Reunion @ Mental Hospital

JAMBOREE!!

Ever felt an avalanche of happiness? Ever heard good news followed by good news followed by more good news?

Taps wanted to spend his 29^th birthday in his कर्मभूमी(Mumbai) with as many as his GIM buddies he could gather। The week before when Taps was AGAIN in Mumbai, we counted 20 odd people who would be the treat-ees. As 11^th May drew near Barda confirmed his visit to Mumbai followed by Crusher, Sunder, Sandhu and the ever doubtful Ion.

To my dismay (to be read as ‘delight’) Mom, Dad and me were expected to be at aatya’s place in Sholapur. I happily refused to make the trip on the pretext of (figuratively) entertaining my friends here. I was glad we had the whole house to ourselves.

On the morning of 9^th I bade farewell to mom n dad and lazed around the house the whole day. As dusk arrived, I shopped for liquor & चकना. Having made the Kol trip a fortnight ago, I knew exactly what all is expected under the umbrella of ‘hospitality’ and had learnt (the hard way) how to balance between hypo-hospitability & hyper-hospitability. I received a message from Tapan that he would arrive at 8:45 –exactly when Adi was supposed to alight at Thane station; exactly when Sunder was to reach Thane check-naka. Nice!! Mr. Host… assignment number1 – pick all guests at the scheduled time.

Having made Taps wait outside my home, I rode to Thane station to find that Adi had alighted at Kalyan as planned and taken the Mumbai-Pune train which was not planned. I prayed that the train was coming towards Mumbai and not going towards Pune. Having picked him I dropped him home and rushed to check-naka to pick Sunder. I had to wait for around 20mins to realize that Sunder was waiting for me for the past 15mins just 100mts away. He looked miserable – 3hrs to Hyderabad airport, 2hrs flight and another 1.5hrs in the auto rickshaw had made him half dead. I sensed only beer could bring him back to life.

After these guys freshened up and praised the interiors of the house, we sat for our regular Friday nite drinks albeit at Vaze’s; and uncle Vaze was kind enough to pour Patiala pegs to all. The choice of liquor was the same as that at Genes… beer for Sunder, Rum for me n Taps and Sprite for Adi. These guys had discovered some firang music channel on TV which was supposed to be pretty famous and I was unaware of it. While we had rounds of alcohol, our bakar kept us going till 1:00a.m. We realized that it was very late and we better eat some dinner. So we hogged on the Biryani Sunder had carried from Hyderabad. This style of Biryani is really very different from what the western part of India consumes. The rice was bland with the spices only adding to the aroma. The real fiery taste was brought in by the gravy that accompanied it. It was a great recipe.

The boys had got their laptops; I had a switch and sufficient LAN chords … CS ONNNNNN!! We all huddled up in a small room, put the a/c on & played on de_dust2. Initially we struggled to keep the team balance by being two on each side. But the abuses were getting louder on each kill. So we kept the BOTS at high difficulty and all of us played CTs. It was a wonderful game. Me and Adi started taking the lead & were fighting for top slots. But then the pros (Spike n lalala) beat us hands down.

Game after game, kills after kills, we made strategies, formed groups, defused bombs and fought the terrorist in that dark night; but in the end the BOTS were too many and too much for us. In this Gods imperfect world, the terrorists reigned and the good side was unable to clean the world of the evil force. (Oh God… I need to get myself checked up!)

We played till the cuckoo koo-ed and the rooster cock-a-doodle-doo-ed. It was 6:00a.m and we couldn’t hold our eyes any longer. It was time for Barda to arrive. I guess that’s why everyone wrapped up the game and dozed off.

PARTY!!

I was worried why he hadn’t showed up. His mobile wasn’t reachable and he hadn’t called me since last night. Moreover the bus journey was through the Kasara ghat – so I was worried all the more. No! This is not a concerned girlfriend’s lines for her bf. Barda was indeed stuck up in a bad traffic for 4 hrs after which he had to take a train from Igatpuri to Thane where he travelled standing in Panchavati express. He said it reminded him of our journey from Bolpur to Sealdah. (Lately I heard of him making a similar trip from Nanded to Aurangabad. Man!! This guy really needs to start booking tickets in advance.)

