The Sausage Redemption

Beyond the presentations, assignments, quizzes, case discussions, the competition with my peers and basic survival and growth, the greatest challenge of my MBA lies in something I have taken for granted all these years. This is the story of me fighting back and getting what I rightly deserve.
I study in a campus which is vegetarian. We get great food for all our three meals but they are all vegetarian. 7 days a week, 3 meals a day (except Wednesday night- MESS OFF, NON VEG ON) I put myself through a test of my own self control. It’s not that we don’t get to go into town occasionally and satisfy our carnivore requirements but it never is enough and is far and apart.
In a group with many non vegetarians we often have conversations which begin with chicken, segue to mutton and are washed down with fish and eggs. We miss our families, our friends, our pets but most of all we miss our non veg.
Do I sound extremely desperate?
Do I come across as petty and silly?
Do I care??
When you are kept away from what is your staple, you will change from within to become the monster you need to be to get the meat you need to have to just be able to make sense of life again. For all our meaty expeditions into town, the greatest one lay ahead. Hiding in a corner of our minds, we had not fathomed the power of this all encompassing, all delivering meal. THE BUFFET!!
We were told of this breakfast buffet which would not only satisfy us but also help us find meaning to our lives again. It was unlimited, a great spread and 200 bucks. It was too good to be true. Eggs, sausages, ham, breads, mashed potato, baked beans, fruits and an Indian spread (these two and a whole lot of other stuff I would not even bother approaching, don’t think I needed fruit and paranthas!!). It was just going to be the duchess sausages, lady ham and me. We were going to party all morning. But then like I already said, it was too good to be true. The buffet wasn’t 200 and was actually close to 325 and our cash flows did not allow any lavish non veg outings of such proportions.
So, a night before our dream breakfast after learning about the door being shut on us, we were left with just the thoughts of what might have been. Unfortunately in our anticipation for this momentous meal, we had left ourselves starving that night to prepare for the pillage we were to embark on the next day. Now on hungry stomachs and frustrated minds we began calling every hotel in town at 11 in the night to find a buffet that would match our needs. Some hotels didn’t have sausages and some didn’t have buffets, some thought we were hotel guests and kept us on hold forever while some priced us out yet again. The faces fell, the stomachs stopped protesting, the hope started fading and through that blur of unfulfilled desires and a loss of religion, my mind allowed one final thought to be processed. A certain hotel that I had visited on an earlier trip to Mysore suddenly called out to me. The conversation was simple:

Hungry Som: Do you have a breakfast buffet?
Our savior: Yes sir.
Hungry Som(really hungry by now) : How much?
The economic savior: Rs 225, all inclusive sir.
Excited and ravenous Som : Do you have sausages?
My Man : yes we do.

I couldn’t control myself. I think a few tears trickled down, or maybe they didn’t but all of us just jumped and screamed and went and slept so that the morning came fast.
We were up at 6 as the buffet began at 7. We were there 15 minutes late. On reaching the hotel, realizing that it was a 5 star we cooled ourselves down and behaved as if a buffet was just another thing we did. We casually perused the available options as the waiter showed us the spread. But all our eyes were only searching for one thing, sausages. On finding it we lost all sense of dignity, picked our plates and began.. The rest as they say, is history…
FUN FACTS
2 CHEESE OMLETS
35 SAUSAGES
6 CROISSANTS
7 HELPINGS OF MASHED POTATO AND BAKED BEANS
A GLASS OF MUSK MELON JUICE
AND.. SOME MORE SAUSAGES
ALL FOR ONLY RS.225
AND FINALLY, A SILENT PRAYER TO GOD..