Meal no 87/365.

So sometime back a colleague was telling me about her friend in Chennai who started this totally original concept where he wants to meet 365 women for a meal. The catch is, the ladies pick the place and the meal and pay for it. I found this such a refreshing concept, there are no age/race/caste restrictions. Except he did mention he wouldn’t bring out anyone younger than 21. Haha.

The women he meets come from a wide spectrum, from his neighbourhood fruit seller aunty, to friends he hasn’t seen in ages or only met in groups. So well I stalked him a little on FB and then decided to just give it a shot and see if he has time for a meal with me, I thought it would be fun to be one of the 365 women who have a meal with him, and how often are women okay with that? :p. Sunder was so nice in his reply and eager to see if he can find time for me in his hectic shooting schedule and he did.

We were to meet at That Madras Place which was on my list of places to visit in Chennai. I was pretty excited because I wanted to ask him a lot of questions, why and how and what not. So when he did arrive, strangely enough there was no awkwardness and we started talking from the moment we met, so much so that it took so long to even remember we had to order a meal. He thought of this somewhere in between 31st of Dec and the 1rst of Jan this year. Just a random thought of why not, let’s see how far it goes and he has managed to meet a different woman for a meal for over 100 days now. Some days if he cannot meet anyone due to his busy schedule, he meets two on a day when he is free and makes up for it. At the end of each month, he goes to an orphanage or someplace which needs help and pays for their food from the money he has saved from all these meals and on behalf of all the women who have treated him to the meal. He also picks up leftover bread each day from bakeries and distributes it to the homeless people he sees. “It takes me less than half an hour and it’s my way of unwinding” he says. How rare is it to find such civic minded people in today’s world who are out there making a difference instead of campaigning for it online. If someone as busy as him can find the time to do something like this, why can’t the rest of us?

So why make the women pay? He says the society is so narrow minded about such a concept they would say “She would go for a free meal anyways” and he wanted that to be eliminated in his 365 meals challenge. It is his way of empowering the women he meets, because they choose everything for the date. Now I am not sure how this will work if every random guy starts doing this, because we live in a world that cannot be trusted and Sunder hopes to show that not all men are after something, and sometimes you can just have a decent meal with a stranger and walk away unharmed. He started off meeting his old friends whom he has known for ages and some who he only met in groups and never alone. It is always more personal to eat with someone alone and share their stories.

So, Sunder started off by saying that we all have ups and downs in life, but this conversation will only stick to the ups. Just happy positive thoughts and memories and some intellectual talk and nothing else and that set the tone for the rest of the evening. The conversation ranged from politics, LKY, Colour bias in Indian society, astrology and lots of interesting stories from his backpacking trips to Europe. He has backpacked around Europe for 3 months for 8 consecutive years. So many exciting friends made over those trips and he plans to visit them when he goes back. He plays football, loves acting and wants to write his 365 dates experience into a book and hopefully adapt it into a movie. He hopes to catch up with all these women one year down the road and see how their life has changed since their last meal together. Next year he wants to take out one homeless person each day for a meal and of course this time, he pays for their meal.

There is so much positive energy around this man he kept me captivated for the whole time we were there and there was no time to check phones and answer the worried calls from my friends who thought I was crazy to trust some random man and meet him in Chennai. Well it so happens he isn't some random man, he is a celebrity fashion photographer and a celebrity himself having acted in 7 tamil feature films so far. And guess what, I have made a friend! He didn't for once make me think I am dining with a celebrity, he is so humble, simple and down to earth, it felt like I was eating with a long lost friend. So dates don’t always have to be about romantic encounters. They can just be a chance to meet a total stranger and connect to them in a way you never thought possible. I am inspired to do something for the society however small it may be and I am so glad I went out of my boundaries to do something as random as this, because I got to meet a truly amazing person. It was the most wonderful meal I have had in a while :)