Fenil and the Waiter - Amit Saini

Fenil: Can I have menu please

The Waiter: Sure Sir

(The Waiter hands over the menu to Fenil)

The Waiter: What would you like to have Sir ?

Fenil: Let me read first, will you?

The Waiter: Sure Sir,

(While Fenil is scrolling through menu, The Waiter is standing in front of him, continuously observing his every move)

Fenil: I will call you. it takes me time to decide on things in life,

The Waiter: It is just food sir, Order whatever you want for the moment, if you don’t like it, order something new tomorrow. We have variety of dishes.

Fenil: You should be the owner of this place.

The Waiter: If only my girlfriend lets me be one.

Fenil: And how is she stopping you? In fact from my experience, girls should love a man owning such a place.

The Waiter:  You cannot generalize everything based on your experiences. This is a particular case.

Fenil: You Sound Intelligent.

The Waiter: I am!

(Fenil again starts to read the menu card intently, The Waiter keeps on looking at him)

Fenil: I will have an Italian Toast and ummm.. Darjeeling Tea.

The Waiter: Alright! (Goes Away)

(Fenil observes the Ambience of Restaurant, It seems new and is filled with young crowd.  Wooden chairs on Wooden Floor, Chandelier on the roof above him, an old guitar, old telephone and other antique material kept on shelves made in form of love on wall in front of him. These decorative old showpieces make him check out his current status on social networking page)

(It reads “I hope moving on is good for you” He changes it to “I am going to get you back”

While he is busy scrolling down, The Waiter places food on his table)

The Waiter: It will get cold sir, eat it fast.

Fenil: There are other things to do in life than eating food.

The Waiter: for doing those other things you need to survive; try new Dishes, hear new music, visit new places, meet new people, work on multiple things and then optimize all of these to select what suits you best.

Fenil: I can see some grey hair on your head ! Being a waiter suits you?

The Waiter: Yes it does.

Fenil: You haven’t done much in life, have you?

The Waiter: I don’t boast but you can visit “The Gallery of Robots” to know more about me.

The Fenil: I have, innumerable times, my girlfriend works there, My Ex- girlfriend in fact. I had even applied for a job there for a role in training Robots about love.

The Waiter: It is the highest paying job there, especially in times like these when all we hear about is wars around the world.

The Fenil: Yes but I got rejected, for the two jobs at same time.

(Fenil looks at the picture of a young red haired women, showing off her motorcycle tattoo drawn on her neck, The Waiter tries to sneak a glance)

The Waiter: that is one fine woman.

Fenil: How do you know so much about “The Gallery of Robots” ?

The Waiter: I used to teach the robots what you want to teach them there,

Fenil: No Way! And, you left it !

The Waiter: Yes I did, they wanted me to teach the robots to love only one person, his/her master.

Fenil: That’s how it should be.

The Waiter: Still you got rejected?

Fenil: I got rejected because my girlfriend works there.

The Waiter: Why? Didn’t you take her reference, before applying?

Fenil: We had a breakup and she wanted to move on.

The Waiter: So should you.

Fenil: It is none of your business. Anyways, what did you want to teach the robots.

The Waiter: To love everybody; each human being and each robot, this is the only thing that is going to save us from destruction caused by wars.

Fenil: But that would defeat their purpose to accomplish certain task.

The Waiter: What purpose? What task? It should be tasks.

Fenil: They are not living beings like us.

The Waiter: Give them a set of tasks, let them learn from their experiences and let them optimize themselves. Why do you want to supervise their learning. Let it be unsupervised.

Fenil: That is what we should do.

The Waiter: My Point from the very beginning, but are we doing it? Are you doing it? You are still sticking to your girlfriend, trying to possess her. What I can see from her picture is, she is alive, not dead like you. She is living in moment and you are feeding on past.

(The Waiter snatches his phone and unfriends her from his list)

(Fenil grabs waiter’s collar)

Fenil: (while grabbing waiter’s collar) How dare you?

(Fenil and waiter keep looking in each other’s eyes, then Fenil leaves his collar, takes his phone back and sits on his chair)

Fenil: You are right. You are right.

(The Waiter gives Fenil a glass of water)

Fenil drinks glass of water.

Fenil: I will move on, I will love everyone, I will try new dishes, I will start my own company of robots, I will become the man she repents losing. No! I don’t care what she thinks, Let her be happy or sad, whatever she wants to be! I will be what I want to be.

Take this away, bring your menu card or infact bring something new you cook here, something which isn’t available anywhere

The Waiter: I will bring our best dish, the highly priced, “Door to Heaven”

Fenil: Bring it on.

(The Waiter goes in the kitchen, gives order to chef for making “Door to Heaven” Then takes out his phone, makes a call to a number)

The Waiter: Hello, I have done it. We have done it. He won’t bother you again. You were right, he is indeed a gullible idiot! What an emotional fool who couldn’t find flaws in argument.

The woman voice on the phone: See my decision to not hire him was right.

The Waiter: and also not to love him and of choosing me over him.

The Woman Voice on phone: Yes! but don’t start acting like him.

The Waiter: I won’t ever! Ok bye for now my Ducati. “ Door to Heaven” is ready.

(The Waiter cuts the phone, picks up the dish and moves out of the Kitchen)