Why am I uncomfortable with buffet lunches or dinners?

 

Why am I uncomfortable with buffet lunches or dinners?

 

I am generally hesitant to participate when friends invite me to buffet lunches / dinners. Many reasons, I can mention. Suffice it to cite a few.

 When the dinner is connected with some celebration (birthday, marriage, congratulatory etc) the call “Dinner is Served and Ready” comes often very late. As far as the caterer is concerned, he is ready right on time, worrying about anything other than ice-cream getting cold. Never will that dinner part of the program, start on time as announced in the invitation. Worries about getting a bus or auto to go back or whom to ‘catch’ for return ‘savari’ etc start worrying you.

 In most places, special items like non-veg or sweets are kept at the starting point of the Table, where people tend to take more time to fill their plates. As a vegetarian and I am forced to wait.  

 As I am very uncomfortable in crowded places, where people tend to breath down my neck, as soon as I fill my plate, I move far away, say to the end of the hall near some wall or corner. This ensures that that I won’t trip and empty part of my plate onto others, vice versa. Moreover, I am one of those who are convinced that if you want to relish, cherish and digest what you eat there should be no disturbances or distractions. “Eat in Silence” admonishes my daughter, always. But this is not practical in such gatherings.  

 Sometimes, some friend with whom I had no contact for a long period may spot me and come over to where I am (virtually hiding) and start talking while we are eating. He will try to unfold everything that happened to him since we met last time, unmindful of the fact that I am already feeling sleepy. While talking, he will generously sprinkle saliva saturated foodstuff around making it next to impossible for me to proceed further with eating. Thankfully for me, he will have eagle eyes and super canine smelling capability to spot some fresh batch of Puris arriving at the table; he will excuse himself muttering “Let me fill my plate” and head straight to the table.

 Another reason why I get far away, is that many people will hover around near the table as if they have been appointed to guard it. You must see how greedily they fill their plates, making you doubt if they had gone on hunger strike for some days.

 There are events like marriages where lunch is served on individual tables and the affair goes on irrespective of ‘muhurtam’. One can simply walk in, eat your lunch in peace and slip out without much fanfare. Of course, marking your attendance, handing over some gift and ensuring that a photo is taken when you meet the newly married couple is a must.

 Thanks to Covid-19 such lunch or dinner invites have become a thing of the past. The purpose of including a sentence on Covid-19 is that search Engines like Google will surely index and include this article under covid, increasing discover-ability of my write up.

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