The water bottle

 

We went for dinner recently to a high end “Indian modern fusion” restaurant with close family. (Think Bocconcini Paniyaram, Jackfruit Dimsum and such)

The price for each dish was enough for 4 dosas & coffees at Ootupura.

“Would you like your bottled water at room temperature or cold?”, asked the well dressed waiter.

I remembered having seen the utter look of dismay on the face of a fellow diner in Ernakulam’s (now closed) Elements restaurant seeing that his water had been charged ₹150 as it was sourced from some Bhutan stream!!

“No, filtered water is fine”, I said and my cousin even coughed dramatically.

“Please make mine piping hot”, she chimed. 

But there were other Brutus’ at the table who ordered “bottled water room temperature”.

The water arrived in a beautiful glass bottle and I could feel the heaviness of the container when they placed it on the teak table.

Two of the three bottles were opened during the dinner.

After the bill was paid, the sole unopened bottle was placed with the parcelled left over food. And the two opened bottles were supposed to be left behind. 

The waiter would leave the parcels in the car when the guests swished out with just their purses and shawls. 

I was not going to leave the opened bottles behind. They looked so beautiful. And will look brilliant inside my fridge. We had paid a large sum for the water, why leave the container.

As everyone was leaving I got hold of one open bottle. The other was far away. I glared harder than my brother’s disapproving look at Chempakam Chechi. Fear of me forced her to pick up the second open bottle.

There was a buzz that I had disobeyed my husband and was bringing slight shame to others.

So I declared loudly, “These bottles are mine. No one gets to stake claim on it after it reaches home. I am the one who has shamelessly taken it from this high end place. It is mine.”

Murmurs were rife that no one needs these bottles.

On reaching home, I placed the bottles on the dining table and went to change. 

When I came back one was missing. My sister-in-law decided that she did need a glass bottle for herself. Second was being held and admired by my cousin & mom. My dad had filled water in the third to take to his bedroom.

🤣🤣🤣

#indianfamily