“There is a great power within you…please join me in enhancing it and awakening your soul”, the irritating voice woke me up in the same ruthless manner as it did every morning. What a surprise – my mum had put the Zee Jagran channel on full volume at 6 in the freaking morning, again! I mean give me a break, wasn’t I supposed to be on vacation right now…why did Asaram Bapu have to ruin my dreams every morning with his sheer nonsense. But I was silently thanking God - hell I was lucky that Asaram Bapu was on in the morning, trust me things usually got much worse if Aastha channel was on instead. Atleast my mum listened to Bapu silently…when it came to the lady singing bhajans on Aastha TV, my mum knew all the lyrics inside-out and boy could she sing loud! Anyway, I had no choice – I got up and went straight to the sitting room to read the morning’s newspaper. “Who the hell are these bearded self-confessed saints…why can’t we just have beautiful women in this world instead”, I cried to God while one of my ears was still distracted by Asaram Bapu’s preachings. By 7:30am, I had already taken a shower and read the newspaper twice. Shortly Gobhi paranthas and achaar were served at the breakfast table, unfortunately accompanied by a glass of milk. “Milk??”, I looked at the glass in disgust. It was surely something I hadn’t had a lot in the recent days…infact JD and coke was too good an alternative to risk milk. Soon, Amit and Sejal’s faces were dancing infront of me………
My Emirates flight from Dubai landed right on time to a warm Saturday evening at Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport. Amit and Sunny had kindly come over to pick me up and despite heavy traffic on the roads, we were at Sejal’s place in an hour. I bought a makeshift party shirt from the nearby Phoenix mall and rushed back home as Sejal’s family had already booked a dinner table at China Garden. Though I had initially thought of meeting Divs’s parents in a quick visit, there was no way I could do it now considering we were already running behind schedule by an hour. We quickly ate whatever nibbles we could, picked Rashi up from her uncle’s place and sped off to our next destination – Czar Bar. Unfortunately, Sejal’s dad had a cricket match the next morning so Aunty and him couldn’t make it for clubbing. But honestly he is like the coolest dad in the whole world, still remember how he was repeatedly asking Nivas for cigarettes inside Indus bar back in April. How the latter fell down flat on the floor later is a different story, which you can ask me sometime over a drink. It is not everyday you find a 200 kg tamilian falling down on his butt in a painstakingly slow motion while offering cigarettes to a woman – it was a Kodak moment indeed! Anyway, Kshitij along with the rest of Sejal’s million cousins had already been waiting outside the club for the past 40 mins and it wasn’t a surprise that Ekta stood there bored, with half a pack of cigarettes already gone. I initiated the greetings with ‘sorry’ and with no further excuses, got inside the club with Rashi as quietly as I could with an ugly entry stamp on my hand.
It was the first time I was going to this place in my senses and it didn’t take much time for me to realise that it was infact a very small room, just like Suruchi’s friends had complained. Last time, we were already shitfaced by the time we entered the place and then were too busy jumping to the ‘Ya Ali’ tune to notice the surroundings at all. The crowd inside the club was fantastic just like the last time and the music was pumping really hard to make even the dumbest people tap their feet. I had been completely out of touch with the current bollywood and popular party songs, and it wasn’t a surprise that I was looking at other people’s faces for the first few minutes wondering what the hell was going on around me. Soon, somebody mentioned drink tokens and the rest was history!
Before I realised, Amit (with his Mika haircut) was swaying all over the dance floor hitting on any human being who remotely looked like a girl, Sejal had the usual big smile back on her face, Sunny was back to his best taking photos at every limb movement of ours and I was dancing in the middle of the dance floor as if my life depended on it. “Ahhh now life looks much more normal”, I told Sejal with a smile of content.
We stayed in the club till the last tune was played and despite his earlier promises Amit was in no state to stand on his own, leave alone the idea of driving us back home. After socialising with the valet for about 15 minutes, Sejal and I drove our respective cars to Worli Seaface where I was scheduled to meet Suruchi and her gang. It was after 9 yrs that I was meeting my old classmate and the initial moments felt quite strange. She introduced me to her friends while Sunny was trying his best to unlock the car’s door and Amit was in his own dreamland sleeping in Sejal’s car. To avoid any police patrol in the area, we decided to dump Amit on Sejal’s bed and move on to Marine Plaza for some much-needed food. After spending long and uncomfortable 30 mins in the restaurant where none of us talked much owing mainly to exhaustion, we dropped Suruchi off at her friend’s house near the Gateway of India. I could soon hear birds chirping and it was a cruel indication that I should be heading home to shower and get my packing done. It was 6am by the time I finished and we headed to the Domestic airport next for my Air Deccan flight to Delhi. Following few hours’ stopover at the Delhi airport, I boarded the mini Air Deccan plane to Jammu via Chandigarh. Despite its idea of free seating and its gay policy to charge even for a bottle of water, I was quite impressed with the flight’s punctuality. I had done my quota of socialising in the club during the night before and at that moment I was too tired and hungover to even pass a smile at the airhostess or fellow passengers.
