Hari's Spoon

The other day, I had to buy my meal in the office so it took me around 10 minutes to stand in the queue to get my lunch and… another 10 minutes to get a spoon.

It so happens that whenever I go to the spoon stand, I find it empty. People grab spoons from the stand even before they decide to purchase their meal. Such is the rush near the spoon stand. Sometimes, they take more than one. This has led to shortage of spoons in the office. On complaining to the concerned authorities, it was revealed to us that people even throw away these steel spoons into the garbage bin as if they were plastic use-and-throw ones; hence, the shortage!

I wondered if I must wait at the stand or go the Indian way of soiling my fingers and licking them. Just then, my colleague Hari called me on my cell phone. He said he had just grabbed a table for all of us (.. includes other colleagues). I told him that I was waiting for a new set of spoons to arrive at the stand.

After 10 minutes, the spoons arrived. I grabbed the smallest one that suited my need. By the way, most of the spoons in the office are more like table spoons than tea spoons. Some can even be substituted for soup spoons.

So…I felt quite triumphant at having got the perfect spoon for the day. Hari looked at the meal spread on the plate and expressed his desire to taste some. He picked up a spoonful of chitrana and put it into his mouth. I looked a little shocked and frowned. He seemed to understand that I was a little paranoid about using the same spoon used by another without washing it altleast once. He quickly gave me his spoon that he had got from his home with his lunch box.

His spoon was good enough for me. It was a beautiful spoon with a highly ornate stem. When the others joined us, we went about our lunch as usual, chit-chatting, laughing at silly jokes and sharing food.

When it was time to give away the plates to the washing department, I had conveniently forgotten all about Hari’s spoon. As usual, the spoon went with the plate for washing. A minute or two later, Hari came to me asking for his spoon.


Oyela! I shreaked. The spoon is gone! Hari looked shocked and confused or maybe.. a little furious. I just did not know how to apologise or make good for what I had just done. I somehow felt that a spoon was not something that he would die for, but this, well, may be a spoon worth searching for. So there I began,…Operation Spoon Search!

I ran to the washing department and explained my problem. They were too busy or too irritated to even answer me in a coherent manner. I then decided to search for it myself. I went round to check the vat where soiled spoons were dumped. It did not seem to be there. I searched among the washed spoons, again, it was not there…came to the spoon stand..not there again…what should I do?

Tired and upset, I went back to Hari and asked him to accompany me to identify his spoon from those lots…in case I had not noticed it. Hari knew his spoon well and was sure that the spoon did not figure among the others.

I then promised Hari that I would buy him a new spoon. He guffawed at what I had just said as if that was an impossible task. He said, ‘I don’t even want the same spoon now. I was just having fun and was testing you! Knowing you well by now, I knew that you would take this one seriously too. Madam, teacher ji (this is what he calls me..), stop taking small things seriously in life. Life has more serious issues to ponder about!! In any case, I had already told everyone here that they should not be surprised if the spoon was gone!’ Man, was that some laughter? I felt so stupid. By now, even the others had joined in to have a hearty laugh at my expense. They had found a good reason to rag me the whole day!