Friday Double Post-2 :Incident at The Marigold

Not more than a couple of weeks have passed since I wrote here about the newest hotel in Hyderabad- the Marigold- which itself opened not less than a month ago. Such is my luck that though it isn’t a whole month yet since The Marigold opened its doors I’ve already had the chance to be there last Friday. I haven’t had a similar chance when the Park Hyatt and Vivanta opened but with Marigold I seem to have better luck. Coming as it was just when I reached a significant milestone the chance to visit Margold was a welcome change.

Anyway, it was office work and not fate, and certainly not hunger, that took me to Marigold. Last Friday we had a top official from Delhi who booked himself at the Marigold as I later found out. Usually when people from Delhi visit Hyderabad it is one of the Government Guest Houses where they are put up. So when I learnt that this official was in Marigold I had filled with a certain nervousness for more than one reason.

It isn’t that I get nervous at the prospect of dropping in at such fancy hotels but the thing is there are certain requirements one has to fulfil before one even thinks of going to such places. First thing is that it is always better to drive to such places in a car. Secondly one doesn’t drop in at such high end hotels (even if one isn’t planning to eat there and even if it is just to look up someone) without at least a wad of currency in the wallet. Thirdly, one doesn’t simply pass through the lobby without at least wearing matching socks even if one isn’t wearing a suit. Luckily last Friday was one such day I was better dressed than usual. Actually you could have mistaken me for a corporate honcho except I wasn’t wearing a suit and a tie. So, out of three requirements I had fulfilled two- car and clothes - but I still felt nervous. The thing is, I had forgotten my wallet at home which is something that rarely happens to me.



Like any other sensible guy I too check if I’ve got my pen, my wallet, my mobile, my hanky with me every morning before I step out of the house. Last Friday though I had all the other items on my person I did not realize that I was forgetting my wallet. It was only later that I learnt that I had reached office sans wallet in the back pocket. At that time I did not know that later in the day I was destined to visit Marigold so I did not mind going through the day at the office without a paisa in my pocket. But when I was told I was to visit Marigold in the evening I became extremely nervous.

On Friday sometime around half past six I reached Marigold first in order to wait for my boss who was to come a little later. The first thing I liked about Marigold was that it was set deep inside a large compound. However, from the front it did not look like it had 181 rooms. As soon as I entered the lobby somebody dressed in black floated in my direction. It was a thin lady dressed in a black coat like thing that almost reached the ankle which seems to be the latest fashion in the top end hotels. She had a nice smile on her face, which is another thing I like about the hospitality industry: they always smile at you even if you aren’t dressed like John Travolta. I wondered if she would smile at me like that if she knew I was a temporarily penniless government guy. When I told her I had come to meet a guest she asked me which room he was staying. I had not remembered to ask my boss who it was we were supposed to meet so I waited until he came a little later. After he told me the name of the official we were supposed to meet I grew more jittery.

It so happens with these Delhi guys (officials especially) that they think just because they are in the Capital they are the cat’s whiskers. Last month I had a run in with a Delhi guy who was quite high in the pecking order. He had called me to ask for the arrangements to be made for someone who was visiting Hyderabad. If it was him who was visiting Hyderabad I would have taken care he got the right accommodation and arranged for transport but it was his son who was coming here on personal work. The son was not some school kid who had to be shown how to do things but a grown up and a surgeon to boot, and the Delhi guy was calling me up every other day to ask what arrangements I had made for his precious son’s stay at Hyderabad. We are obliged to do the expected for government officials and not their families especially when they are on personal work so with that attitude I took it rather casually. The outcome was that he was pretty riled up with me though ultimately I had made all the arrangements he wanted. I had wondered then how this guy could be in person because he was an ex-Army person and sounded pretty gruff and senior citizen-like. I did not realize I would be coming face to face with him so soon and that was what made me jittery. I hoped he wasn't the sort of ex-Army man to around with grenades in his pocket.

What followed was an elaborate affair as the lady personally herself escorted us to the lift and led us to the guest’s room and also knocked on the door on our behalf. Meanwhile my knees had started knocking. What if the guy had come to check me out?

Luckily for me the Delhi guy did not seem to realize who I was even after I asked him how his son’s stay at Hyderabad had been. He was pretty courteous and even offered us tea and cookies. Until then I was wondering where the Pan Asian restaurant was and if I could get to taste something which are the sort of thoughts one has when hungry. The tea was pretty nice and the cookies were so soft and tasty that I decided to have tea and biscuits also the next time I dropped in there for lunch or dinner. After we met the guest there took place another small drama.

When the lady had accompanied us all the way to the guest’s room I had wondered if she thought we were the sort who couldn’t find our way anywhere. I had noticed that she had operated the lift with some kind of a card. To cut a long story short after meeting the guest when we tried to get down in the lift the lift wouldn’t budge an inch. We tried pressing all the buttons and my boss got a bit panicky. I wondered if the lift would move if we put some coins inside a slot. But there was no slot. I thought of asking our guest to call the hotel staff to operate the lift. It would be a little embarrassing but there was no other solution. However, we found the guest himself standing outside his room. He told us sheepishly that he had locked himself out of his room forgetting his smart card inside. Luckily for us one of the hotel staff came to our rescue and ended this hi-tech drama.