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The pinnacle of most hotels's year end is the New Year party. A lot of thought, money and promotional build up goes into it. Lucia had a food festival as part of the build up. Sobi & I were each given a tight red T-shirt & stationed at a food counter each .
If you remember how we all looked in the 1st year of Hotel Mgmt, you will understand when I compare myself to the refill of a ballpoint pen.The T-shirt, two sizes too small, was extremely revealing of our skeletal structure - both of us hated wearing it. So, there we were, two famine affected specimens, wearing tight body hugging t-shirts showing off the bones of our upper torso, or put in a more flattering fashion 2 lean & mean ball point refills.
I was in charge of the Payassam counter. When chicken fried rice, chilly chicken liberally bathed in bright red food colour, whole roasted pig, fish, hot Porottas/appams/Thattu doshas at the live counter & ice cream is available, which Trivandrumite would want to drink Payassam at dinner was a doubt. Right enough, my stall was largely ignored by the guests. Sobi also had a similar experience in his stall. So, we kept each other company while watching the proceedings.
The culmination of the New Year eve's party for the guests was to be the countdown at midnight, ending with popping open a champagne bottle by the hotel owner. The champagne bottle was displayed on the makeshift stage. Both of us hotel mgmt students were quite taken up with the champagne. Sobi said he wanted to taste it, while I told him I wished I could have the empty champagne bottle. In typical Sobi style he said, "Bottle? Athreyo ullo? Parrigannikkaam! "-" Bottle? That's all? Will consider! ".
In the short period I had known Sobi, I had understood that his "Parrigannikkaam" meant he would get it, no matter how. When we had our first theme dinner in our thatched training restaurant, I was with the team responsible for the decor, and banking on my previous college experience suggested a doorway made of thatched coconut leaves. As always he was the leader of our batch and cryptically muttered 'Parrigannikkaam'. I had no idea what he meant.
About 10 minutes into creating the decor, I enquired about Sobi & was told he was on top of the coconut tree. I couldn't believe this, and went out to see for myself. Right enough, there he was, on top of the coconut tree, like a professional, cutting coconut leaves for my need. My respect for him & his hidden talents went up manifold. Thereafter in all the theme dinners whenever I wanted something not easily available , I would tell him and the cryptic "Parrigannikkam" would be followed a little while later by the materialisation of my request. But when he said 'Parrigannikkaam"to my desire for the empty champagne bottle though I had my doubts. After all we were trainees at a hotel- the lowest level of a hotel's hierarchy. I underestimated him !
The senior staff explained that once the New Year party for the guests got over, the convention was that the owner would invite all the staff members to have a party at the same venue. The seniors were looking forward to getting drunk with the free liquor.
The party started, a local band was playing with someone who looked like the singer Jassie Gift leading. There were very few families, mostly stags. Of course our 3 regulars were there - the bearded gentlemen & the lady. The guests danced in front of the stage, inside the Discotheque, in the open doorway to the disco, in front of the food stalls. While Sobi & I were expecting graceful ballroom dancers like in the movies, everyone danced like John Travolta(inside their heads) when to the onlookers like us they looked like Mr.Bean.
As the clock ran closer to midnight the dancing crowd surged closer to the stage. The hotel owner climbed up to the stage & picked up the champagne bottle. When I turned to Sobi, he was suddenly missing. I turned back to the stage, the lights went out & the countdown started to midnight.
5-4-3-2-1 Happy New Year!!! The lights came on the stage alone. The owner started to shake the champagne bottle to pop the Cork.. But wait! What was that? The owner was standing on the edge of the stage and trying to force the Cork open and from the darkness below from among the guests, was a hand without a body, latched onto the neck of the bottle. Try what he did to open the bottle, shaking it up-down, twisting and pulling the Cork, the disembodied hand held on. The Cork popped and he started to violently shake the bottle, spraying champagne on every body below and the rest of the lights came on. The disembodied hand was attached to Sobi, who was grimly holding on to the bottle while it was being shaken and champagne was poured into goblets. At the base end of the bottle the man on stage was holding and pouring it, while Sobi had an iron grip on the neck of the bottle. I watched with dismay and a perverse sense of pride as the drama unfolded, certain that Sobi and I were doomed. The music restarted, the crowd screamed, the frenzied dancing resumed, and Sobi disappeared in it. As I scanned the crowd & stage desperately searching for him, like a Genie he suddenly appeared in front of my stall with the bottle. In his usual no nonsense manner he handed the empty bottle over to me. Awestruck I stood gaping stupidly at the bottle and him, turn by turn. He told me that, "I've brought you what was promised. Now keep it safe". I kept it safely in the darkness inside the Payassam stall. My respect for this guy, who went to these extraordinary lengths to keep his word, went up like a rocket.
