Let this be a lesson

so the upshot of things was that the Drunken revellery did happen. Over the weekend. And no it wasn't me that got drunk. It was a friend and the best part about dealing with drunken people is that its the best time to wean out secrets from them. And wean out secrets we did although i'm pretty sure that THAT friend will not want to socialize with us ever again and that would truly suck because he was the one with the car. So no more rides, no more late nights, no more random 2 am stops at streetside chaiwallahs, I guess for my sake I better be discreet now.

I'm a social drinker.Yeah ok, not quite a social drinker considering I have a whole bottle of malibu hidden in my closet. I dunno why but I hide things that I don't want to share with anybody in my closet. Just Like my mother actually hmmm. Anyway, so the malibu sits prettily next to my pile of special underwear (too much information??) and I have a swig of it (the malibu not the underwear) every other night. I like it with pineapple juice and that combination is heeavenly! but my drink of choice these days is the dirty martini. A martini makes me feel all grown up and mature. It makes me feel like a woman who has her life sorted and which is extremely sexy as opposed to what I am - a 25 year old who collects happy meal toys

I've never had a particular thing for alcohol tho. I mean it wasn't particularly glamorous because it was never denied to us as kids. My dad loved his beer with fish curry rice and we had a lot of those growing up. Infact my mom completely spoiled beer for me by telling me it was good for the knees!! imagine beer having medicinal properties! I'm glad that my parents were cool about alcohol as it meant that I was regarded as super cool in my school, as I was the only one among them to have tasted all the alcoholic drinks. But their coolness also meant that I could never store my alcohol at home. Infact when I stashed my breezers in our fridge, I would often find those consumed by my folks. Infact my mom even called me at work once and reminded me to get more breezers. Now you know why I moved to pune...

But I've had my drunken tryst with alcohol too. What I describe next doesn't make me look good, but if I wanted to feel good about myself, I'd watch splitsvilla. Anyhow, my drunken binge happened, unfortunately at an office party. The party was at Geofferies and since the alcohol was on the company all of us literally immersed ourselves in an alcohol frenzy. I had 8 tequila shots, 2 large whiskies, 1 glass of wine, 1 cosmopolitan, 2 shots of baileys and then I lost count. Then I also started slapping people around. One of the people I slapped happened to be a senior sales guy and he wasn't particularly pleased with my slapping him and so he poured his wine over head as he was drunk too, see? I don't think I consumed that...and then I passed out on the lawn. When they tried to take me home I started puking my guts out. Another dear friend (I won't say who, you know who you are) who was also drunk and who happened to be in the same cab as mine also started puking but unfortunately inside the cab. The cab driver actually refused to drive any further because of all the puking and demanded that he be paid a thousand bucks more inorder to pay for the cleaning. The onus of pacifying the driver came on the only guy who was not drunk and not puking and I bet at that time he seriously wished that he was one of us puking people.

The next day I felt sick to my stomach and spent the better part of the day in the loo. After that incident I did not drink for a year. Now, in fear of such an event ever ocurring I actually take in just one small drink and make it last the whole evening. Its for the greater good - no puking and no angry cab drivers to deal with

I Got Panda!

This is a tale of triumph. of inspiration. of overcoming great odds. This is a tale of how I FINALLY got the King-fu Panda Happy Meal toy at McDonalds.

Ok, ok, I realize as someone in my Mid-Twenties, I should not be associating myself with anything MacDonalds. Even remotely, as that would prove detrimental to my cool yuppie chick image and instead should be writing about alcohol, orgies and grass but seriously, I live in Pune, which has not quite recovered from that ill fated rave party (which people still talk about...I mean..C'mon...) so expectations about tales of drunken revelry need to be tempered a lil bit methinks. Also. Also, and this is hugely embarassing, I have a thing for collecting Happy Meal toys. Some ok. Not all *she says, rather defensively*

See, at first I was a huge closet admirer of Happy Meal toys. They were cute alright but I was too embarassed to ask the guy at the counter for fear of being judged. When MacD was rolling out Shrek Characters as Happy Meal toys I was greatly tempted but I resisted myself. Then epiphany happened by way of talking to kay my best gal friend. I told her about my secret craving for Happy Meal toys and found that kay had a whole bloody collection going! and when we were in school, kay was the first one among us to have a living, breathing boyfriend as opposed to some of us (I'm not saying who) who were still into fantasy boyfriends. This fact alone made her an icon in all our eyes and if she was collecting Happy Meal Toys, there is no SHAME in me collecting one too.