I could fortunately catch some sleep till 10:00. That’s when the second gong struck: Mr. Host … guests generally need breakfast in the morning. I rushed to the shop to get milk, bread, butter & eggs and made nice omelets for all.

Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was the night-out or maybe the a/c. My throat had given up and I could hardly speak. I have been avoiding cold/oily stuff since that day. (I haven’t truly recovered even today - I cough as I write.)

As the hour passed by, everyone started to wake up and greet Barda – or was it the other way round? By the time I got ready, it was already 1:00.

We had promised lunch with lambuji and we made it for tea at his place. He was a HILLTOPPER now. TataCap had got him into Hotel HillTop at Worli. We travelled through the local train (Sunder and Adi had scary memories of this mode of transport). I told Adi how I had the propensity to get into the ‘churning’ compartment of the local train (This is the compartment which has the generator attached to it and it makes a loud churning noise every 15-20mins).

At HillTop, the guys were hungry again. (I wonder how people could be that in this hot and humid city – esp. after you are stuffed with cheese and omelets).So we ordered biryani again … and Sunders leg was pulled again and again and again!

The next venue was to be Café Mondegar. On the warm Saturday eve, on the scantily populated Worli road stretching along the sea, we were hunting for a taxi. The walk was long but I wished the walk would never end. The cool breeze, the lively but calm locality, the cruising of an occasional vehicle besides us, the appearance of the sun touching the water between two buildings and vanishing again to appear at the next building ; the place did not feel like Mumbai at all. I saw children play there and wished I had the chance to see the sun set into the sea every evening while I played with my friends. The Worli sea-face stretch is really worth watching and takes you through the good part of Mumbai.

Sandhu had landed and Taps was directing his every step towards south Mumbai.

By the time we reached Mondegar, it was too late and the venue was already updated to Farilyal’s. Somehow I couldn’t remember this name till I actually saw this place. Taps as usual did not know the exact location of the hotel so we circled the Taj, walked to Radio Club, asked for directions and made it to the hotel; and every couple of minutes I was re-asking Taps the name of this place. Since we were supposed to go ‘up’ to the restaurant, Taps assumed it was on the top floor of the hotel. We found the top floor was all long carpeted corridors terminating in ‘Thai suite’ & ‘Cambridge suite’. We wouldn’t have minded a treat in a suite, but the rest of the gang was sitting someplace in this building wondering where me Barda and Taps were lost. Finally we located the restaurant on the 1^st floor of the structure. It was a nice pool-side place and was scantily populated at that hour. The open restaurant was surrounded by tall buildings from all 4 sides from where residents could easily peek into the restaurants activity. (But no one seemed to be interested in doing it). I don’t know if it was the ambience of the place or the awkwardness of the company, but everyone was quietly sitting with an occasional small talk and formal smiles. Having greeted Mr. & Mrs. Sikka, Alimax, Ruble, Kneekill, Odrey, I took a chair and was waiting for the drinks to arrive. I learnt that Adi n Sunder were the search unit’s sniffer dogs sent to rescue me, taps & Barda from the maze of buildings downstairs. They arrived after sometime with a look of disgust on their faces.

With the chief guest having arrived, the party started getting livelier. Then the drinks arrived followed by Su, Fatality, Aris, Babe, P.An, Sandhu. People switched places, changed groups and the atmosphere was getting more pleasant. Drinks were followed by more drinks and dinner. Adit made a quick entry and a quicker exit because he wanted to get a free entry into some place screening some movies which none of us seemed interested in.

As 0000 hrs arrived, all of us planned to scare Taps by threatening to throw him into the pool. We had lifted him too and swung him over the water while he cried “Main khud chala jaunga. Mujhe mat feko.” Somehow Sugam seemed to be unaware of the plan and he actually flung Taps towards the water. Sandhu just managed to get a good grip and pulled him back. The ritual then followed –cake cutting, everyone singing, cake smearing and spanking. It was a very nice b’day treat by Ruble n Taps.

