An Unexpected Snack:
An Unexpected Snack:
Journey of Hunger and Adaptation
The first day in a new place can be quite challenging. You wake up and head out to explore the streets, but the uneven pavements make it difficult to walk without tripping. As you wander around, you come across a corner store that looks nothing like what you’ve seen recently. You step inside and notice buns, rotis, and hot snacks on display. A worker serves them with his bare hands. It’s still early morning, but you’re already hot and flustered with the heat.
As you stand there, men rally around the counter, ordering their snacks. You observe them closely, wanting to fit in with the culture. It’s like those painful times when you were young, all the boys were into something, and you didn’t know whether you could join in.
Over the years, you’ve learned the art of fitting in and adjusting. But this is so different. Most of the time, you can work it out and try to avoid being the focus of attention. But it’s hard. When you feel alien, it’s easy to retreat and disappear. But you’re hungry and want a snack, even if the waiter doesn’t wear gloves when serving it. You think of the brown sweet buns you ate as a schoolboy back in the day. You’re desperately hungry. It’s now a survival tactic.
You feel foreign after arriving in your old country. You wonder how you survived as a schoolboy. Now, you don’t know what to do. How to ask? How to pay in cash, something that you’re not used to for years. You feel shy and out of place. You’re so far off the deep end, and you have to move. You have to do something. You’re hungry.
So, you muster the courage to ask the waiter for a bun. The waiter writes a chit for eighty rupees and passes it to you, pointing you to a cashier enmeshed in another counter. You scramble for Rupee notes in your pocket and give the cashier a hundred Rupee note. He hands back the balance, a twenty Rupee note, and stamps the receipt. You surrender the receipt back to the waiter, and he hands over the bun in a paper bag.
The waiter is grinning. Is he grinning at you? Or is he just happy to see a customer satisfied? Either way, you’re grateful for the snack and the experience.
You smile at the waiter and say thanks, then hurry outside and bite into the bun.
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