Woh Shaam kuch ajeeb thi......

I am really glad to know that Batch 77 is closely following my blog…lest I miss out some relevant detail; which as a matter of fact, I did. When we reached Bargi for the cruise it was written in huge bold letters that we cannot carry any food inside. But if you have a chronic muncher like Urmi, you can be sure that you will have something interesting to munch. So, Urmi smuggled in boiled Bers, a specialty of Jabalpur which tastes more of memories than the tangy salty sourness.

Now let me come to evening…as we drove off from Bargi, we stopped at a tea stall and had tea in peg size plastic glasses. The Batch mates wanted to meet their old Principal Rev Parampujya who was in a meeting at Sneh Sadan. Duda, who claims a special affinity with the Lord himself dissuaded all, making Sneh Sadan look as impenetrable as the Vatican itself. It took Harvinder and me to take the lead when we offered to barge into the meeting ; we could always fall back on the fact that we were outsiders and that we were unaware of the formalities of the matters concerning the Lord. Much to everybody’s relief Rev Parampujya came out of the meeting. He was old and feeble a far cry from the terror that he was. With a little effort he remembered the chief trouble makers headed by Duda who belongs to the rival camp of the Lord’s followers. Rev Parampujya was moved to tears for which Milan commented ruefully “ hame kitna rulaya tha ab khud ro raha hai?” Rev Davis, also present in the meeting, joined the group once again and after a few photographs, the Batch left Sneh Sadan. Everybody felt fortunate to have met Rev Parampujya.

We all broke up for the evening ….only to meet again. Hotel Gulzar looked a little extra bright that evening after all it was a special engagement party. Our good old friend Munnu, alias Manoj Singh was making a beginning….he was to get married! Well the couple were there, radiant, happy and deeply in love. The evening was special so special arrangements were made too. There was a local celebrity, a ghazal singer called in to add romance to the already romantic evening. The lights, the make shift stage, the white table linen and roses ….ah what a perfect evening!

The only hitch was the rest of the Batch77, had sobered down after the meeting with rev Parampujya and were now all braced up to booze and have a boisterous evening. In all sincerity everybody tried their best to enjoy the plagiarized other preschool rhyme pattern ghazals. Till, Harvinder and I began to get terribly bored. We were definitely not in the mood for candle lit romance and all this subdued sobriety was getting a little tiring. We first thought of doing a mujra , boob shaking style, like Rekha ( Now Padmashree Rekha) but could not quite do justice to it. So we decided to play the gallery…we clapped and did wah wah just about anywhere and everywhere in the Ghazal. Soon the rest of the Batch got into the mood and before the singer realized we had made his ghazal into a qawali and even a disco. The singer was glad to see so much of vocal appreciation from the audience. The only one who looked harassed and even murderous was the man playing the tabla who had to change the beats to suit our moods. Ranging from a soft Ghazal to a disco on which we jived.

While the Batch 77 had a rocking time….the other hapless invitees looked at us completely shocked! The women were scandalized and the men looked on longingly waiting to join this fun loving freaky crowd. In our hurry to reach the party none of us had carried a camera. How ever this shortcoming was made up amply by Narendra Chauhan who clicked away to glory. He seemed particularly fascinated by Harvinder due to her “media connections”. We are still waiting to see the pictures as Narendra did not join us for any of our outings after that….I wonder if his uninhibited pictures have anything to do with it.

In short it was an evening to remember….at least it was like that for the Batch. We might have shocked many maybe even our to- be- wed hosts and some very silent couples like Inder and Anjana. Anjana was convinced that Harvinder and I were pissed when the fact was that we were not even a peg down. I suppose when you want to have fun the intoxication lies in the mind, you can get a high just on the mood and the situation…like they say, agar sharab mein nasha hoti to kya botal nahi nachti?

College and cruise

After a long period of hibernation…..I am back to what I am best at – rambling. I apologize to all my loyal followers who were left mid way the journey of the Batch 77 reunion. The reason was just the mother in me who wanted to indulge my boys…

After that great gathering in Duda’s farm, the next day had all the batch mates visit their college and the university. For all it was like travelling back in time, everybody recalled their old flames, though some lucky ones like Inder and Anjana could actually bask in the warmth of togetherness. They met the Principal Rev Davis who displayed amazing business acumen in extracting something or the other from each of the old students. Duda had informed Rev Davis about the visit, so there was a high tea arranged for them.

Then they all headed for a cruise to the back waters of Bargi. High spirits both physical and mental gave company all the way. At Bargi, we split ways as tipplers needed some more time to be in resonance with the surroundings while a hungry and sober group headed for a restaurant in Bargi. After placing our orders from the very limited menu, the restaurant owners tried our patience in bringing the meager fare that we had ordered. As we finished the tipplers trooped in too but with a very hungry Duda and a very very angry tippler gang. It seems Duda had characteristically picked out all the meat pieces from the Biryani and had left the others with insipid oily rice. Duda who was down by many pegs, many pieces of meat and choicest abuses chose to eat something as sedate as dal and rice keeping the whole group waiting at the lake side for a cruise.

At last the cruise happened. It was almost sun down and the cruise was lovely… there were some attempts to dampen the spirits by the likes of Joshua, who wondered aloud about the survival rate in case the boat drowned. The only “bachelor” amongst us , Joshua seemed to have more “unspent energy” making him dangerously hyper. His outbursts were so sudden and unexpected that it would quite often leave the whole group alarmed. Even Harvinder has to rethink her idea to get him married seeing his untamed outbursts. Well, the cruise was a little too short and we all broke up for the evening…..a really special evening…in more than one way!