Diwali 2006

Friday was a holiday on account of Diwali & Neeral finally managed to come over from Chennai with his friend & colleague Sudipto. Dude has grown his hair long & the gelled, spiked look of the college days is gone. Besides, he's got himself a girlfriend, so that's not all that changed in his life, if ya know what I mean.

Anyway, his pesence opened up a pandora's box of questions & enquiries from the rest of us & hours were spent in yakking & catching up on old times. G8 would've been together after more than a year & a half, but for the presence of Div, who's away, living it up in China, again .... if ya know what I mean.

Evening time was party time with 3 big Smirnoffs, mountains of chips & Breezers for Anupam. Boozing & bakar-c with friends is one of the best means of spending quality time with friends & these are the memories that are gonna remain with you long after everybody's gone their separate ways. I'm glad I'll have plenty of them.

Saturday was Diwali & a big pile of crackers had been readied. Evening saw Soumya, Avik & Sayan join us at #77 for 2 long hours of cracker bursting. I was handling crackers after 2-3 years (the last few Diwalis had been extremely dull), & I must say that the thrill remains the same as ever. Thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Soumya's apartment was empty & all of us then trooped over to his place for the night. The inevitable booze & bakar session followed & it was topped off by an excellent chicken/raayta/pulao meal cooked to perfection by Praveen & Soumya.

Soumya also chose to add to the celebrations by shooting blanks from his rifle! Managed to get one shot off myself .... must say, the feeling you get when you hold a firearm in your hands is awesome. I'm definitely gonna get myself a gun once I can afford it, my favourite Glock 9 mm.

It's Sunday today. Neeral leaves for Chennai at 9 pm. 5 days of office comin up. Hutch has barred outgoing from my cell since there was some goof up from their end! Damn, I hate working days. As Arni said, "yaar, bas aise hi party chalte rehta aur mahina-mahina bank mein paisa aate rehta ....". Yeah bro, I wish things were that easy.