A Weird party.
Opened my eyes after a little long nap of an hour. What i could see is a big board “QUALITY BAR”. For my surprise no one was in the traveller except Vivek, who still was in his dreams. We are at the land of Milli and Arbind Ashram, Pondycherry. All my friends are inside the bar searching for a nice spot for 12 of us to spend the morning..
Pondycherry, the marvellous example of French architecture. Very cleanly maintained and nicely organized small city. People come here only for two reasons. Go to Arbinda Ashram or take a deep dive in a pool of your choice, beer Whiskey wine anything. The beautiful city which I never enjoyed, After years I had seen snaps taken by my manager at pondycherry. I was there only to get twist off.
Some how managed to wake up vivek. We are here to celebrate mine and sandeep’s campus selection. The party was hosted by me, as usual sandeep was busy with one of his then girl friends. The seats were ready for us, I could see sherin sitting at the first chair, lad who never tasted liquor in his life, but will never give a status of ABSENT for any party. The person who always make sure that we have all our wallets, dresses and chappals on place. One more similar character, without whom we cant even think of a party, Abin. He always will get you the best products for the cheapest rate. His bargaining starts with the Chennai Auto drivers to the Arrow or Reebok show rooms at Spencer’s plaza.
Cheeeeeeeeeers.., a loud scream..Senate (a whisky available only in pondycherry) was sparkling in the 10 glasses. The music started, and we are in our swing. The mob was some thing like a card deck, all cards packed in one box. Someone who talks loudly when he is drunk – Sabin, Someone who eats hell out on a peg – Anoop, Someone who always admire or adore the intoxication as something better than an Orgasm – Vivek. And one more person whom we never used to trust once he is drunk – Jayan. The one who always gives an innocent smile on the second peg- Suveen. With the mob, I enjoyed the chair of Host. The discussions started with how I made it, to get in to a company, and it went on to the advices on how I can tackle and date with the beautiful (in fact gorgeous) HR manager of my company who came for the campus selection.
It was the lunch time and we have to get out of the bar to search for a better place where we can taste the real exotic pondy style sea food.”Come on man, I can’t tip you 100 bucks and all.. What the hell was your service ? we did not even get a Match box on time. And you are daring enough to ask me your tips. Where is your manager, Call your manager”..No wonder, Abin started bargain on the waiters tip. It took a while for Vivek to pay the tip, and it took more than a while for me to make Abin calm.
“Dude, I have to join the company tomorrow, and i might be shifting to some place near my office” i was looking at Vivek for the answer. A fuming Wills in his left hand and foaming King fisher on the other hand. He is enjoying the walk with a drink ” Dude, I am talking to you”. “Yep, So what? You are supposed to move on and in week’s time I will fly back to Mumbai, and I will start looking after my dad’s business. We knew all these. So what’s there to talk in this”. Come on how can he be so practical?
It started raining and we forgot to continue the talk. We were just enjoyed a silent walk in the damn heavy rain. Watching the sunset that tooo when you are drenched. “A case of beer or 2 full bottle whiskey?” it was Abin who took the order, I used my veto power to buy the beer, because I AM THE ONE WHO IS PAYING. Now all set for the journey back to chennai. Again the gana songs and the foaming Kingfisher. But this time it was different. We were wet and the chilled beer was making our ass frozen. ” Dude, i cant hold on this wet dress, close the window, I am going to get nude” I screamed “Suveen, what are you up to? Do you want others to get fainted? ” A loud giggle and he is done.
Come on yaar, how can some one travel 100 + Kilo meters without dress? And suveen has a standard answer “Dude, i am an NCC cadet and I have seen life, I squatted next to the railway tracks when hundreds were watching us.. and that was in Delhi when we went for a camp”..”Dude, girls also were looking at you? ” “Come on Anoop, gime a break, I dint count how many school girls and How many aunties”. I was at the last seat with Vivek, enjoying the fuming wills and melody of Kishore daa.. Don’t know when my eyes rolled up and the lids covered it..
“Helllo, who ever is inside the van, get down fast.. Other wise we will get in”.. I got up listening this and high beam of torch light was flashing inside the van.. Oh my GOD, police checking and we have almost half a case of beer in the van. It is illegal to carry beverages from pondycherey. “Vivek, dude, abhey saaaley.. get up, get up.. Maaamu log yaaar…” haaa no positive results for my scream. Somehow I managed to get him up and by the time he got up, we were the only two to come out of the van.
OH My God.. what Am I seeing. Till the time I sleep, and till the time Vivek sang “Pal Pal dil ke paaas”, Suveen was the only one in bith suite. Now me and vivek are the only one wearing pants. All the other 10 are in their VIP Frenchies. I couldn’t get the scene, i was wondering when all these boys undressed themselves.. “Ohhh.. Immoral traffic, that too on a national High way, but this is the first time we are catching a gang with no girls..shame shame..”Ooops, better hang myself. The charge on us is not carrying liquor, “IMMORAL TRAFFIC, that too among boys”. I was frozen and mute, and couldn’t hear the next sentences of the police inspector..
“Ok, boys.. get in to the Jeep, and ready to pose in the same dress.. Tomorrow morning it will come in the Chennai dailies”… Come on GOD, you gave me a job, now will you not allow me to join the same? Arrey, I have to join the company on the next day morning 10 o clock, and the inspector was inviting us to sasuraal. God help me..that’s all I could say..”Sir, please you can do something. I am sorry, only you could do something to save us”. Yes Abin on act now. “Pay, thousand rupees each and get lost from here” bloody 12 grants, no way our fotos will be on the front page of dinathanthi.
“Sir, we are college students, we were wet in the rain, so only we undressed ourselves..Please get in to the van and see, we have all our dresses on place”. Abin was on the his way of bargaining, but… He didn’t know what he said right now. If the police gets inside the van, he will get the half case beer and we will be fined for that also.. I was the sergeant moving towards the van, and I did not want to see anything further.. “Sir, I can’t even go near to the van, it so damn stinky”. Thanks to Saravanan, he already decorated the body of van with a mixture of beer, whiskey and Biriyani which got really mixed up in his stomach and which came out through his mouth.
“Sir, we can’t give you 12000, please tell us a reasonable amount sir, we are students and we do not have that much money”… Haaa, Abin you are proving again and again that you are best, but dude this is police and those were auto guys. So, please.. “What man, do you think you are at Koyambedu Market to bargain?”… The argument continued and abin was mastering the art of flattering. Somehow he managed to get rid of the cops by paying 1500 rupees. And we reached the college hostel. Then the next issue started, the driver wanted his allowance for 2 days, because we reached back only on the next day morning. It was almost 5 Am and the next day at 10 I have to report at work. I wanted to kill Abin, he wasted 30 minutes arguing with the cab driver. “Dude, I have to get some sleep now, please take my wallet and pay him what he wanted…” No he was in mood to listen me.
Epilogue: The next day morning I saw a weird or sarcastic smile on Usha Raju’s face. She was the HR manage who handed over the offer letter to me and sandeep. The manly smell of AXE also couldn’t stop the deadly smell of whiskey and beer. Hangover, it is worse than getting drunk !! That too on a first day at work
