Not adhering to the norms of eating out with a set group or at a set time, I often end up in the cafeteria with my lunch and exchange of pleasantries with unknown or little known people. Some tiring days are the ones when one doesn’t want to be pushed into a forced conversation and here is when I prefer indulging deep into my savouries and blankness.
“Hey, whom do you eat lunch with? Why don’t you join us on lunch from tomorrow. Our team is the largest on the floor and the amount of noise we make you would know when we go for lunch” offered a co-worker. “Sure I will definitely join you if we are eating at the same time” I replied in an attempt to be polite to an absolutely unconvincing offer.
“You can always give me a call when you want to shop the next time. I would love to accompany you.” Said a relative I accidentally bumped into on my shopping spree. “I’m sure you would not have the patience “I tried being witty. But the truth is that for the shopping me who finds post purchase confusion irritating and knowing all options is essential before taking out a shilling , shopping alone saves the trouble of feeling guilty in making the other person walk miles for that one pair of plain Jane jeans .
And then the final straw to the two day events. A lovely rainy day was a perfect time to de-stress by walking down the widest road of the city inhaling the breeze deep inside to every part of me. This indulgence could not be complete without biting into mayonnaise filled Mc veggie and oodles of fizz. Sitting on the glass pane staring at the rain gulping those extra calories I was in the perfect me time mood when it happened!
My phone buzzed “where are you “questioned a close one.” Enjoying a good day “, I replied excited. “Aha with whom?” said the teasing tone ”No-one “ and alas came the reaction , “ I was free tomorrow , we could go out tomorrow.” and it went on with the person finding it pitiful to not have the companionship of dual mastication.
Suddenly I realized that everybody passing through the glass pane stared right at my face. The person sitting next to me stared with curiosity…And here I got to thinking .
Why a person on his own especially when eating out considered a strange phenomenon. Is it that people see him as a friendless looser or is it that they can’t understand the independent associated with it? Why is it that my mother always said, “I really wanted to eat that but then I was alone; may be sometime we’ll go “.
And then I remembered, Was that exactly not how I viewed things few years back. Like many others I also took support of digging into books, television, dialing random people to keep talking on phone when manducating alone was first affected on me. They were all ways to put the friendless loser stigma associated with eating alone to rest, I realize today.
Today when it’s neither important nor necessary, I enjoy the living urge to eat out alone. And believe me my friends who still shy away, it is indeed a liberation and independence when you start looking straight and enjoy your meal outside on your own without any book, friend or mobile.
