Fucks Pas in Murugan Idily

Pin It Now! Idily can be idle lunchtime joy if you have it at the right place accompanied by your tablemate’s extreme unease at his faux pas. Ask me, I wolfed down a dosa, tomato rice and another dosa in languid bliss while Gent sweated over his tamarind rice and choked on his channa and potato wafer sides. The reason for his disquiet was Eric. Eric Manikovich, whom he’d directed to lunch at Murugan Idily. Ah! Those idlis! Soft as virgin breasts and smothered in the most delicious sambar! You must try it sometime before you die.

Or before you die laughing, like we did. It started like this. Lucifer’s most ardent disciple is a friend of mine. I sometimes have a sneaking suspicion that master and disciple do switch places. After he successfully lured us to Murugan Idily for lunch a week ago, he repeated his tempt again today. I had just ordered lunch for me and the Soos (remember the Neanderthal I’d mentioned before?) when Gent called in to ask me cancel my lunch order. They’d made coconut rice for me today. And it’s exactly what I hate eating for lunch. Maybe the Lucifer had arranged for that too.

Like he arranged for Eric’s lunch to be given to one of our colleagues’ after he’d persuaded the poor man to part with it, invisibly thrashing and fuming. You don’t say no to the Lucifer! Eric sacrificed his home cooked lunch at the alter of vile persuasion. Little did he know that it was a sad bargain. So the Manikovich left for a quick meeting before the rendezvous at Murugan Idily near Sundari Silks. Here’s the fun bit. There’s another branch of this gastronome’s delight at Usman Road.

As soon as we’d crossed Usman Road, we had a tired call from Eric enquiring where we were. “There in ten minutes” replied the Gent. And we were too only to find that the Manikovich wasn’t anywhere. Where did he call from then, saying he was waiting “there”? Well, we started out waiting “there” too. But then, you can’t wait at a table too long without ordering. Our first orders arrived while Pradeep, another ‘disciple’, albeit, in a different mould, started the rubbing-it-in. Gent was getting progressively uneasy. It reached a point where, when anyone dipped into his pocket, he’d ask if it was Eric calling!

I reached for my hanky and just as I blew my nose from all that laughing, the Lucifer promptly asked me if that was Eric’s call! Right! “Why isn’t the man calling…” went the Lucifer while we were on our last order. Once we paid the bill and were outside, Pradeep pulled a fast one. He picked up the Soos’s phone, which was on vibrator mode (sounds lurid doesn’t it… vibrator mode…) and spoke into it like he was answering Eric. And then as if to confirm something to the Manikovich, he handed the phone over to Gent, who went “I asked you no…hello, HELLO” before he realised the prank.

Murugan Idily. It’s the place to go to if you want to sample cooking of a different kind. The onion oothappams are great too, though they can be a wee bit bigger. The coffee is typical folklore fare. You know, the kind they call filter coffee. No meal is complete without it. Meanwhile, we are back in office and till about now, no bloodshed has been reported. Maybe the Manikovich hasn’t returned. Maybe he’s plotting retaliation over a sour lunch at some godforsaken joint. Even Lucifer can’t tell. I’ll have to enquire if he’s alive once I post this. Some fucks pas that! Pin It Now!