Good food and much more

Churchgate has always held a special attraction for me, of all the zillion hangout areas in Mumbai.Blame this bias on the chugging local train footboard travel all the way to Churchgate with the wind ruffling my hair,the oh-so-enticing cruises to Elephanta caves that are launched form Gateway in Churchgate,feeding pigeons near the Gateway,bargaining on Fashion Street, Nariman Point with its breath-taking view of the Queen's necklace, and Flora Fountain - a reader's haven.Added recently to this list of Churchgate attractions is a small South Indian restaurant (called Shankar hotel if I remember right) that I hopped into, for lunch with my bro.

What do most restaurant owners do all day? Most that I know sit glued to the cash counter and collect bill payments all day,occasionally running a hand over their big fat pot bellies n chewing paan.The owner of the restaurant that we visited was way too different.His job began the moment a customer arrived at the door.He or the chief waiter would welcome the customer, exuding a lot of warmth (unlike the 5-star waitresses who floor you rather than welcome you in with their bewitching superficial smiles),lead him to an unoccupied table and occasionally pick up small talk with the customers too.Just as I sat myself comfortably at a table, I began murmuring to my bro - "This owner takes such pains to offer personalized services".Bro agreed but gave me a nasty look and said "Stop thinking in a products and services framework and get out of your MBA cap atleast when you're off campus".My trivial observations continued nevertheless and Iam glad they did.If all waiters happened to be busy, the owner himself would hand out menu cards to customers, often park himself at their table to make recommendations and help them place their orders.He was always seen walking around the place with menu cards in hand.He kept an eye on the door for new arrivals and saw to it that no customer had to wait longer than half a minute after arrival, before being attended to.While I was hogging some sumptous lunch, I observed another act of this owner - an act that I found totally weird but very pleasantly surprising.A group of 4 college guys arrived and there was no unoccupied table to seat them, except one which was yet to be cleaned of the mess that the previous customer had left behind.All cleaners were busy at the moment.Seeing this, the owner, without the slightest hesitation, dashed across to the table, picked up the used glasses himself instead of waiting for a busy cleaner to come by, headed straight to the sink and even started washing them!!!It's no big deal to raise a hue and cry about dignity of labour in the Indian society, point fingers and blame the system.It is however a big deal, to take individual onus like our man did and do what the moment demands one to do.It's no big deal to sit in an MBA class and study theories on how customer is the king.It is however a big deal to really crown the customer the king and make the customer really feel like one.

A few other impressive initiatives that this hero-in-my-eyes character took:
(1)Most of us use tissues left, right and centre after a lunch or a dinner.It wouldn't quite be wrong to blame this propensity of indiscriminate use of tissues, on the copious supply of tissues available from the tissue holder placed at the centre of every table.Our man who seemed to have embodied the 'Use less paper, don't cut trees' campaign.had no tissue holders placed on any of the tables.Instead, ONE tissue was provided per plate at the beginning of the meal. Extra tissues were available only on special demand.It was a smart move aimed at both cost cutting and saving trees.

(2)The owner had a great sense of social responsibility.He would visit each table when the customer was about to finish a meal and check what was wasted.He would then push the customer to finish off what was left.For instance, seeing the remaining curry on my plate at the end of our lunch, he said "I shall allow you to order HALF a plate of fried rice but please do order roti/fried rice and finish off the curry.I shall receive my money anyways but it's a national waste if you dont finish it"! Cheers to this member of a rare species of citizens who have a great sense of social responsibility!

Quote for the day: With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.