Daawat-a-Biriyani

When my colleague walked into my room with a full box of sweets, I was surprised.

"Why is the box full?"

"Employees are striking."

"What?"

"Yeah." A junior walked in.

"Why nobody took sweets?"

"We don't want sweets sir. We want only Biriyani."

"Oh."

"Yes, sir," he said, smiled and left my room.

"Dude, we need to serve biriyani,"my colleague said.

"We served it for our company day, a few months back."

"But apparently both of us did not serve it for many Ramzans and Bakrids and for a lot of our personal stuffs. We better serve it quickly or else it is going to be trouble."

"I don't really celebrate Bakrid. Even I didn't have biriyani."

"Do you think they care about that?"

The junior walked in.

"Dey. Shall we get biriyani Bismi?"

"That we can go there and eat, sir. We want something that is home made or made in bulk. Nice chicken biriyani."

"Idhellam too much."

"No, sir. Not too much."

"But why chicken biriyani man? That is like vegetarian sushi. Biriyani has to be mutton."

"Lots of us don't eat mutton, sir. Get chicken biriyani and most of us here can eat. Most vegetarians in our place eat chicken biriyani alone."

"Ada paavigala. OK, we will get you the biriyani. Now take the sweet that he brought from his hometown."

"No, sir. Biriyani first," as he left my room.

My colleague smiled. I was flummoxed. In our 5 year history, this has never happened.  And that is how and why, I had to call Nigar Sultana. Frantically. Urgently. "Do you do short notice biriyani, Nigar?"

"For tonight, no. For tomorrow, yes," she said. Confirmations within an hour and we were all set!

Biriyani arrived in her famed buckets. Smell was heavenly. Office was buzzing. One bucket was set aside for the the field guys. My college and me had to eat a portion from that. My partner was fasting. And cursing us. And immediately asking God for forgiveness. Curse. Forgiveness. Curse. Forgiveness. An hour later, a smiling junior walked into my room wiping both his mouth and his smirk.

"Thanks, sir." Smirk.

"How was the biriyani?"

"Very different, sir. But very tasty. All buckets empty." Smile. Smile then broadened. He knew he had to leave or risk me making fun of him, so he left with the smile.

For 6 buckets that served almost 50 people, my colleague and me shared the total damage of Rs. 6k. We only wished, some sweet was a part of it, even if it meant paying a little more.

End of story!