Baby's day out

Yesterday was one hell of a day. It was not meant to be, but since some people love to gorge on good food and believe in celebrating Friday for some inexplicable reasons, the day turned out to be an eventful one.

The day started when I woke up at 3:30 in the morning, snoozed my alarm and went back to sleep. This was the last of my three unsuccessful attempts, in as many days, to wake up early in the morning and prepare for my exam. Of course, my attempt to wake up early and read did not end so tamely. I woke up at 4:30 / slept / woke up at 5:30 / slept again / finally, woke up at 6:30.

Later in the day at IIT, outside the exam venue, I did something unusual. I started muttering to myself that I know all concepts and that I will do well in the exam. My parents had been to a workshop on leadership and positive thinking organized by the Teach India group. My parents did tasks which are otherwise considered impossible. Probably, I recalled this and started boosting myself. The exam went relatively well considering that I was pretty hopeless just few hours before.

Once back in office, I was tired and was not in a mood to work. And so was the case with everybody else. By the time I came to office, a plan for an outing had been hatched. "We" would leave early, go to some place good and down a few drinks along with good food. I was not part of the "we" since I am not crazy about good food, had never taken a drink and was tired enough to drive back on my own. I was about to drop out but thankfully I did not act as my usual foolish self. Everything was set, except that there was no consensus on where to go.

Finally, the six of us hit the road on 4 vehicles: Vaibhav / Prachi in a car, Dhruvan / Prayag in another one, Sidharth in his and me on my bike. Even before we crossed over to Delhi there was a change of plans to which only Vaibhav / Prachi were privy. Everybody else followed Vaibhav blindly to realize that he had taken us to his home. We met Vaibhav's mother, wasted 15 minutes discussing whether to order Pizzas / drinks or go out somewhere. Fortunately, we headed of to Big Chill after having few pakoras prepared by aunty.

On our way to Big Chill we picked up few beer cans. Everybody opened a can for themself and I was handed one. Even though I protested that I had to drive back and had never drunk before, Vaibhav / Prachi and Prayag persisted. It felt like parents encouraging a baby to keep peddling and not to worry about falling of a cycle. The irony: I was the eldest among them all! I finally opened my can, we toasted to my first beer and I took my first sip. And man! It was awful!.

Outside Big Chill, everybody moved on to their second or even third can. I with great difficulty finished my share of the horribly tasting liquid. I was amazed at several things: (a) how could the others drink so much beer without getting high, (b) more importantly, without throwing up considering the awful taste, (c) at the breadth and depth of knowledge about beverages that everybody else had.

We then entered Big Chill and ordered some extremely delicious desserts and pizzas. The thin crust pizzas were awesome and all the chocolate desserts were just mind blowing! But good food is relished when there is good company and an entertaining discussion. We had lots of it except that I can't recall all of it ;). It revolved around drinks, calories, Prayag and him going to an aptly named place called Helsinki and of course some fine taunts to Sud. We finished our last delicious desert and left Big Chill.

The six of us packed ourselves into a single car. Or rather, it was Prachi / Prayag / Dhruvan and Sidharth in the back seat. Vaibhav and I sat comfortably in the front :). We drove off to Gupta market where Prachi / Prayag got down. We came back to Big Chill and Dhruvan left in his car. We then came back to Vaibhav's house where Sidharth's and my vehicles had been left earlier. After greeting Kanu, we should have left immediately except that Sud felt thirsty. Whats worse, he took the glass of water and settled down. Reluctantly, I too took a seat and some discussion started between Kanu, aunty and the three of us. Few embarrasing moments followed, with Sud imposing himself on the discussion. Fortunately, Vaibhav's father came in and I took the opportunity to stand up to greet him and also leave.

After memorizing the route, back to Noida, for the umpteenth time, I bid adieu to Kanu and Vaibhav and left. I did not seem to have deviated from the path since I did hit ring road and was back at home. I messaged Prachi / Prayag and Vaibhav that I was back in one piece and got immediate replies from everybody. Finally, I went to bed, uttered a "Wov!", closed my eyes and dozed off. One of the best days had passed by.