Fast Food

We had accidentally spent the entire day at the doctor's. I had imagined it would be an hour long affair once I got the appointment, or two. But, the tests involved, waiting for results, chatting up with fellow patients, sitting in large waiting rooms, took up our entire day. We had left soon after breakfast, hoping to cook lunch after getting back from the doctor's. But we left in such a hurry, the vegetables lay half chopped on the board, peels all astray. The day was slightly tiring, we ate lunch at the doctor's canteen. It was our first eat out in a long time. 

On the way back home, it was almost evening, right beside the canal that leads us home, I saw the neon lights come alight on the sign board of a tiny fast food shop. As we crossed it, I saw the pictures of momos, brightly colored. Usually a fast food shop had its kitchen out front and the dining at the back. We stopped and I walked out and asked the cook who had just started the kitchen fires, if they had momos. They didn't. I could get an egg roll though, if I waited. I was not as hungry as I was bored. I somehow wanted to delay getting back home and went into the dining area and waited alone on a table after placing my order for an egg roll to be taken away.

The kitchen was a smokey hot place. But the dining area was cooler, it had about half a dozen tables adjacent to the walls and a couple in the middle. I sat in a corner. The walls were tiled white, some paintings were hung. They had tried to give the place some kind of touch. I kept looking at my phone and then at the clock hung at the wall, matching the time. The cook, still visible from where I was seated was just beginning to assemble stuff. 

Meanwhile a woman walked in with her two kids. A boy and a little girl. She parked her scooter next to the canal and held hands of both her children as they crossed the road to the fast food shop. They looked quite happy, the little girl with curly hair was almost bubbly. I think food of choice makes kids happy. The older kid was slightly aloof though, he appeared geeky with spectacles. The mother looked tired, she was a bit more on the stoical side, but constantly monitored her children. The father was amiss, I thought. But it was a weekday, he could have been at work. Their soups came really soon and they playfully slurped from their spoons. Then came bowls of chowmein. The guy at the counter signalled that my rolls were packed. I left immediately thinking of my half chopped vegetables on the kitchen counter.

On the short drive home my head went back to my days as a kid. School buses made me nauseous. The smoke, the heat, the sweat, everything added up against me. Plus there was a big rush for seats and not everyone ended up with one. On somedays I would be picked up from school by my parents. It was an extremely joyous occasion to find a familiar face outside school gates. We had just moved into the city and everything felt foreign and too aggressive for my mellow mind. I barely had any friends and the classroom made me homesick. I found the teachers to be somewhat rude. So I ended up wanting to stay home or go to the park. We always went to the park on Sunday afternoons. When we were there, I wanted to build a house in the lawn and live amongst the flowers. But the park was far from my school. As we rode back from school to home, we would stop at a fast food shop. It was a shack next to the road and the farmer's market. It barely had a roof, the tables and chairs were set on the sidewalk and people shopping at the farmer's market would often stop by. 

My family would occupy a table. Sauce bottles, mostly tomato and gree chilli sat on the table beside a plastic jug of water and a few glasses. We were not supposed to drink that water no matter how hot a chilli we bit into. It could be a health hazard. Instead whatever remained in our school water bottles would have to do. I wasn't fond of any kind of meat as a kid and would often have to be cajoled really well before I touched it. Instead I loved eggs. I would order soup and egg chowmein and egg rolls. Oh it was such a feast!

I wondered if the egg roll I had parceled that day could match the taste of the rolls I had relished as a kid. In fact, could ever anything.