to Reddy," go on… raise your glass", and continued, "…..to plain girls….and guys who are in love with them".
Reddy was flushed; he was sure everyone was looking at them. He looked around at the next table to see if anyone is looking. No one seemed to be. Then he lifted the glass with his free hand took a sip from his glass. Sheila let go of his hand.
"She thinks she is plain…but I think she is beautiful…", even as Reddy expounded thusly, he was not quite certain who he was talking about; he was glad that he doesn't have to produce that exhibit A for his cousin to see and appreciate.
" ….cousin", Sheila said," That is very deep and really really sweet of you". Reddy noticed she didn't called him Moonagala.
"…..you are a beautiful girl…" said Reddy somewhat less hesitantly than he was capable of.
"…..you called me a girl….", smiled Sheila,"….here …have more wine". She picked up the bottle and added more wine to his glass.
Reddy was quite pleased that he was able to say that to a girl, he had only met a few hours ago, even though she is only an older cousin. He couldn't have done that in Chennai to anyone.…relative or not, not even in Hindi, with so many acceptable phrases -- that don't sound corny --from the movies.
Jeanine came back with the pizza and salad. It was evident what she had said about small portions. The pizza was about an 8" circle and cut into six pieces, the salad was in a single not too large a bowl with a pair of tongs on top. She placed the food items and two ceramic tumblers, one with forks and another with knives on the table and said,"I'll be back with the cheese and pepper ". Sheila took a couple of small plates and used the tongs in the salad bowl to arrange the salad. Sheila did arrange the salad as if she was making a flower arrangement with green, red, yellow and black of the salad mix. When Jeanine came back, looked at the salad plates, and exclaimed,"….cool", Reddy somehow felt pleased. Sheila had to say "…when" to stop Jeanine from over flooding Reddy's salad with grated parmesan cheese and ground peppers. Reddy took a another small plate and served himself a segment of pizza.
The stark brown and white colors on the pizza suddenly reminded him of that plain girl he was in love with. Now that he had a plausible candidate, he was happy that if Sheila were to ask any more questions, he'd be able to answer without feeling guilty of spinning a yarn. He took a bite of the sharp end of the pizza wedge, as Sheila watched him. The crust was thin and the cheese was hot. He put the wedge back down in the plate and took a quick sip of water. "..you have cheese….over there", Sheila tapped herself in the corner of her mouth. He wiped his mouth with the napkin while thinking when he had anything to eat that day. He had breakfasted at 11 in the morning on a pita bread and some left over subji from two days ago. At the apartment the boys cooked a sort of community-stew-subji in a large pot and mostly ate the flat bread they got from the local grocery store.
Sheila started on her salad with her fork. She had taken a slice of bread from the white towel and bit into a corner. Reddy went back to his pizza wedge, this time taking a more careful smaller bite. Sheila asked," how is the pizza ?"
"..thin and crusty", he answered.
" that is like the italian pizza, american pizza is usually large, thicker and more chewy and then there is also deep dish pizza", she explained.
"….I think in India we have american pizza….but with more vegetables on top..", he said. Pizza Margherita had just basil leaves on it.
"….do you go to pizza restaurant a lot in India ?" she asked.
"….some times…but often…we also have it delivered"
" …you go with college or work buddies ?" she said smiling and took a few more salad pieces in her fork
Reddy was on his second wedge of pizza and went "yes..yes.. very frequently when in college, especially after playing ".
"did you play sports in college ?"
"…oh..yes", Reddy really warmed up to this now; he took a sip of wine and added,"I was on the basketball team; but we were really bad"
" really ?….you played in college ? what position did you play ?"
" …because I was a little taller than others…I rebounded a lot in defense and posted at the zone in the offense", he was happy to be explaining this to her.
"….yes.....a center....you are tall..aren't you ?", she agreed and ate some more salad and took a sip of her wine.
"did you win any championships or trophies?"
"…no …", Reddy was embarrassed,"…we were not that good…but we played very hard…and once in a while won a match"
"…I do say this again….cousin", she said, "….you are a nice guy……...you love a plain girl and you don't fib"
"ha'nh?" said Reddy,"what is fib?"
"…a fib is false information and boasting….that is what a fib is", she explained, and fixed his eyes in an earnest look.
Reddy blushed and wanted to get busier with food and hide it. Pizza pieces had made Reddy somewhat more hungry. He took a fork from the ceramic tumbler and ate some salad as well. And two more wedges of pizza. And more wine.
As he was busy with this, Sheila came back with, "….is your girl friend also tall ?"
Reddy was amused that she was back on the girlfriend topic; that was like the vampire(zombie?) going back up the murunga tree. He wondered if he ought to explain to his cousin about the King Vikramaditya and his predicament from those famous stories he had read from cartoon books. But then, decided to skip that and go with the girl friend he had already identified.
