Omya is back from her campus for 3 days. She claims she is visiting her family. But each time she spends more time – like 90% – with her friends! We do have meaningful talks like “Its late, come home”, “Lunch is ready, please get up”, “Amma, can I buy this skirt? Thank you (yes, there was no pause between question and thank you)”
Bhairavi’s birthday is almost here, so they decide to have a sisters’ day out. Omya announced on the breakfast table – I have planned 3 activities for the day – 1. visit to Van Gogh 360°™ gallery (my highbrow teenage girls) 2. Awesome lunch and 3. A surprise for Bhairavi! Parents were not in picture.
Silence. Awkward silence.
And then Omya asked “Appa, did you want to join us?”
Then she simply counted me out from Van Gogh activity. “Appa we can have lunch together!” Omya was possibly worried that seeing my (dis)interest levels in his art Gallery, Van Gogh would refuse to be a painter in his next life! Also, the unstated line was “It would be nice to have a chauffeur driven car”. 😊
I didn’t care because she was right. Painting gallery is not my thing. And I said, yes, I would love to.
My older one studies at Ashoka near Delhi, and younger one at KC in South Mumbai and therefore, the outing must be in South Mumbai or Bandra but never Navi Mumbai (that’s where we live, and I love it).
Van Gogh 360°™
1st stop – Van Gogh 360°™ is at World Trade Centre (WTC) in Cuffe Parade, South Mumbai.
After dropping them, I went to Kamats nearby. Had a nice plate of hot idlis’ and filter kaapi!
After completing the highbrow Van Gogh gallery visit, Omya called “Appa, we are done here. It was awesome.” I said “Come to Kamats. We can eat here”. “Oh God Appa, we can’t celebrate SDO (sisters’ day out) at Kamats’. I have booked a table for 3 at Flamboyant, please come. Its inside the WTC building. We are already in the restaurant. Jaldi aaja”. Discussion over. I head to the WTC building.
Restauranté
Human beings decide on the restaurant based on Food Cost, Quantity, Quality, how quickly you can get in and get out and importantly, water is free or paid. My teenage daughters decide on the basis of Name (any desi name is out of reckoning, so no to Navratna, Kamaths, Deviprasad etc), Space between tables (should be atleast a mile), smell (it should not smell food), squeaky clean washrooms and importantly is it Instagram friendly! (When we travel, I do the recce before they make an entry).
As I reached the restaurant, I found its Flamboyanté – not Flamboyant. I joined my teenage daughters and they excitedly started telling me about their Van Gogh experience. I worked very hard to look very interested. After few minutes, I successfully managed to get their attention to food. As I looked around and then the Menu, I was able to unravel the mystery of why it’s named Flamboyanté – not Flamboyant.
Just by adding é to flamboyant they made you feel like it’s a restaurant for rich and famous. Just that é conjures up images of exotic food from all over the world being served. That é allows them to charge 5 times more than what an expensive restaurant would charge in South Mumbai!
I looked at the menu and mentally added the cost of the items we would typically eat. My heart sank – I was half-way through, and the amount was close to what I would typically budget for our annual spends for eating out! The Ganna ka juice was priced at Rs.540. Just because it’s served in wine glass!
A smiling well-dressed waiter shows up and places nimbu paani with masala – oh! I mean fresh lime with salt and sugar – on the table. Just to be sure, I asked him what is this? He politely responds, “Sir, this is special water”. I look at my teenage daughters. They successfully maintained the poker face. I asked him again, water?” He said, yes, its special water. And he left, I couldn’t wait to drink it. Interestingly, it tasted exactly like Limbu Paani. But mind it – its special water!
We ordered food. I had never heard the names, but it sounded exotic and foreign! The quantity of food was such that each morsel was one plate! That one plate was equal to one item in our typical thali ! No really. I stopped eating just because there were too many plates on the table, and I was getting into the two year budget of eating out!
Robbery Worms
While I was figuring out where can I have my vada paav after this lunch at Flamboyanté, Omya was going to reveal the 3rd activity which was labelled as SURPRISE till now! Omya announced the 3rd activity. “Bhairavi, we both are going to have a Tattoo.” I panic. And in shock, I shout “Tattoo?!” and now entire restauranté knows about it and many other teens and ladies want to know what are they going to do the ruin their arm. Omya and Bhairavi started discussing the themes. I try to enter the ideation session. My ideas “ Tattoo is a horror idea” “It can be fatal”. But my teenage daughters chose to ignore me – like always. I hear ideas like “cockroach”, “Picture of Seedhe Maut – our favourite rapper”, “ Aliens smoking up” … O.M.G. I realized topic of Tattoos can cause palpitations. I started focusing on my breathing. Thank God I had attended Lamaze classes with Priya – hello, she is my wife.
In the end, they agreed on the theme of “Partners in Crime” and visual is “Robbery Worms” .
I am sharing the pics below. I am speechless. Go figure!
“Appa, what do you think”.
“What do I think? I am unable to think. Be glad I am alive. Can we not have this Tattoo?” I attempt one more time.
“Appa, let’s go. Pls take us to the Tattoo parlour.
I drove them. In that car, two were super excited and chatty. And one was silent.
After the tattoo, they showed me their tattoos. They were smiling ear to ear.
Then there was a smile on me too. I was just happy that they were happy!
I had a lovely day with my daughters. I will always cherish the fact that my teenage daughters included me in their sisters day out – even if it was as a chauffeur!
