By: Kamal Baruah
Soon the door was pushed inside, a signage “washroom” was visible and we tiptoed upstairs. Wow, the digital menu board takes the restaurant world by storm. I run into glitches for a while, but our daughter quickly come over, while sliding order one after another. Amid ordering beverages, burgers and fries, what might catch our attention was the presence of numbered table andwe found a seat and awaited our food’s arrival.
What it comes to waiting for food, customers feel disrespectful, so we had another day at McDonald’s Guwahati recently, and I enquired to a smiling waitress, if I am supposed to place the order at counter. And the reply was “McDonald’s food is on its way”. And at a glance, I saw through the McDonald’s iconic ‘M’, over the bill quoting Connaught Plaza Restaurants Private Limited, New Delhi. My memory goes back to early 2K, when McDonald entered Indian market in 1996, opening its first restaurant in the capital.
The departure for Ahmedabad Rajdhaniwas in the evening, so we checked out from Rail Yatri Nivas, Paharganj at noon and walked on an outing to the Connaught Circus for a day of shopping or simply being out about in the city. Connaught Place is famous for having rows of restaurants, shops and hotels. While we were buying a Kodak camera at Canon Flagship Store, our little daughter wanted to poop in a potty. We felt so helpless.
Finding a lavatory in public place was inadequate on those days. Even spending a penny is what it would have cost to use a public facility in London not so very long ago. Meanwhile, the Sardarjee directed us to visit the only restaurant “McDonald” that has washroom infrastructure then. I can still remember, there was a Nirula’s restaurant at the corner of Basant Lok, which made way for the new American eatery.
McDonalds, one of the world’s largest fast-food chains strive to serve customers, while purchasing food or beverages is often associated with gaining access to clean and well maintained restroom and upholding high standards of hygiene and cleanliness lavatory. We had no interest to grab some Hamburger as our prime intention was to use the lavatory. Our daughter was hardly two years old and I lifted and carried her to the washroom. The shopkeeper at Canon India was right. The washroom was perfectly clean. I cleaned her butt with dry toilet paper and warm water and returned fresh to our table. We had the last laugh when a burger came to our rescue, and some fries and Coke too.
Today, when I look back, after two decades, surprisingly, the menu remains the same but there is a craze for youngsters and things go digital now. People go to McDonald’s because they are in a rush. The sauce and the bun on the Big Mac is McDonald’s most famous burger that suits any appetite and of course, you can customize them based on your taste preferences and the primary expectation to visit fast food restaurants is quick service.
After a delay of around half an hour in-orders store timing, a large order of three trays lastly delivered happiness to our table. Our cart was full of the baskets of fries, burgers, crispy sandwich, nuggets, fried chicken, cold tea, icecream, Coke and what’s more. We ate so quickly, like we were starved at lunch. We had another Sunday of crunchy, juicy and spicy at McDay Guwahati, remembering its rescue at Connaught Place, New Delhi.
