Why do people take a seemingly straightforward spelling and twist it to the extent of confusing the rest? And then there are more who take the already twisted spelling, twist it some more and change the entire context??? Wanna know what I am rambling about? I will tell you what...
This past Saturday was my birthday (don't ask me which one). My hubby dear was generous enough to offer to take me to lunch wherever I wanted to go. And that itself is a huge offer considering going anywhere in Bangalore will take a minimum of 45 mins to an hour on a weekend. So I searched and surfed online, checked through all my options, checked with my heart on what it wanted to be fed and decided Mexican it is. I was really craving for some yummy juicy Enchiladas, Nachos and other such comfort bean filled food. On checking around, there seemed to be hardly any Mexican places in Bangalore. So there we were - our close friends, us and my cousin - standing near our cars at 12:30 still wondering where to go. We call some more friends and check with them. Only suggestions we got were Woodstok, Habanero and
Chilis. Now given that we had already gone to Woodstok last year for my birthday and our friends had visited Habanero just a week ago, Chilis it was. So we called
JustDial for their number and they sent me the landline number for the one on Old Airport Road. Incidentally, the friend who recommended it had been there a month ago and loved it. But the friends who were going with us were pretty confident that it has already closed down. So we called Chilis to make sure they are open and to book a table. They were not answering. So what would a person do next? As expected, I called
JustDial to see if they have any other number for them. They did not. My next question to them was - so is there any other
Chilis in Bangalore? Oh yes - in Whitefield - pat came the reply. So ofcourse we grabbed that number and called them to book a table for us right away and asked them for directions. The guy on the other line just gave me some silly landmarks without any directions from Koramangala. When I asked him the entire route, he said where are you coming from? And when I said Koramangala, he seemed a little surprised saying this is in Whitefield madam. I snapped back saying so what...just give me the damn directions! He did as told and hung up - without asking for my contact number or number of people for booking our table. I was a little surprised that he did not take my number etc. and was about to call him back but hubby calmed me down saying we'll get there soon - not a big deal.
So we finally set out all hungry for feasting on a Mexican spread...drove 21kms on the awful roads full of construction and traffic, from Koramangala to Whitefield, tracked down the landmarks he gave and finally an hour later, saw the Big Bazar he mentioned. Soon enough we pulled over coz our friend's car had pulled over before us and my hubby showed me on our left, a place called Chilly's. My first reaction - "Not this one dear...we need to go ahead, cross Big Bazaar." My cousin and hubby had to struggle to hold back their laughter at the reality that faced us and jumped out of the car to talk to our friends about Plan-B. Did you realize what just happened here? Read the spellings again. Turns out that this restaurant was an Andhra Style joint called Chilly's (not the American franchise called
Chilis)!!!! And not an upscale or fast food place at that but kinda like your Shantisagars across town! Imagine the look of horror on my face and the anger I felt for
JustDial!!! I could not believe we drove across town to find an Andhra style hole in the wall!!! I was still in denial and actually called them again from right outside their hotel to ask which cuisine is their food. And the guy seemingly irritated by now said Andhra style madam! As if I should have already known that!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr. The only thing that partially saved us from me actually chewing down someone was that Habanero was not too far from this place. So off we went to Habanero for my birthday lunch. It was not the best Mexican I had tasted plus the bar was closed due to a dry day in the city (which we were not aware of) but atleast it was still Mexican. Sigh!!!
Just to cross check, I scanned through my
JustDial SMS messages once more and noticed they had spelt the first one Chilis and the second one Chillys but we never noticed the difference coz they had promptly provided the second option in response to my query for another Mexican restaurant Chilis in town! Gosh - for the love of trademarks and spellings! Now you know what I meant in the opening line? If only no one had twisted the original word "
chilies" into
Chilis, no one else would have come along to put another twist to it to call it Chilly's!!!
Anyway...as they say...all is well that ends well. The day ended beautifully with a visit to the temple followed by a surprise party when we got home - something I had never even suspected. Completely managed by my hubby and dear friends. I mean, its not that we have not done this before but somehow our birthdays since N has been born have been pretty low key since the excitement is mostly saved up for the little one's birthdays now :-) Hence, this came as a total surprise to me. My shock aside, the joy and surprise on lil N's face when we entered home after the temple and saw it full of people was priceless! She was soooo lit up and just could not stop asking me - "But mama, how did they enter our home?" :-)
All in all, the day was full of 2 surprises - one thanks to JustDial and Chillys (or should I say Chilis) and other thanks to my hubby and friends.
