Food Cures Depression At Carnival

Should be an afternoon time in April. I was roaming around in C P Ramaswamy Road, searching for a particular company. It has been a month since I stepped out of the previous office. I had to quit the place due to some differences between me and the management. I thought there would be aplenty of jobs awaiting, but the vice versa. It would be a month since I had left the job and the companies I went for interview, never gave me an opportunity for some reason or the other. Then one day I identified, there is something wrong with my approach. Some of my friends a new CV, while some asked me to go for a higher studies. But after all these, there weren't any companies left out to ask for a job. One fine day, I walked into an office and dropped my resume. The front office managers never ever bothered to look at me. They simply said, "No vacancies. You may leave."

Frustrated, agitated and a feeling of low self esteem was haunting me that day and it was lunch time. When I looked around there were hardly any restaurants near Juice World. I was sauntering for some distance in the same road and found out a place Carnival. Looking from the outside, it looked like a bakery. I thought a Puff with a Cake would do.

But when I stepped in, there were tables serving proper food. So I can have a proper meal. Looking at the menu, I first ordered for a Cream of Tomato Soup and then an Egg Biryani followed by a Black Forest Cake to be had at the end.

The waiter said, "10 minutes sir. You would get your soup." Then he gave a warm smile.

Adjacent to my table was a rectangular photo frame which had a picture of How Indians were using the Ambassador car and the different dialects in which it was called. One clip art had it like a marriage band wagon, another one like a vehicle to transport your home furniture and the interestingly like a race car. 10 minutes went on like so fast and the soup had reached my table. While the colour of the soup looked pale with more cream, the hot gulp gave a therapeutic feel. Then in no time, I finished the soup and after sometime there came the Egg Biryani.

Unlike other restaurants, Carnival serves two eggs, which is a rare site nowadays. Many have confined themselves with one and some with an even more stringent half. More than that the egg quality was much better. The egg yolk had more yellow colour than the predominant black in most of the places, which means the restaurant is making use of fresh eggs.

Like the soup I never felt how the Biryani went off and it overall never looked heavy. The restaurant has a very good ambiance with temperatures that would comfort everyone and a decent seating arrangement. In many places we see chairs the tables nearby clashing each other. But here all are free to move anytime and anywhere possible.

Now it is the time for Desert. While I was expecting something from the display racks, the waiter had brought it from inside. It simply looked like a slice of a freshly made cake. I asked him, "I thought you would get it from there."

"You're lucky today sir. One who ordered for a two kg cake has cancelled it. So we are making slice to serve. You get the first slice," he said with a smile.

I wish I was lucky enough to get a job. Anyway, my luck was to get a slice of fresh cake.

All over and I turned up searching for hand wash. Before I could ask, the waiter came up with a finger bowl.

Looking at the bill, all these came for less than 500, which is not too expensive and not too cheaper. But in a range that one can afford. More than all, I forgot what happened earlier the day and stepped out with fresh energy. Getting a job is in my hands now.