A dozen guys and a dozen chicken

This is a story that I tell everyone I meet while eating grilled chicken. About 11 others already know what I'm going to tell now. But I can't stop myself. I know this is not really funny, but each time I remember that evening I have a hearty lough at the ingenuity of the event.

Some of us might remember the exact date, though I don't. What I remember is the year was 2008, it was late autumn or winter in India, though in Bangalore it all feels the same. We were a dozen guys gone for an outing in the Bannerghatta National Park. It was late afternoon and a memorable trip for me solely due to the bears dancing around our safari bus. But that is a different story.

It was pretty late when we returned. We had walked a lot and that build an awesome appetite for us. The awesomeness of the appetite was realized in the next 3 hours in a restaurant "The MMA Kebabs". This was our "The Grand" for eating out - cheap and best, as the saying goes (and I mean it. Also there are a dozen others who will support me if you contradict this view). As usual, we ordered a few plates of grilled chicken as starters. Now the play started with one guy saying, "I want to eat a whole chicken alone, I'm so hungry!!"

Well, go ahead, who is stopping you. But that's no reason for another couple of guys copying him and saying we think we are also hungry enough for one chicken each. Aha! so you guys are gonna get a whole chicken for yourself, why should I be left behind. So I joined the party. And very soon the train followed. As the waiter stood by taking orders, 11 out of 12 guys opted for a whole grilled chicken as "starter"!!! (Whoever is reading this is thinking us to be "Rakshas" now).

Naturally, we ended up with 12 whole grilled chicken. Actually we didn't bother to order half a plate for the poor friend of ours (the only seemingly human in a group of Food Demons). So he opted to be rich and joined the full chicken club. Here is a point to note. Baring one guy in the group, if you see the rest, none ever, by their physical appearance, looked like a foodie. But that's no point to stop you from eating good food and drinking good liquor, isn't it?

So, 12 empty plates were served and then 12 grilled chicken were cut and served on those plates. And leaving a few crushed and whole bones, the plates were empty when we finished. I still remember the bewildered eyes focused to our table, specially those who didn't get grilled chicken because of us. That was a great meal and I never looked back from then on. Rightly, I gained 50 pounds while in Bangalore.

I'm never gonna try that again. I still feel a whole chicken sitting in my stomach when I think of that evening :P