mediterranean food served up in obscurity with a dash of bollywood and followed by a staggered queue of capitalistic freedom

A gathering to celebrate two friends getting post-PhD jobs. The location: Falafel Cafe on Cobb Parkway in Marietta. The driving directions included a couple of steps that are easy to follow and understand ONLY IF you have taken them before. Tip on the directions: if you're taking I-75N, just get onto Cobb Parkway the usual way (assuming you've been on Cobb Parkway at least once), and just keep on it. It's not as interstate-friendly, but you'll get there instead of embarking on a voyage of suburban discovery.

The place itself seems to have achieved more success with obfuscation given its turn-after-turn-into-obscurity location in a blink-and-you-might-miss-it stripped-down strip mall.

After relishing some great kabaabs and strange exotic entrées that look deceptively lean, we were treated to some familiar music on the overhead speakers: the songs from the SRK starrer Chalte Chalte.

As if we hadn't inflicted enough grief on the servers with the large contingent, we proceeded to add another time-consuming chore for them. The rest of us split a portion of the tab, which meant that we queued up chatting and consuming free candy from a jar while the server processed 14 credit cards, one after the other.

All that surreal business aside, I must announce my growing appreciation for mediterranean food. Perhaps because of some of the qualities that overlap with Indian cuisine (brickbats anticipated).