Dinner at Athai Veedu

"Are you in insti?", Deepak texted me. I checked my watch to see if it's already time for dinner.

"Yes", I texted back to him waiting to see if he has an alternate plan instead of having in the insti mess. Ever since my insti had signed a contract with a new private caterer, I have been dining at the restaurants nearby the insti most of the times!

"Sub in Ascendas?", I asked him. That is the only place we haven't been to in recent past.

"Sub is fine", he replied. I rang Prasanna to find if he would like to join us. We fixed a rendezvous in front of Gurunath departmental stores and I told him that I would meet him there in ten minutes.

I shut down my work computer, picked up my cell phone, locked the lab, and started walking towards the parking lot when I saw Manoj, my colleague who was working on his thesis at the research scholar's room. After exchanging pleasantries, I asked him about his dinner plan to see if he could join us. 

"I am planning to have my dinner at Adyar", he said. Thinking he might have made plans with his friends, I asked him the place where he was planning to dine at.

"I will have it in Athai Veedu", he said. "Athai Veedu? Sounds like a new place. Where is it?", I asked him.

It took me some time before I realized that he was going to have his dinner at his Athai's (Aunt) house!