The MUSA story

- Hari

It was in February 2006, when self, Vinaya and Deepa travelled to Goa for an audit assignment. We met a foreigner (Think a Russian) in the general compartment. He was fair complexioned, pale and was looking very funny with his short kurta & trousers. Infact his saffron colored kurta had some Sanskrit words & it was giving him a complete ‘third world’ look.

The audit assignment was planned for a month and we were so thrilled about the fact that the entire stay had been arranged in the Taj Exotica hotel, one of the finest luxury hotels in Asia. We kept chatting about our previous audit assignments but this man was so bored that he kept looking at us. At times, when our eyes met he smiled. In India, we are very hesitant to communicate with the strangers and when the other person does we become suspicious.

We were very hungry & waited for Arakkonam junction the first stop after Chennai central. As soon as the train stopped I rushed to a nearby shop and got 2 flavors of Lays chips. Vinaya was too good to offer her portion to this guy, but he refused. I tried convincing this guy to take some piece explaining that it was a product of Pepsi co and India has these so called hi-fi processed foods.
In a couple of minutes, we finished our portions. Deepa gestured she was still hungry. Noting this, he took his trolley bag and to our surprise he was keeping loads & loads of bananas. I made a quick count and it was more than 2 dozens. This time it is his turn to convince us to take some bananas! The funny thing was, we had to hear about goodness of bananas from a Russian national. He infact advised us to avoid these packed foods which has processed fat that increases blood cholesterol.

The next day, we reached our hotel. We were completely exhausted and thought of ordering thro room service. The waiter on the line gave some options on the milkshakes. Vinaya ordered three banana milkshakes and smiled at me!
- Hariraam