I walked into the cheap 2 star hotel like any other ordinary day, hoping for an ordinary early night sleep. At the reception counter, I stood to wait for the receptionist to realise I was there. Finally, she looked up, and recognised me. She smiled. I said, wondering to myself what else I might be doing there, that I am checking in, while handing her my identity card. She said, with a big smile as if trying to be sweet, ”Again?” I couldn't help myself. ”Well, I didn't come here to see you!” She sort of laughed at my comment. I think she tried to figure out whether she should be embarrassed or not. I just wanted her to give me my room key. She spent a good few minutes tapping into the keyboard, checking against my identity card. As each minute passed, I thought I should be getting closer to getting my room card. I needed the toilet, quite soon. She offered me a room with no window. I asked whether I could get a room with a window. She then offered me a room with a single bed. I asked if I could get a room with a double bed. Then she said the rooms with double beds are all taken. I said, fine, I'll have the room with the window then. She said those are also all taken. This is when I began to think this must be an ordinary day. Because this is an ordinary conversation. Because ordinary conversations involve ordinary people and ordinary people are just stup*d. She then said the room rate will be some amount. I said fine. I really needed to use the toilet to let go of my ordinary sh*t, by then. She then realised I had already booked online for a room and she had just wasted the last 15 minutes looking for a room that was already allocated to me. There was absolutely no need to look for a double bed, windowed or unwindowed room. Someone else had already done the job. She's not an ugly girl. Big eyes, sharp chin, small frame, an average height. But her makeup was so thick she must have applied them with a rather big paintbrush or a mini-roller. You could easily tell she was hiding some bad skin and that she aspires to be whiter than humanly possible. I am sure makeup comes in many colours but surely milky white is not one of them? Or maybe 'Curd and Whey'. Or, dried up plaster of paris? What do I know. I got my room key. She fiddled with the credit card machine but it's so ordinarily dull, my mind had turned off by then. It had had enough of trying to observe the insipidly mundane. Either that, or it was having a mini-seizure induced by the dullness of this clumsy, unprepared, caked-face, long haired girl, who clearly preferred to be somewhere else fixing her long nails. I felt sad for her though. As she must have felt sad for me too. Here I am, in a certified two-star hotel, alone in a strange city, late at night, eager to go straight into my room to take a big smelly dump. And there she was, struggling to do a simple task at a simple job, hoping that someone decent would marry her soon, clearly for her looks and
245 Reviews