Combined Treat

After having a few jinxed birthday treats with atleast one member of the Gang missing them, Saturday night was a resounding success. (Ok, we still did miss Rajjo, but I can’t say much about that apart from this refrain – “Come back dude!!!”.)

If I remember correctly, the first ever birthday treat that any member of the Gang ever doled out was Chakku. He got us all a Pepsi from Sandhya Stores right next to our school. We slowly graduated to Mathru Sagar, Shanti Sagar, Gokul, KFC, Kabab Corner, Tandoor, Angeethi, Samarkand, Spiga, TGIF, Magnolia, Annachi, Rice Bowl, Grasshopper, Dahlia, and MTR. The list of the places is in no particular order, nor is it exhaustive…but MTR is definitely the best in terms of quality of food.

So, after a delay of a month, Kiddo & Chakku gave their combined birthday treat at Firangi Paani. I had vowed to make the two of them regret having decided to give a combined treat. We do not know how fruitful we were in our endeavour. But the food at the place was awesome – the ordering of the vegetarian dishes was Pinto’s duty, and he did a very good job. Despite some dishes which bordered on profanity (like Maa ki Daal), most of his choices were spicy fares – and more spice means more taste.

Remember my earlier post on love having no reason, only season? Well, I modified that to this: Vegetarianism has no reason. Only season. How else would you explain Kiddo 2, who is not supposed to eat non-veg throughout the year, saying, “This is the month of Shravan. So I am not allowed to eat non-veg!!” Ok, there is the other explanation that I came up with – maybe he is following a Jai Santoshi Ma austerity for the well-being of someone. Ahem! ;-)

While we are on the subject of vegetarians, I might as well talk about the “silent ones” and the “talkative ones” during dinner. The 6 vegetarians (Kiddo, Chakku, Pinto, Kiddo 2, Pamsy, me) spoke a lot. While the 3 non-veggies (Achoo, Kaushik, Bandhar) ate a lot, and spoke zilch. Is there a trend here? I know not about that, but Kiddo 2 would have been happy that Bandhar was pretty quiet, taking into consideration that the only time he surfaced into our conversation was to rebuke Kiddo 2. :)))

Most of the jokes were on “You’ve crossed 800, do you want to continue?”, “This seems slightly unbelievable. Let me send my score for retotalling and get it reduced”, “So why don’t you save money by…”, and a million other things that the outside world would never understand.

The drive back was a lot of fun in the pouring rain. Well, it was fun mingled with a tinge of melancholic nostalgia as I had to drive through the roads of Jayanagar after dropping Achoo & Pinto off. Another kind of fond longing also settled in as we drove through the empty roads, lashing rains…sigh…where is that Bangalore of old! But if I begin to miss my Bangalore in this post, it would be hard to stop me. Let that be for another rainy day, as I sit cuddled in a chair with a hot cup of coffee, and a book and I stare into the trees around my house sing to the tune of the breeze. Now isn’t the time for nostalgia.

I realized that I needed to fill diesel, and so Pamsy decided to take me to the “most honest petrol bunk” in Bangalore, right opposite Lalbagh gate. Honest or not I know not…but lazy they definitely are. Morons refused to accept the card as it was raining!!! But such minor irritants would never be able to ruin a perfect evening with the Gang. In fact the only irritant that can ruin anything with the Gang is the absence of the Gang itself. Hmm…I do not know what I am trying to convey through the previous line, but it just felt right. That is good enough for me.

Sunday was a sombre affair mostly.

That pretty much describes the weekend.