You are not much of a partying kind, but on a fine Saturday after a long, long time when a couple of old friends suddenly decide to raise a toast… who on earth would want to decline such a generous opportunity. Pretty much not being concerned about rest of the word; all that you know drink some chilled Beer.
Having lit his old favorite Navy Cut cigarette, Niak started how harmful it is to smoke cigarettes these days, apart from the threat of cancer and other sister diseases, the traffic police and anti-tobacco activists are on prowl. That was out of his experience when he was caught in Chennai some time back and had paid more than his Tamil counterpart to get rid of the police. To which scrappy Dev smartly said, would have been same in Barrackpore, himself hailing from West Bengal, but my Marathi friend (Niak) with his distinctive long smile darted at Dev and said come to Pune. While the silent Jatt, Rahul was least interested in burning tobacco and announced, “Bottoms Up, bottoms Up…guys quick. For good times. Cheers!!!” ………Gulp! Gulp! Gulp! Went us four.
With arrival of the aachars and the plate of chackna, and of course more beer our chit-chat turned into exciting narrations; even the silent Jatt couldn’t resist his expert views on how the unusual North Indian roti curry in the South Indian hotels was taking toll on his good health. “Come to Pune its much better, north Indian means north Indian only...”retorted Niak. Dude that happens, I mean we are in Bangalore you can not ask for what you liked back at home, likewise you don’t get good idly, bada or even all dosa's that sells in Delhi. “The best thing is to try in those Chinese food joints they are neither North Indian nor South Indian and so are the people serving there”, said Dev. “Aare! Most of these boys come from Nepal and the Northeastern states” said I. Dev drowsily pointing at me, see this fellow from Assam yet doesn’t look like one. Rest of us laughed, “chad gayi tereko saale!!!” More Beers poured in and more smoke, the talk became more exciting when Rahul started describing this hot Gujarati girl that has recently joined his team and how took her out to one of the good Chinese restaurant and had to go all veggie. With mention of Gujarat, amongst laughs Dev started his likes about Modi’sm, and how the state had developed and flourished post Godhra, but none of us were particularly satisfied or happy with his views, with Naik talking about his Muslim neighbor whose family was brutally murdered and now they are more like his own family. Rahul mentioned about his childhood friend Hakim who was in middle-east now, still send gifts and how his whole family came to attend Rahul’s sister’s marriage and stayed with them over a week. And also about, beautiful Assama; whom he had been dating during his Delhi days. Then when Dev started about Saidul (his class mate in school and neighbor), he went over board stating him celebrating Durga puja and ended up saying Saidul as a Muslim who was not even a Muslim…….. making us go wild with laughter, Dev only smiles elusively with his drowsy eyes. Still more kept beer pouring into our taking.