So from then on, I became a Happy Meal Nazi. I constantly harassed the MacD staff when they didn't have the "right" toy in stock. I mean they NEVER had shrek in stock. I got the donkey and other assorted characters but NEVER shrek. I personally love the look on their faces when I ask about toys - the "You need to grow up lady!" look, that said I was often perplexed about why I never got the toy of my choice. Are there so many friggin' kids in our country? Why are there so many friggin kids in the first place? Are people having so much sex that kids just happen? why? why? and why me?

When the Kung-Fu Panda toys came out, I again wasn't able to get the panda toy. I enquired in 4 different MacD and still no luck (I can't believe I admitted to that, I sound positively neurotic). Thats when I began to harbour notions that there was a special clique of slimy kids which was working specifically to thwart me in my attempts. Thats when I decided to change strategies. I asked a friend to get me a Happy Meal and to ask if they had the Panda and Guess what? they HAD it!!!. See, see, I told you there was a grand conspiracy.

Ok I sound neurotic but really its more enthusiasm and joy brought on by this coup. And get this, after my friend saw the Panda, he was like "duuuude I should have got one too!"

so moral of this story - Don't ever take me to MacDs and I badly need a drunken revellry jig clearly

Oh Bangalore! or Alternately - Why folks from RVCE will love this post

Sigh! what can I say, every time I visit Bangalore, I realise how much I miss home. This trip was especially nostalgic, considering I visited my alma mater - R V College of Engineering. I'll get to that later but first the really goody details of my trip. Well goody for me anyway!

First, this trip was unusually bountiful. I got a lot of gifts & serious bling from the loved one from his trip to bangkok and I must say that the man has really REALLY good taste! I got a fully ensembled black dress and by fully I mean it even came with a chic bracelet, bling-bling necklace and get this, a CLUTCH PURSE. The whole look was so classy and 50s chic that for a moment, a brief fleeting moment, I felt like Marlene Dietrich. sigh

Ok I'll stop but this trip had lots of good food too. That should interest you all. We went to a restaurant called Take 5 on 100ft road which is supposed to be a jazz restaurant. The ambience was very classy and very Manhattan type-y. The food was EXCELLENT. I mean, even as I write this, I long for their fish fingers in tartar sauce. mmmmmm. They even serve Belgium Beer, which was something I tried for the first time. Apparently belgium beer is "Alive" like all good wines. The beer menu had some good choices with good flavours. I mean never thought cinnamon would serve as an ingredient in a beer! But the big disappointment was the music. They call themselves a Jazz bar and they play U2. Sad that.

But really, do you know what I like about places like these? that these places are generally good conversation enablers. The music is not too loud, the food is amazing, the alcohol too is just right and if the company is good, it makes for stimulating & memorable conversations. Nag and Gowday, my two best buds from ice-tea days in college joined us for one such stimulating dinner. I like the fact that although we have graduated from ice-tea to alcohol, the conversations are just as stimulating, if not more. Oh I also found out that Gowday, by virtue of his job, could get me Rahul Bhattacharya's (Remember Pandits from Pakistan? my rave in my previous post?) number! Good now I know someone who knows someone who has written a book!

Now onto my trip to RV. I had to go there for some mark sheet related work. Found that the place has had a dramatic makeover! As visible from the grand entrance below -

But thankfully one thing hasn't changed drastically - the RVCE canteen. It's still the same hole-in-the-wall place next to the mech department.

Although inflation has caught up with these guys too. Check out the prices for the mini meal, puri-saagu and Idli -vada! a mini meal costs 14 bucks!! dude it was 10 in my time. lol

But inspite of the price rise, the humble mini meal has retained its ..er..essence. It still looks and tastes exactly like I remember it. Its even served by the same people! their expressions too are exactly how I remember them! I owe my engineering existence to this plate of marvel *giggle*

Did I say nothing in the canteen has changed? I'm sorry, something has. They have openly embraced corporate branding. As a marketer, I couldn't be more prouder of my alma mater. It positively warms the cockles of my heart.

But not all branding activity seems to have succeeded. The on campus Coffee Day has been shut down apparently. Sigh. RV Without Coffee Day? What will attract those poor outstation folks to the college then? It was our only plug! and our only salvation towards hipness. Alas!

RV sure was fun. It might not have been one of the best places to do engineering, but I'll vouch for this with every ounce of my being, it was the best place to meet people with character & personality!