My colleagues in Atlanta were in for
a shock when they met an Indian who flew all the way from Switzerland to work
in United States (Me!!).
It was a dream restaurant to work
for….. Stunning view of the city’s sky
line, white glove service with suffocating sophistication, Faberge plates, never ending tasting menus, caviar, cheese trolley, a team of sommeliers and a gorgeous lady playing the harp …. We all had fixed days to give her a hand
while she climbed down from a golden spiral ladder..… She would take our song
requests and learn to play them…and when she did, it was a moment….I guess we
all secretly loved her……
It was ‘The place’ to propose and
fall in love,
But the most satisfying part of my job was to
hear the elevator speak “
going down…..” we did this several times a day just to hear the husky elevator
voice say that! I never got to meet her though…
I soon learnt that getting high at
work is so much fun! Polishing expensive silver when you are high on flavoured
vodka at 4 pm is so divine… ( you could try this at home) 6 flavours for every day of the week (we were closed Sundays)- lemon,
lime, cherry, peach, green pepper corn & Russian tea with orange…. Our house specialties which we made every single night! I think
we guys even invented ‘Cherry Coke’.
Coming to work was like getting a
season’s pass for the Jerry Springer show! (that’s another show you must watch
!! ). You enter the 21st floor and you were greeted by Vivian, a 65
year old virgin who would tell you her sob story of how her brand new 15 year
old car wouldn’t start……… Every Day !!
You somehow escape her and would
meet my best man, Dino, creating his special drink of the day for all of us….and for the grand finale, you
always got to watch the French sommelier fighting over his newly acquired boy
toy with another aspirant from the team… I better not name these men!
For some reason, The Chef de Cuisine
had nick named me ‘Jihaad’. As per him, there were only two nominations for the
title crown of ‘easiest job in this world’. First was to be post man, all you got
to do is put the right envelope to the right address. And the second was to be
a waiter!! You just got to pick up the plate and keep it on the table, how
difficult is that !!
And if you can’t even do that right,
you should commit suicide!
A bottle of champagne in, and you
would hear him speak this over & over again…………
We also had a 70 year old janitor
from Mexico who had been doing the same job for 50 years! A rich experience of listening
to people’s fart, poop and burp for 30 long years… Just before the service began, he
would come & ask every day, ‘ how many guests tonight?’….I still don’t know
why did so! Perhaps he needed more tissues to roll, stack up toilet paper…. I
guess, he had busy nights too….
A Dutch Maître d, a French sommelier,
a German chef, a bunch of American waiters and Me! On the 21st floor of this fine
hotel, you couldn’t ask for more……..
P.s. This was, ‘work’, you could only
imagine the after-hours…
God bless America!
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