Masal Dosa and Coconut Chutney!!
The last week or so has been very hectic. My sister was getting married and as expected of a responsible bro', I had a lot of work to do which I feel I did with aplomb. The four day break from the job was a welcome change from the monotonous life out here. By the way, an incident took place when I traveled from Chennai to Salem
For the onward journey toSalem 10.30PM , I decided to have my dinner at the Central Terminus at a famous hotel chain’s outlet, known for its exorbitantly high prices. Since quality comes with a price, the affluent lot doesn’t mind shelling out a few extra currency notes in return for the food. That I had my dinner at the hotel that night is no indication that I belong there. My taste buds had become dormant and they hankered for dishes that would resurrect their palate. I simply obliged.
The AC hall upstairs was teeming with people; some weary faces exhausted after a tiresome journey and others waiting to embark on their tours. After waiting for a while, I got a seat on a table where a Hindi speaking late twenties guy was having his dinner. He was clearly uncomfortable with Tamil and English – He seemed in extreme discomfiture. I asked him what the reason for his frustration was. He replied very seriously - “Bhaai.. usne masal dosa ke saath coconut chutney nahi diya”. I was bemused... Really didn’t know whether to laugh or empathize with him… In any case, I deeply apologize if my transliteration is not up to the mark. What he meant was that he had not been served coconut chutney along with the Masal Dosa.
What followed was a war of words between the waiter and this bloke. I could only feel sorry for the waiter who had to put up with a mercurial guy like the one just opposite me. The waiter tried to make him understand that once the chutney was prepared, he would serve it to him and that he had no reason to intentionally not serve something which was available in the pantry. But this fellow was in no mood to listen – He argued saying that he was prepared to wait till the waiter served him Coconut Chutney. What befuddled me was that in spite of two other chutneys’ and sambhar adding to the color on his plate, this fellow was insistent on coconut chutney.
He waited and waited… The coconut chutney didn’t arrive… The waiter was fed up too… After all, he was not to be blamed… Finally this guy had to eat the masal dosa sans coconut chutney…
Even as this incident took place, I was reminded of the great British Economist of the nineteenth century Alfred Marshal. He defined economics as “The Study of People in the Ordinary Business of Life”. How right he was. I could relate his view about Economics with what happened in the hotel.
Here is a small analysis of that situation that I came up with, which ultimately took me no where!!
Point 1: The customer (in this case, the young chap) paid for the masal dosa that he ate. So he had every right to question the waiter for the coconut chutney. But since he waited for the coconut chutney to come, the food became cold due to the A/C effect and thus he could feel cheated because he didn’t get full value for his money.
Point 2: If the fellow hadn’t been so finicky, then maybe he would have had the chance of eating a hot masal dosa. Sometimes being choosy doesn’t get you the best of things.
Point 3: The waiter – the target of all expletives from the guys’ mouth – was definitely not culpable for this. After all, he was the interface between the customer and the pantry. But then, it’s the hotel’s duty to give each and every customer their money’s worth. In an era, where we talk of Customer Delight rather than Customer Satisfaction, this was definitely a blemish on a mammoth hotel chain like this.
Point 4: All these bring us to the very basic tenet of Economics – “Incentives Work”. Suppose you offer to pay your employees for working overtime, then most of them wouldn’t mind staying in the office even 20 hours a day. Similarly, I feel that masal dosa being the primary diet; all the other side dishes are just incentives. Maybe when the first hotel was started, the owner wanting to buck up his business might have offered coconut chutney as an add-on to increase his business.
No where is it a written rule that masal dosa should always come with coconut chutney. Being practiced everywhere as a convention doesn’t mean that it is mandatory. The hotel played the business card here where the customer expected the hotel to play the ethical card with a sense of moral obligation.
Though this looked like a banal incident of no significance, it provided me with something to ponder about. I am still trying to find who was right – the customer or the hotel. Your views are welcome too.
