We had recently shifted cities and moved to Gurgaon. Times had been hectic and life turned upside down. Shifting is no joke in itself and last few weeks had seen an intense house hunt in this new city, negotiations with packers and movers and torturous movement of the household. To sum it up it was one of the worse few weeks. Finally, we settled down in our new abode and gradually started setting it up. One fine day amidst all this hustle, wife requests (you know what that means) to be home early and I oblige her as I am supposed to.
As I reach home, she is dressed for an apparent occasion and I am trying hard to remember the occasion that I have missed out from the calendar of things I am supposed to keep track of. Befuzzled, I enter the house and drop my bag and prepare myself for a round of “thrashings”. However, surprisingly, Gods were in generous mode and wifey asked me to get ready for an outing. Now, unaware of the purpose or reason, all I knew was to be ready decently so that am not under-dressed for a place or overdressed for it. Well, I managed to be set in another 15 minutes and still wondered what was on. I am instructed to proceed and fire up the engine of the car and proceed as asked. The navigation was taken over by wifey and I was a clueless driver dancing to her directions.
Soon we pulled into Vatika Towers, which seemed to be an office complex at the outside but there is a central area in the front courtyard where this nice restaurant has been put up. While the lawns are used for outdoor seating, there are aesthetically decorated interiors for those who prefer to avoid the humidity of a hot day. We were one of those few and apparently it was all planned out. We were ushered to our seats in a nicely cozy corner, seats which had already been reserved on the request of the “organizer”. As we settled into large sofas behind the table, we observed the carefully crafted interiors with a raw yet contemporary look.
It was a special date and we started with mocktails (of course if you have been reading the blog, you know about it), While the Virgin Mojito was great, the other turned out to be a pinkish devil. As the service started, the waiter brought a creamy tempting chocolate truffle cake, which had been ordered in advance by the “one who planned the event”. We had a nice cake cutting ritual before we pounded on the innocent cake who suffered owing to being too tasty to wait. Later we ordered the platter for starters which had a nice variety, with most of the items decent. Next, we ordered pasta for the main course which was great by any standards. The food was tasteful – both in terms of ingredients and presentation and we were full until the throat by the time it came to the ordering of desserts and we deferred the idea for then.
We asked for the check and this was when an infinite wait started. At one point in time, we wondered if they had considered us to be “valued guest” in the literal sense and were hesitant to provide a bill. After 2 reminders and over 20 minutes of wait, the check finally came in. As we left the place, all we had in mind was a lovely evening spent in a wonderful environment.
Kettle and Travel 