Its a date!

I did something i have never done before.I went out on a lunch date........with myself! Not that it is something that has never been done before or is unheard of. I am sure people do this regularly but i had never until today fathomed myself eating alone.

Since my usual lunch gang in office was out on vacation owing to Diwali, i thought of giving it a try today.

Now, it is very important to choose the place where you want to enjoy your first solitary meal. It should either be a very crowded place like a fast food joint, where no one notices you or it should be a place where there aren't many people. The popular restaurants are not a good choice. People instantly notice that you are alone and they might end up thinking you are a loser to be dining alone! You will be subjected to pitying glances or stares, making you conscious and that might ruin the whole experience of dining alone.

After deciding between the food court in the nearest mall and a small, quiet cafe in the nearby theater auditorium, off i went to the mall close to my work place. This also gave me a chance to go pick up a few books that i had been wanting to. After almost an hour of browsing through the various sections in the bookstore, i picked up a few books and then headed off to the food court in the mall.

The shortest line was at the subway counter and I decided to head there. After the sub was ready, I found myself a quiet corner and settled down to enjoy the meal with the one of the books that i had bought. Unfortunately it is difficult to read a book when you are attacking a sub whose stuffing threatens to spill out in all directions.

I gave up reading the book and settled down to the next best thing , studying other people. :D
I noticed that there were a few more people enjoying their solitary lunch.One girl looked like she had a lot of experience (nope am not judging her social life :D). She was totally immersed in the novel she was reading. There were others who were not quite comfortable eating alone.All they wanted was to be done with their lunch quickly!There were techies in large groups enjoying their friday lunch, flaunting their company identity cards. Then there were these college kids who looked like they had bunked classes to enjoy with their friends. And all the aunties out for their Diwali shopping getting a respite from slogging in the kitchen. And of course the high-society types. It always makes me wonder why they would want to eat at a food court. I saw Charu Sharma once at the food court in another popular mall in the city.

By this time i had finished eating my sub and i would say it was not a bad experience eating alone. One lesson from this was experience is not to order something messy if you are planning on enjoying your meal with only a book for company!