HI friends, this is my first attempt to leave my mark on Empty canvas. A platform where i'll fill all colors of my life. This is a small story about a restaurant in any university campus of a tipical university and it is time less and boundry less.
This story will b more clear to u if u knw lil bit of economics


TANSTAFL(1) (search wikipedia for reference)

1st scene

You know, I always had, in me, a hidden desire to be a chef. I always thought being a restaurateur would be a fun affair. One can make money by making and eating (tasting) good food, watching beautiful faces, and listening to great music. But my dream turned into nightmare when I joined this particular restaurant I am working with.
When we take name of a restaurant, picture of a place filled with people enjoying there meals and talking fun stuff appears. Most common emotions you will find in a restaurant are Romance, playfulness, anger, heartbreak but kind of restaurant I used to run was some what different. Though it was an open kitchen restaurant just like I always dreamed of, where a chef can make food on demand and in front of customers, but difference doesn't lie here. Unlike other restaurants, this restaurant, called TANSTAFL(1), was in neighborhood of an economics school and an economics research center. Yeah! You guessed it right. It was a place filled with people who have real people described to them but only got an opportunity to see them in these types of cafes. So, romance? Well what is this? Heart break? Is this some new theory given by rival economist? Well To an economist, real life is a special case. After all what can you say about people for whom, models are just some mathematical equations? If you are a sexy girl who walks on ramp, stay away from them as you always do. Otherwise be prepared for some controversy as malfunctioning of one of your dresses may be result of demand and supply for them. As for them, demand creates its own supply.
Coming back to my restaurant, all I was saying is that, here you will find Anxious, tense, so called intellectual type, well yes to some extends, people haggling over some unrealistic problems.

Like every other restaurant, even here we had few regular characters. You can find them here every day. My favorite is that lean guy, sitting alone on a corner table. People call him Dr .NAIRU(2), well he is some top analyst in research center. Every day he comes here and places his wallet on the table. Before ordering anything, He keeps staring at menu and wallet cyclically for few hours. One
day I asked him,” Sir, why u keep staring at wallet n menu?”, He said, I am trying to match my subjectivity with my objectivity.

Then there is one Lala Opti mal(3). He is junior faculty in The Economics School. Well junior word in his designation only tells that he remember to pay his bill. Otherwise there is no difference. His father, Lala Chunni mal was a rich builder so money was never a problem for this chap. Even in day time, only thing he wants is booze booze and more booze. No women, no drugs, only booze. One day when I tried throwing him out of restaurant due to over boozing, he said, “hey, chill buddy. I was just proving diminishing marginal utility(4)” with a foolish grin on his chubby face. Though he is weird fellow with long pony tail and salt n pepper hair like George clooney, he helped me designing menu for the restaurant. He said, “Ashutosh, A dish description should be like a woman's skirt: short enough to be provocative; long enough to have something substantial underneath”.

Then there was an old man. He was somewhat different from rest of the Lot. Well built body, waxed line of masculinity below nose. He was a retired Army General. General Equilibrium(5), as his credit card proclaimed his name, were an Anglo-Indian with a massive structure. After retirement, he started studying economics in the economics school. He was a quite man and he kept reading his books without disturbing or interacting with, anyone. But something was very attractive about his whole persona. You will seldom see this kind of person in an economics school. Every girl from 16 to 24 years of age (well women generally don't cross age of 24) used to cool off her eyes by watching that lad.

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2nd scene




It was a Monday noon. After a long weekend everyone was back at action. It was raining outside so there were only few other people except regulars. A group of students, a love couple (a very rare sight in this neighborhood), and two mid-aged ladies (of course less then 24 years old), presumably, wives of economists.

Most of the staff in my restaurant consists of economics students, from The school, trying to chip-in some extra bucks. You better trust me that managing this kind of staff is very serious business because only thing which is deadlier than an amateur economist is, the economist himself.
And I know from my personal experience that there are only three types of economists in this world, one know how to count and others don't know. So I was personally checking all the bills when one of my waiters (who was a “layman” just like me) came to me in very frustrated state and said, “I must tell you sir, an economist is someone who doesn't know what he's talking about - and make you feel it's your fault. I asked that gentleman in gray shirt, that how many sandwiches he would like to have, he replayed~ "I'd rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong. Bring two, plus-minus 10%”. Now you tell me sir how can i serve plus minus 10%?”

At that very point I overheard that group of students talking. One of them said, “you know guys, I met this chinky girl in our continuous probability class. She was just awesome. I asked her No. and she gave me an estimate with joint probability of................. ”.
Now, can you imagine? In what kind of world we (non economists) are living here. It is kind’ a life of a muggle living in Hogwarts. I am not the only person going through this trauma. One of those two ladies was saying to other, “I’m thinking of leaving my husband. All he ever does is stand at the end of the bed and tell me how good things are going to be.” At that, second replied, “But honey, now days, he is the only one who can afford a diamond. After all, an economist is someone who gets rich explaining others why they are poor.”
When I was clearing table of Love birds, a lean man with big beard came into my café. He got my attention the moment he entered into my cafe. Something was very irritating about his whole persona and the way he was looking around. His curious big red eyes were searching something. But within few minutes I knew what he was looking for and I also thought, “Why on the earth I came to know what he was looking for?” “Who is the manager here?”- He yelled. The moment I said me, a gun was pointing towards me. He was a burglar. Though I had seen, cooked and ate many burgers, this was the first time I was experiencing a burglar.
He was trying to loot me at gunpoint. Everybody was sitting quietly and begging god fore few more years of life. My cash register had a total of Rs 500 only. Mostly in coins and 10, 20, 50 rupee notes. He got very angry and demanded more money. He said, “even taxi fare to and from this place is more than that man, give me more money” but I had nothing more to give so he kept me as target and demanded all customers and staff to give everything they had in lieu of my life. The moment he gave this proposal, I knew my end is near. This is the best time for my staff to get me killed and I trusted, they would be opportunistic enough. But I was wrong and first time in my life, I came to know how much they respected me. The burglar bundled all money in a money bag and slowly started stepping backward towards the door. His gun was still pointing toward my empty head. I was sure this is end of my life as he was not leaving me and nobody was having courage to do anything. Police? Those are the mythological characters you all believe about there existence but nobody has seen one and nobody is sure. But wow, what was that? The moment burglar reached to table next to door, general equilibrium (who was sitting there n sipping his coke) swung into action and hit that burglar hard with a heavy book and BANG burglar was down on his knees. As if invisible hands(6) of Adam smith themselves came there to protect me.
He became god for me. My staff tied that burglar on called-up police and I am telling you the truth they really exist (just like unicorns in Harry potter). They took that burglar with them and congratulated all of us.
That was the first and last time anybody has seen an entire wealth of nation(7) being used to rescue a common man by an economist.



(1) TANSTAFL :- There aint no such ting as free lunch
(2) NAIRU :- Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment. A fancy term with no real meaning
(3) Optimal :- i belive you know what it mean
(4) diminishing marginal utility :- another fancy theory that tells u that if u'll take too many goolgappas, at one point, you will start hating them. (????)
(5) General Equilibrium:- A different dimention of economics (no comments on it it is sacred.)
(6) Invisible hands of Adam smith :- supply and demand. search wikipedia for more information.
(7) Wealth of nations :- A book by Adam smith