Spot Light

Life cuts like a knife

The people who run Thai Pavilion at the President, one of the city8217;s best restaurants, would like us to believe that everything there is original Thai and not Indian. And they have gone to great lengths to drive the point home. The hotel has actually brought in some native exotica whose authenticity cannot be doubted. The petite salad carver who sits at the entrance and turns watermelons and pumpkins into pieces of art arrived in India just two months ago from the land of temples, beaches and massages. And that Mutita Saentow, 24, is actually from the Far East and not from the North West of India, can be proved easily by talking to her. You cannot. Her command over the English language is unsure quite unlike the dexterity with which she uses her slim, curved-blade carving knives which resemble objets d8217;art themselves. She is here on a two year contract and her permanently smiling face droops when she mentions the time period. But Mutita quite seems to enjoy her job which isbasically to sit bedecked on a silk-covered cushion and work magic with her set of salad carvers. And one small mercy of her job is that the food she gets here is just like home because at the mention of Indian cuisine, she very eloquently turns up her nose.