Samosa Chat - A humbling Experience

This incident happened sometime back around Diwali 2006...

I love samosa chat, particularly at Krishnasagar (near Divya Shree chambers opposite to Karnataka State Hockey Stadium near Nanjappa circle near... thats it if you want to know the exact address call me :) near my office. I have had around 100+ plates of samosa chat in about an years time. That explains all the extra weight I have put on. The guy who prepares the chat over there became to me. As soon as I enter the restaurant that guy used to greet me with a warm smile and just on a nod from me he would understand I was there for chat. Even before I could get the coupon for chat from the counter he would start preparing the samosa chat and customize it for me with extra curd and with no onions. I have treated few of my friends on numerous occasions there...with a samosa chat :)

I park my bike across the road opposite to the restaurant. From there you get a very good view of the hockey stadium. I would stand there watching practice matches, sometimes the real inter-club matches and sometimes even stood there just to watch the sprinklers watering the turf. On a couple of occasions I had noticed one interesting bike there - it looked like a standard bullet 350 modified as a retro looking bike. Thought the design looked like the ones in '80s with separate seats for the rider and the pillion rider, a vertical number plate on the front wheels mud-gaurd etc, I was sure it was a new bike modified for retro looks. It beared the vehicle registration number starting with KA-0... series. In '80s the numbers used to be CAT, CAE CAS etc. I even know some of my friends who bought an old shogun just for the fancy registration numbers! So, I always wondered the bike owner must be a stud with a lot of style. The third time I spotted the bike there, I also found the owner of the bike beside it. He was a mid 40's guy with a shining silver tooth! I started a conversation and he mentioned that the bike was a '99 model standard bullet and he had spent around 40k for modifying it (to look like 2 decade old bike!). Naturally my curiosity aroused about the guy particularly what he does for living if at 45+ age he was spending so much money in modifying a bike. He introduced himself as the co-owner of Krishnasagar! I spoke casually for a while and did mention that I was a regular customer there. From a distance, I even pointed at the guy who prepares the samosa chat and praised him for his skills. After a week or so I visited Krishnasagar again for obvious reasons. The guy at the chat counter greeted with his usual warm smile. And when I went to him to collect my order, he told me something which has made this entire krishnasagar episode very humbling experience for me. The contrat agreement of this guy with the restaurant was supposed to get terminated that month. But because I had spoken to the owner (the bike guy) appreciating his (the chat guy's) skills, the owner had offered him to renew the contract! After 1 and a half years since then, even now I visit Krishnasagar for the same obvious reasons. The guy at the chat counter still works there and he still greets me with the same warm smile and I have not seen that retro-bike much after that...