Sambar Millionaire - I

This is a story set in flat no.4, Vignesh apartments where dwelled 5 (sometimes upto 6) bachelor folks in the pre-tsunami era of Chennai.

It was yet another Chennai (read hot and sultry) sunday morning when the last remaining vestiges of sleeping bodies in a small flat got up from their sleep. As was their practice those days, these bachelors would get ready and start their hunt for lunch (These guys would never wake up in time to have their breakfasts!). But this was bound to be a different day as one of the flatmates had got the enthu (short for enthusiasm) to cook lunch.

In one corner of the hall sat V who was trying to come out of his hangover (from previous night's party) by sitting and studying for CAT. CAT is just another entrance examination in India that attracts takers in the lots of bees, and springs out successful results only by dozens. Then, there was A who was giving exercise to his eyelids by trying to open them. And then, there was R who was reading newspaper with so much vengeance as if the earth would stop its spin if he hadn't read all the words in it by end of the day. (BTW, there is a lot to read in that newspaper 'The Hindu'). All this while, S had been doing the prep work in kitchen for preparing Sambar. G and T were not in town that day.

Suddenly, they heard big noise. An explosion in chennai? Attack by the extremists? Nah...that was not to be, it had come from the kitchen.

A's eyelids sprung open, and he jumped up from the bed. The earth stopped its spin and the newspaper managed to leave R's viewfinder. The explosion made V tick on the wrong answer and he turned around. With all these folks rushing to the kitchen to find out the source of explosion, they couldn't believe what they had seen then.

S, draped only in his bare minimum towel (they could believe it as they were used to seeing S in primitive attire), was covered top to bottom in water and was holding the pressure cooker (with a boiled potato in it). In the sink lay the cooker lid, and all over the floor were present remaining potatoes (each in a different direction) and water. It was SOME sight.

It took them just a minute to figure out that S had luckily survived the incident with no visible damage to his body. And since S was apparently deaf for the next few minutes, A, R and V let out a loud laugh so as to make S listen to their amusement. S stood there grinning from ear to ear.

After cleaning up the entire place, all of them embarked on the next phase of their Sambar Millionaire.

More about that...after the break!