The man looked at me from top to bottom. It seemed like I had made a big mistake by calling him over. He held the pen in his hand menacingly. I wasn't sure whether he was there to take my order or to execute me for giving the order,in the first place. He slowly opened his mouth,his curly mustache encircling his mouth. I was ready to dash out the door if he decided to strike. He looked at his partner,and I was pretty sure they exchanged some secret glance. Time to make my exit,I thought. But as he came near I decided to test him out, reminding myself that I might be treading onto dangerous ground. He only uttered about 20 or so words (!), of which I didn't understand a word, except for the last one, "ORDER"..
I told him, "two lime sodas please". He then started to jot down, and looked at his partner again. Again that glance. I couldn't comprehend the deep "understanding" of these guys. So I asked again, "is there any Lime-soda?". He turned to me, and again muttered something which I didn't understand. "What?" "Lime-ah Soda-h over Sir, anything else?".. and that's when I realized the meaning of those glances. I finally saw that the juice counter was closed and the other guy was actually sweeping up the counter. So finally it turned out that I was actually the fool,and the guy meant no harm!!..
Well that's what happens when you are a Assamese guy in a Tamil restaurant for the very first time of your life...