It was a clear day and my locality was clearly visible from the air as the plane circled around Jammu city couple of times. I got out of the airport building with a feeling of excitement and relief…finally I was on home soil after stopping over in four cities. It just felt so good to hear people around me talking my language…I mean it wasn’t a joke, I had spent 3/4th of my lifetime here in this place…I had grown up with this unique culture and people around me. The city roads and buildings looked exactly the same as I had left it in April, infact there wasn’t much difference since I left it after school. “You won’t believe it but Air Deccan was surprisingly perfect, I hope you didn’t have to wait for long”, I told my brother-in-law as he drove his car over the Tawi Bridge. “Haha, I am glad to hear that. Everyone is waiting so eagerly for you.”, he replied back. If this wasn’t enough to get me thrilled, he further added, “Just wait till you get home, Maa has cooked Kashmiri lamb and Rajma for you”. It just sent me into a phase of ecstasy and I relaxed my head on the seat for the first time in a week. Damn it was good to be back where I belonged!
My Emirates flight from Dubai landed right on time to a warm Saturday evening at Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport. Amit and Sunny had kindly come over to pick me up and despite heavy traffic on the roads, we were at Sejal’s place in an hour. I bought a makeshift party shirt from the nearby Phoenix mall and rushed back home as Sejal’s family had already booked a dinner table at China Garden. Though I had initially thought of meeting Divs’s parents in a quick visit, there was no way I could do it now considering we were already running behind schedule by an hour. We quickly ate whatever nibbles we could, picked Rashi up from her uncle’s place and sped off to our next destination – Czar Bar. Unfortunately, Sejal’s dad had a cricket match the next morning so Aunty and him couldn’t make it for clubbing. But honestly he is like the coolest dad in the whole world, still remember how he was repeatedly asking Nivas for cigarettes inside Indus bar back in April. How the latter fell down flat on the floor later is a different story, which you can ask me sometime over a drink. It is not everyday you find a 200 kg tamilian falling down on his butt in a painstakingly slow motion while offering cigarettes to a woman – it was a Kodak moment indeed! Anyway, Kshitij along with the rest of Sejal’s million cousins had already been waiting outside the club for the past 40 mins and it wasn’t a surprise that Ekta stood there bored, with half a pack of cigarettes already gone. I initiated the greetings with ‘sorry’ and with no further excuses, got inside the club with Rashi as quietly as I could with an ugly entry stamp on my hand.
It was the first time I was going to this place in my senses and it didn’t take much time for me to realise that it was infact a very small room, just like Suruchi’s friends had complained. Last time, we were already shitfaced by the time we entered the place and then were too busy jumping to the ‘Ya Ali’ tune to notice the surroundings at all. The crowd inside the club was fantastic just like the last time and the music was pumping really hard to make even the dumbest people tap their feet. I had been completely out of touch with the current bollywood and popular party songs, and it wasn’t a surprise that I was looking at other people’s faces for the first few minutes wondering what the hell was going on around me. Soon, somebody mentioned drink tokens and the rest was history!
Before I realised, Amit (with his Mika haircut) was swaying all over the dance floor hitting on any human being who remotely looked like a girl, Sejal had the usual big smile back on her face, Sunny was back to his best taking photos at every limb movement of ours and I was dancing in the middle of the dance floor as if my life depended on it. “Ahhh now life looks much more normal”, I told Sejal with a smile of content.
We stayed in the club till the last tune was played and despite his earlier promises Amit was in no state to stand on his own, leave alone the idea of driving us back home. After socialising with the valet for about 15 minutes, Sejal and I drove our respective cars to Worli Seaface where I was scheduled to meet Suruchi and her gang. It was after 9 yrs that I was meeting my old classmate and the initial moments felt quite strange. She introduced me to her friends while Sunny was trying his best to unlock the car’s door and Amit was in his own dreamland sleeping in Sejal’s car. To avoid any police patrol in the area, we decided to dump Amit on Sejal’s bed and move on to Marine Plaza for some much-needed food. After spending long and uncomfortable 30 mins in the restaurant where none of us talked much owing mainly to exhaustion, we dropped Suruchi off at her friend’s house near the Gateway of India. I could soon hear birds chirping and it was a cruel indication that I should be heading home to shower and get my packing done. It was 6am by the time I finished and we headed to the Domestic airport next for my Air Deccan flight to Delhi. Following few hours’ stopover at the Delhi airport, I boarded the mini Air Deccan plane to Jammu via Chandigarh. Despite its idea of free seating and its gay policy to charge even for a bottle of water, I was quite impressed with the flight’s punctuality. I had done my quota of socialising in the club during the night before and at that moment I was too tired and hungover to even pass a smile at the airhostess or fellow passengers.
It was a clear day and my locality was clearly visible from the air as the plane circled around Jammu city couple of times. I got out of the airport building with a feeling of excitement and relief…finally I was on home soil after stopping over in four cities. It just felt so good to hear people around me talking my language…I mean it wasn’t a joke, I had spent 3/4th of my lifetime here in this place…I had grown up with this unique culture and people around me. The city roads and buildings looked exactly the same as I had left it in April, infact there wasn’t much difference since I left it after school. “You won’t believe it but Air Deccan was surprisingly perfect, I hope you didn’t have to wait for long”, I told my brother-in-law as he drove his car over the Tawi Bridge. “Haha, I am glad to hear that. Everyone is waiting so eagerly for you.”, he replied back. If this wasn’t enough to get me thrilled, he further added, “Just wait till you get home, Maa has cooked Kashmiri lamb and Rajma for you”. It just sent me into a phase of ecstasy and I relaxed my head on the seat for the first time in a week. Damn it was good to be back where I belonged!
Partying in Czar bar - (L2R: Sejal, Ekta, Me, Rashi, Sunny, Amit)
2 comments:
Aye, didnt know Air Deccan flew to pakistan. All in name of International relations, eh?
-Bharat
Took me life insurance prior to the flight though - just incase! :-)
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