High on Spirits

Talking about vodka, sitting in the D school canteen …we friends were sharing our first liquor experience. This took me back to the memory lane…my final year in college; despite living in Delhi, I took up a PG accommodation near my college. I stayed with five friends. We wanted to discern how it feels to get tulli. Neither of us have ever had a drink except one who was an alumni of our college. She suggested us to go to a bar in GK M-block for a cocktail. However, none of us were so audacious to get drunk in a bar and return in that drunken state to the PG. So we chose to bring vodka in PG and make our own cocktail. We asked our maid Afsana ji to get Smirnoff vodka. We brought cold drinks, potato chips and some chocolates (in case vodka tastes too pungent). We decided to have a booze party on a Saturday night. After dinner, we locked the main door and poured drinks in our coffee mugs. Cheers….. that first sip was horrendous. We all ate chocolates. But we were determined to get tulli, come what may. As the first peg came to an end, our feeling was that of buoyancy. We laughed, danced and celebrating the good mood. One of us suggested calling a guy friend of one of us and flirting with him. I was the most docile of the lot, so they all asked me to do the flirting. I didn’t know what to say but I agreed. I clearly remember the guy’s name, his name was Arjun and he was doing MBA from Amity University. I can’t recall what we talked, however, one thing I remembered that he kept on repeating, ‘you have a sexy voice’ and sighed whenever I grinned. I was completely out of my senses coz I don’t remember when I hung up.
We shared our intimate secrets…we laughed together…we cried together. Laughed…cried…laughed…cried… we spent the entire night weeping, sobbing, chuckling, and giggling. We had the best of our times together. And to our amazement, when we got up the next morning or rather afternoon, there was no hangover of the last night’s booze. But the only repercussion of that night was Arjun’s phone calls for me. He wanted to meet me, but I don’t, coz I dread the sort of an opinion he must have made of me in his mind, when I’m just the contrary. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, he gave up and all of us had a good laugh.
Nevertheless, we had a great time getting intoxicated and I still cherish those splendid moments.

Serenity in clamour

‘How could you read in such noise’, an elderly man asked me as I was reading In the Wonderland of Numbers by Shakuntla Devi in the Metro. I looked at him but said nothing. As I withdrew back to my book, he again asked, ‘Don’t you get time at your home to read?’ I wanted to tell this elderly person that when I’m into a book I don’t listen to all the noise around. Any human or mechanical sound do not struck on my eardrum. When I’m reading a book, even the crowd of Metro does not seem to bother me. I feel completely at peace and in a state of tranquil. I wanted to tell him that I do get time to read at home but only my course books and for an hour and a half journey of Metro, books are my only companion who never fails to intrigue me. Lost in my thoughts I smiled at him and buried my face in the little book.

Struggling for a Foothold

Today I was so disgusted with all the people in the world….it seems they have their petty things to do and they give a damn about the rotten system. They promised to support you in the endeavor to revolutionize the crumbling system but back out without informing. The meeting was scheduled at 4:00 pm at Coffee Home. I reached half an hour before to arrange for the meeting. Me and Nidhi were expecting four new faces in this meeting. I was waiting alone and Nidhi to join me at 4:00. At 3:45 I got a message from one expectant that 'I can’t come because I don't have an off '. He knew this beforehand…can’t he message me the previous day? Exactly after ten minutes, another person whom I was hoping to come called and said that her cousin has been hospitalized, she’s with her. I thought all right, two must be coming but before another thought came up in my mind…another two messages and back to ground zero…nobody turned up. It was 4:12 pm and l was feeling anguish and my mind was in mayhem. I called Nidhi and told her about the situation. She asked me to meet at CCD Rajiv Chowk. I headed towards CCD. While walking through the crowd, the only thing that occupied my mind was the long and difficult road ahead. I was not looking at the people walking by but thinking about the struggle that has been started. I didn’t realize that a drop of tear ran down my cheek. I brushed it off with the back of my hand. As soon as I reached CCD, I tried to find solace in the warm ambience of CCD and a romance novel by Nora Roberts. When Nidhi came, I vented out all my anger, disgust and annoyance. She’s the one who always listens to me and reassured me. We had a cup of coffee and muffin. That certainly calmed my tensed nerves. Then with a self assured smile we chalked out our agenda for the next meeting.

Prejudice and Pride

No! I haven’t written it wrong. It’s not Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, its Prejudice and Pride by Krishan Kumar. I read a couple of its pages three years back and got interested. I bought this book from last Delhi Book Fair and now I’m in the midst of it. I pondered over the issues that he raised while reading about the Mumbai attacks in newspapers. I can easily sense the hatred towards India, nurtured in the young and impressionable minds of these terrorists. India and Pakistan share a common history yet we are a different people or perhaps it’s just a perception that has been cultivated through constant feeds of hate for each other in the young minds of children in schools. Krishan Kumar in his book, Prejuduce and Pride, tried to analyse the two different perspectives of history, i.e., the Indian perspective and the Pakistani perspective. I’m still reading the book and wondering what the historical events were like. Are they reported as they had happened or are they some historian’s perspective? I’m still wondering…

Life’s like that!

I’m feeling good today. I met two of my very good friends from college and school by chance in Metro after a long time. I’m thankful to Metro because I met a lot of people whom I never met for a long time while commuting. Is this HAPPINESS? That college friend was one in whom I confided all my secrets and the school friend was the one on whom I had a crush. Is that the reason of my feeling good? Is this HAPPINESS? Whatever it is…the feeling is beautiful.