Friday Double Post- Three Things (2nd Post)

Eating Out at Rotti Shoti

Finally I got to eat at the funnily named restaurant that I had seen a couple of months ago and where I had promised I would have dinner sometime in December. However I couldn’t make it to the place in December but sometime last week I went there with family for dinner on a special occasion. Rotti Shoti is in Sindhi Colony on the road that connects Paradise Restaurant to Minister’s Road. There isn’t much parking space there though I could see parking attendants hovering before the entrance like the place gets several cars.

The burly doorman gave me a stiff salute and opened the door. Though I couldn’t see any cars parked outside I was surprised to see the place filled with people. There was the usual noise of people talking loudly and the clatter of plates. Within seconds of sitting at the table menus appeared before us. Not feeling very adventurous we ordered ordinary fare. Though on the menu it said that it would take a minimum of twenty minutes for the orders to be served, not more than ten minutes passed before we had food on the table. Then the staff were quite attentive taking turns to come to our table to serve the food, fill the glasses without giving us an opportunity to draw their attention. The service gets my full marks.

Since I am not qualified enough to write about how the food we ordered was prepared and what ingredients went in, I am not elaborating though I can tell that the food was tasty. The ending was a disappointment since we couldn’t get the dessert we wanted. But the biggest surprise was that the bill did not amount to much since every thing was priced quite modestly. On the basis of the rates and the taste alone the place gets my approval. So, the khaana-waana at Rotti Shoti was fine and the bill-vill too was easy on the pocket.

Missing My Mont Blanc
There’s a certain kind of anxiety parents feel when they send their kids to a strange place for a long time. I am feeling the same kind of anxiety ever since I sent out my Meisterstück for repairs to faraway Rajkot. Its been a little more than a week and I’m missing my fountain pen like anything. I long for it to be back in my hands so that I can finish revising my first novel. I had put off the revisions under the excuse I don’t have my Meisterstück in my hands while revising it.

Sometime a couple of days ago I got a call from the Mont Blanc service center in Rajkot. The lady who spoke in a fancy accent told me that the repairs would cost me exactly three thousand four hundred and ninety rupees. When one uses such luxury accessories (purchased or gifted) one must be prepared for some costly maintenance so I simply agreed to the repairs even though it would leave a big hole in my wallet which already has a big Income Tax hole. After she also told me that I would get the pen back in a week I felt a little better. I have to wait for a few days more for my Meisterstück to be back in my hands.

The new Oxford Bookstore at the Park
One of the many reasons why I don’t actually look forward to going to book readings at fancy hotels like the Grand Kakatiya and the sort is I feel out of place there. Another reason is that the staff at the entrance don’t appear too happy welcoming people who visit the hotel on two wheelers. Their attitude towards those coming on motorbikes is akin to that of city slickers’ towards relatives coming on bullock carts. If you notice (unless you don’t own a motorbike) the parking place for two wheelers is somewhere at the back of such hotel out of sight of everyone. It is like the hotel staff is afraid that other guests who have driven there in their fancy cars would get upset sharing the hotel space with those coming on a two wheeler even if it is a Harley Davidson.

Yesterday evening I went (on my bike, naturally) to Hyderabad’s newest hotel- the Park at Somajiguda for a book reading of Akhil Sharma’s ‘An Obedient Father’ at the Oxford bookstore in the hotel. I was quite surprised to see how big and hip Oxford at the Park was. It had an attractive if unusual design in the trademark red and white décor. I was taken in by the nice, comfortable seats arranged all over the store for people to sit and browse. There were large, round, white coin like structures hanging from the ceiling giving it a strange feel. It was an unusual bookstore that I liked instantly. However I did not have the time to check out the café there and other knickknacks because the book reading had already started by the time I reached. It turned out to be quite an interesting book reading by Akhil Sharma about which I plan to write in another post later in the week.