Around 1 am, the guests started to leave. 15 minutes later the owner announced that the party and dance floor was now open for his staff. He stood on the stage with a bottle, and called all his HODs one by one on to the stage, insisting they drink from his bottle, while the other staff cheered them on. All of them were given a bottle each before sending them off the stage . Anand came from the kitchen to join us and the three of us danced in the crowded disco. The staff party continued till around 3.30 am. By then almost everybody including the security staff were completely sloshed. There were very few sober around. Dead tired, Sobi and I decided to go to the staff locker room to change out of our red t-shirts & sleep. I went first, got into the service lift and pressed the button for the locker room floor.The service lift was extremely small, & could hold maximum 4 people if they stood touching each other. It had a large waste basket with a lid in one corner. As the lift doors were closing, the door was physically forced open and the Executive Housekeeper got in, before the doors closed behind him.
I hadn't had much interaction with him at all since I was in F&B. The chap in his 40's was sweating alcohol, piss drunk. He stood swaying gracefully like a coconut tree in a strong wind, as the lift crawled its way up. He asked me where I was going.I replied that I was going to change my uniform. The next question was a belligerent, "Do you know who I am?" The tone of the question was a warning. I replied, "Yes. I do, sir" Then pointing to the floor in front of him, "Eevide vaada. Ingottu maarri nilkaanannu ninnodu paranjathu" "Come here. I asked you to move/right here". Tired as I was, I was in no mood to go through an interaction with him. I avoided eye contact and stood at the door waiting desperately for it to open. The lift reached my destination, and as the lift doors opened & I was getting out, he grabbed my neck and pulled. I struggled and his grip slipped onto my t-shirt, ripping it from the neck.All the tiredness after working late, the anger at having to wear the stupid red t-shirt, and the anger at being picked on & having my t-shirt torn came out, and I reacted without thinking. I was scrawny while he was well built. There wasn't space for me to retreat. I raised my right leg, planted it on his chest and pushed. There wasn't space to kick or punch, so I simply pushed with my leg. I was scrawny like a ball point refill, and he was stronger than me, but he was drunk and I wasn't. My kick sent him backwards and he sat on the waste basket lid. The lid immediately collapsed and he fell inside the waste basket, sitting sunk inside it with his legs from the knee up folded over it. Drunk and helpless to get out, surprised at my resistance, he watched shocked as I muttered some dark threats and escaped out as the lift doors closed. I still remember him sitting in the waste basket with that shocked look on his face, helpless to get out, with the imprint of my shoe on his chest.
It was only after the lift moved that the full import of what I did hit me. I had just kicked the Executive Housekeeper into the waste bin. Panic set in as I worried about the consequences. I told Sobi the story and as usual he told me, "Parrigannikkaam. Don't worry" Just then Anand came looking for us very amused. He wanted to know what I had done. The Executive Housekeeper had gone to the kitchen and was asking the boys there to bring me to him. These chaps met Anand who persuaded them to say they didn't see me. With that I decided my training was done. Protected by Sobi and Anand on either side we came down to the ground floor and walked out into the still dark New Year day. The hard won champagne bottle was the only reminder of the episode. It stayed with me for many years. Surprisingly Mirza never asked me how the ODC went.
Once in the 3rd year Joshua's uncle gave us a treat at the Lucia where he was staying. I went with the rest of the gang, but didn't bump into anybody who recognised me. Many years later, I met Anand while he was Executive Chef at Hotel Pankaj. He took me to meet someone and there were 2/3 people having a drink in one of the rooms. He introduced me to a balding chap who was the F&B manager of some property. Then with a twinkle in his eye he asked both of us, "Do you remember each other? You both met at Lucia". The balding chap was my old acquaintance the Executive Housekeeper, now working in F&B. We regarded each other with bemused half smiles. I couldn't connect him to the person in the lift and I think neither could he remember.