"…no…no..she is just as tall as you are…may be a little taller, because she always wears flat sandals and not shoes like you"
Sheila was impressed with this much detail as well as notice of her shoes. She now felt her companion was at ease with the dinner, her company and especially the friendly inquisition. She also continued with eating the salad and drinking her first pour of the wine at the same time. She took a wedge of pizza took a small bite of it and placed the rest on a plate.
" ….so where did you guys meet ?",she took it further.
"…she used to go to college by bus from a bus stand near our house, and one day I was there at the same time….so we met"
" ….just like that ?…. just like it is like in a movie ?", Sheila quizzed.
Jeanine made an appearance at the table with the pasta bowl with a couple of spoons in it, and a,"how are you guys doing ?" and picked up the wine bottle and poured some into Sheila's glass and into Reddy's empty glass. Sheila moved the last piece of pizza onto a smaller plate, pushed the plate to Reddy, so the waitress could take away the pizza dish and the empty salad dish. Sheila divided the pasta and the mussels into two smaller plates and said," …eat this before it gets colder….pasta is usually al-dente, and thinner, colder pasta will turn to be even more al-dente than you want". The details did not quite get through to Reddy, but he understood that Sheila wants him to eat that before anything else. Reddy watched her twist the pasta onto the spoon and make it into a tiny bird's nest before she forked the nest into her mouth.
After a forkful in the mouth, she chewed and said,"very nice". Then Reddy watched her take a cracked mussel shell get the meat out with a fork and eat it. There were also speckles of coriander or parsley on the pasta. He ate a few mouthfuls, some mussels and drank more wine. The meal was going well. Sheila looked into the menu again, and noted a few more items. Jeanine came back with a bowl," …this is for your shells ". Sheila said,"thanks…we'd like a couple of more things..", and pointing to the items in the menu," the asparagus…and…this salmon and…and…yes..this scallops ". The waitress took the order and cleared the empties off the table and left.
Sheila turned to Reddy and asked,"how is the wine?"
Reddy went,"…very good…nice".
" Can I ask you something……….how does a guy meet a girl in a bus stand "
Reddy didn't understand this at all. He said, "…when we are both waiting for the bus…." in somewhat of a tentative suggestion.
"mmmm….do you just go up to her and say…..hey plain girl….I am a nice guy….can I be your friend…or something like that ?"
"….no..no..no…not like that … not suddenly…..It was slow. I first saw her one day and she was standing there, very shy, looking at ground, carrying book bag and such… when there is a bus noise she'll look…then back to looking down. Many young guys also will come to bus stand and bother the girls there. "
This time Sheila lost the scene. She summarized,"….so there are many girls …and many guys and some guys are nice and others are annoying the girls….yes ?". She was rolling another bird's nest on her spoon, even while looking at his face. He had given up on the spoon rolling, but was looking down, trying to roll one right off the plate with his fork, but still continued with the story.
"yes..yes…that is how it was..very crowded and everybody will rush to bus when it comes…. and some guys will get behind the girls and press them in"
"…yes.. I see..", Sheila realized that it is a case of public transport molesting of females.
"yes.. one day I decided to help this girl by being behind her when the bus came and stopping the other guys so that she can get in without someone pressing her from the back"
"….just like posting up on the offensive board, eh ?"
Reddy smiled ear to ear with such happiness that pieces of pasta fell off from inside his mouth: "…yes..yes…exactly how I did it. I went behind her one day and posted myself between her and the other guys on the first step of the bus and pushed them back until she went in comfortably without anyone pushing".
" Very funny…" Sheila laughed and nudged him with her elbow… She could imagine Reddy, tall and skinny as he was, arching his back and sticking his butt at the face of some young lout outside the bus who was trying to touch Reddy's plain girl.
"…one day she noticed my help…..and said thank you …. then we talked to each other quietly at the bus stand every day .."
"wow", said Sheila, " then you asked her out ?"
"…no ..no…no…nothing like that " answered Reddy and noticed that Sheila had pried out the meat from all her shells and moved the empties to the waste bowl; he decided to follow her example, so that he too can roll bird's nests with pieces of mussel meat within the nest.
"….so y'all took your sweet time, ha'nh?", even as she said this, she expected Reddy to go "ha'nh?", and he did.
" so , finally when did you ask her out ?" she asked.
"no..no..nothing like that ….I never ask her out", Reddy used her phrase, although not quite sure of what it meant.
"I'd be damned….but YOU LOVE HER !!" exclaimed Sheila as she rolled her eyes.
Jeanine was too close now with the fish and asparagus they had ordered, and must have heard Sheila's mock outburst. As Reddy looked up at Jeanine, obviously somewhat embarrassed, Jeanine coo'd "….here we are", and placed the dishes on the table, and tilted the wine bottle to see the level. Reddy thought the waitress was smirking and trying her best not to laugh.
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