Having had spent the last summers at Wilson, most of this gang had a craving for kulfi; and by the time we were done with the kulfi, it was too late for the last train home. 12 of us decided to spend the night at marine drive. We walked to the place and sat there for quite some time. People talked, took snaps, discussed GIM days and tried to ward off sleep. When we couldn’t take it anymore, I called Adit and found out that Marine plaza which was open 24hrs. With time as an ample resource, we decided to spend it (despite the scanty resource of enthusiasm) by walking down to that hotel. It was a good 30mins walk along the beautiful queen’s necklace. We saw couples, people sitting in groups, even tramps occupying the place. Even at 2:00a.m it looked lively. The road too was filled with speeding cars and stuntmen on bikes.

At around 2:30, a police van started knocking everyone off the necklace and asking us to go home. We hunted for the place which refused to show up. The walk seemed like eternity. Finally we could see the place. From the appearance of the ‘darbaan’ outside, I sensed it was at least a 5star hotel. The look inside was plush. The ground floor was a huge seating area; the restaurant & bar was on the first floor. The restaurant was all white with ornate walls, a painting or two; a huge wooden model of ship along with its sails was on display. The white table in the center was offering a buffet and the food looked nice. Having secured some scattered tables for ourselves, we freshened up and had a look at the menu card. We ordered for tea and some pastries. I never had imagined I would be having tea in a 5-star hotel. The crowd there was very up-class, the outfits, hairstyles, quality of skin, even the shoes looked rich. Even at that hour, quite a lot of people were dropping in for dinner. The guys were rating the babes who were moving in and out of the place; some of us were shameless enough to keep staring till the object vanished from sight – ekdum ‘desi’.

Our sips of tea were minute and bites on snacks were teeny-weeny. Finally having killed enough time, we departed the place at 4:00, and walked down to Churchgate. Even at that hour there seemed to be quite a crowd in the train. Barda, as usual, rushed into the train & caught a window seat far away from the rest of the gang. We thought he was fast asleep and so decided to play a prank on him. When the next station came, Aris & Anant jumped on the platform, ran towards his window & shouted “Abbey Barda utar, station aa gaya”. Barda was too smart for them. By the whole thing neither was he panicked nor surprised - just plain embarrassed!

Having arrived at home, we guys dozed off. It was a tiring day. I enjoyed the food, the company and the celebrations a lot – but it was tiring. I never had a walk along the whole of queen’s necklace at one time; I have never had a tea in a 5star hotel; I have never been to a place anywhere in Mumbai at 3:00 a.m. which was not my workplace; all this was fun- but it was very very very tiring.

GUJJU THALIS AND PIZZAS

Day 2 was a little relaxing. It started with a nice & confusing plan of Barda & Sunder meeting Vinayna in Parel. Barda forgot to communicate this to Sunder and they were hurriedly getting ready with a guilt of having made her wait for more than an hour. They finally cancelled the plan and I had to talk her out of it. The poor gal must be cursing us for all this and we were cursing Barda.

Lunch was scheduled at Tip-Top GrandThali where we met Viddo and Don (who had escaped from the Khanvel camp to meet us guys) along with Richa & Motu. It was a good meet and it felt so nice to eat the gujju thali again.

The huge intake of ghee had made us too lethargic to plan any more outings. We sat in my place watching IPL where KKR thrashed DC, while Sandhu made nice ginger tea for all.

A round of good-byes followed. The Khanvel campers eloped to their haven, Richa & Motu rushed to wrap up some office work while the rest of he gang went to SBX again. Upon Ali’s persistence, we ate pizza at a nice place and returned home early.

ADIOS!

The next day was the saddest day when Sandhu, Sunder & Taps departed with bye-byes and promises to meet again.

Adi, me and Barda spent that eve strolling besides lakes, eating sumptuous Chinese cuisines and driving late night on the streets. I accompanied both of them to Pune next day where they took their respective routes home.

Have I archived it as just another weekend meet of the GIM gang? No – it will be archived as a time when 4000+kms of journey was made in 35 man-hrs from the corners of the nation by incurring expenditures in 5-digit figures to celebrate the kinship which had evolved over fights and argument in 2 years in the land of 3Bs. Wishing such cheerful & touching memories a long life!