For the onward journey to
The AC hall upstairs was teeming with people; some weary faces exhausted after a tiresome journey and others waiting to embark on their tours. After waiting for a while, I got a seat on a table where a Hindi speaking late twenties guy was having his dinner. He was clearly uncomfortable with Tamil and English – He seemed in extreme discomfiture. I asked him what the reason for his frustration was. He replied very seriously - “Bhaai.. usne masal dosa ke saath coconut chutney nahi diya”. I was bemused... Really didn’t know whether to laugh or empathize with him… In any case, I deeply apologize if my transliteration is not up to the mark. What he meant was that he had not been served coconut chutney along with the Masal Dosa.
What followed was a war of words between the waiter and this bloke. I could only feel sorry for the waiter who had to put up with a mercurial guy like the one just opposite me. The waiter tried to make him understand that once the chutney was prepared, he would serve it to him and that he had no reason to intentionally not serve something which was available in the pantry. But this fellow was in no mood to listen – He argued saying that he was prepared to wait till the waiter served him Coconut Chutney. What befuddled me was that in spite of two other chutneys’ and sambhar adding to the color on his plate, this fellow was insistent on coconut chutney.
He waited and waited… The coconut chutney didn’t arrive… The waiter was fed up too… After all, he was not to be blamed… Finally this guy had to eat the masal dosa sans coconut chutney…
Even as this incident took place, I was reminded of the great British Economist of the nineteenth century Alfred Marshal. He defined economics as “The Study of People in the Ordinary Business of Life”. How right he was. I could relate his view about Economics with what happened in the hotel.
Here is a small analysis of that situation that I came up with, which ultimately took me no where!!
Point 1: The customer (in this case, the young chap) paid for the masal dosa that he ate. So he had every right to question the waiter for the coconut chutney. But since he waited for the coconut chutney to come, the food became cold due to the A/C effect and thus he could feel cheated because he didn’t get full value for his money.
Point 2: If the fellow hadn’t been so finicky, then maybe he would have had the chance of eating a hot masal dosa. Sometimes being choosy doesn’t get you the best of things.
Point 3: The waiter – the target of all expletives from the guys’ mouth – was definitely not culpable for this. After all, he was the interface between the customer and the pantry. But then, it’s the hotel’s duty to give each and every customer their money’s worth. In an era, where we talk of Customer Delight rather than Customer Satisfaction, this was definitely a blemish on a mammoth hotel chain like this.
Point 4: All these bring us to the very basic tenet of Economics – “Incentives Work”. Suppose you offer to pay your employees for working overtime, then most of them wouldn’t mind staying in the office even 20 hours a day. Similarly, I feel that masal dosa being the primary diet; all the other side dishes are just incentives. Maybe when the first hotel was started, the owner wanting to buck up his business might have offered coconut chutney as an add-on to increase his business.
No where is it a written rule that masal dosa should always come with coconut chutney. Being practiced everywhere as a convention doesn’t mean that it is mandatory. The hotel played the business card here where the customer expected the hotel to play the ethical card with a sense of moral obligation.
Though this looked like a banal incident of no significance, it provided me with something to ponder about. I am still trying to find who was right – the customer or the hotel. Your views are welcome too.
posted by VAC | 9:26 AM
2 Comments:
The hotel is defintely at fault for not providing the customer with the coconut chutney which is a mandatory side dish for masal dosa "by default". But there is no point in waiting for the chutney until it arrives, because, as you mentioned, the dish is gonna lose the heat and thus making it unable for the customer to relish the dosa in its entirety. The best thing to do? Eat the dosa with the sambar and the other chutneys provided and move on. You cannot expect an anniyan to spring out of that customer, can you? (Oh, btw, he is a north indian and so he might not become an anniyan, maybe he can become an aparachith ;-)).
without any doubt it is the hotel that has made the mistake.. instead of speaking to the waiter the guy should have spoken to the supervisor or atleast he should have been informed earlier that one of the chutneys will take some time to be served.. i think you cant term the chutneys and sambars as a whole as incentives.. you can't eat a dry food without supplementing it with chutney or sambar.. the other coloured chutneys may very well serve the principle "incentives work".. also the huge price we pay entitles us to enjoy every possible combination they provide..
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