Unfinished Business.... Rambling thoughts of an evening out
We all have unfinished business”.... my friend told me in a moment of deep philosophical insight.... an inevitable result of consuming vodka in proportions which was many times more than it was legally permitted to be able to drive after. We were seated at place, which had over time become my favorite watering hole in the city . Most of the days seated around the table that we now found ourselves were a group of 5. Each one of us from a different part of the country and the circle of life had brought us all here in pursuit of a common goal. There was the magician who enthralled us all with his tricks, there was the flirt whose exploits were sometimes hard to believe but had us all in captivated attention for most of the time, there was the hopeless romantic whose zest for fun would disappear on the odd occasion when he dwelled on his lost cause of love, then there was the saint who practiced what he preached but surely had the most awful luck when it came to the girls he approached... all of them turned out to be married and then there was me. Today all of them have packed their bags and left for their hometown and it was just me who stayed back.
The person with whom I shared the table now was a very good friend from my college days who had come down to the city on an errand. It being a Saturday I had suggested we go early ... so it was that we made our way here at around 6:30 in the evening... most of the tables around were deserted which made my friend mock me at my haste. As the evening wore on... the tables around filled up.... most of them the weekend crowd from the sunrise sectors determined to have fun on their day off before the drudgery and monotonous nature of their work beckoned them again at the setting of the new week. By 7:00 as the lights were dimmed and the TVs switched off.... and the DJ prepared to assault us with his numbers...mostly the latest Hindi songs on top of the charts...the place was packed. Every few minutes a group would walk in.... look around the place and finding no seats empty would again disappear through the same door from which they made their entry a few moments ago.
Inside the blaring music was taking its effect on the patrons.... some sang along sure in their knowledge that their besura voices would be drowned in the cacophony of sound blaring out of the overhead speakers... most kept nodding their heads seemingly banging them at imaginary doors.... others wiggled in their seats and flayed their arms which is their attempt to dance sitting down.... and the really high spirited ones got up and danced... only to be tapped on their shoulders by the persons waiting on their tables and made to sit back again.... Any of these actions anywhere else would be hilarious but in a pub they are perfectly in place. My friend was one of the high spirited ones.... he during the course of the evening got up to dance more than a couple of times egging on even an initially unwilling foreigner seated next to him to get up and shake a leg. Their jig together got the applause of the crowd and had our white man beaming right through the night.
Finally it was.... when the music stopped making it obvious to everyone inside that it was time to gather themselves up and beat the wobbly track back home...that my friend made his observation. "We all have unfinished business" he said looking at his half full glass of vodka. I the more sober of the two had pleaded with him minutes ago to call it a day as he had had enough. But my friend in no mood to relent said " If I were to go out of that door (pointing in the direction exactly opposite to where the exit was) ... leaving this glass behind.... i will forever regret me not having finished it off.... not now maybe.... not tomorrow.... but in time i will when i want a drink and not find one... unfinished businesses...my friend.... always finds its way back to haunt you.... that's how life is" Having said that he promptly gulped it down his throat.
The person with whom I shared the table now was a very good friend from my college days who had come down to the city on an errand. It being a Saturday I had suggested we go early ... so it was that we made our way here at around 6:30 in the evening... most of the tables around were deserted which made my friend mock me at my haste. As the evening wore on... the tables around filled up.... most of them the weekend crowd from the sunrise sectors determined to have fun on their day off before the drudgery and monotonous nature of their work beckoned them again at the setting of the new week. By 7:00 as the lights were dimmed and the TVs switched off.... and the DJ prepared to assault us with his numbers...mostly the latest Hindi songs on top of the charts...the place was packed. Every few minutes a group would walk in.... look around the place and finding no seats empty would again disappear through the same door from which they made their entry a few moments ago.
Inside the blaring music was taking its effect on the patrons.... some sang along sure in their knowledge that their besura voices would be drowned in the cacophony of sound blaring out of the overhead speakers... most kept nodding their heads seemingly banging them at imaginary doors.... others wiggled in their seats and flayed their arms which is their attempt to dance sitting down.... and the really high spirited ones got up and danced... only to be tapped on their shoulders by the persons waiting on their tables and made to sit back again.... Any of these actions anywhere else would be hilarious but in a pub they are perfectly in place. My friend was one of the high spirited ones.... he during the course of the evening got up to dance more than a couple of times egging on even an initially unwilling foreigner seated next to him to get up and shake a leg. Their jig together got the applause of the crowd and had our white man beaming right through the night.
Finally it was.... when the music stopped making it obvious to everyone inside that it was time to gather themselves up and beat the wobbly track back home...that my friend made his observation. "We all have unfinished business" he said looking at his half full glass of vodka. I the more sober of the two had pleaded with him minutes ago to call it a day as he had had enough. But my friend in no mood to relent said " If I were to go out of that door (pointing in the direction exactly opposite to where the exit was) ... leaving this glass behind.... i will forever regret me not having finished it off.... not now maybe.... not tomorrow.... but in time i will when i want a drink and not find one... unfinished businesses...my friend.... always finds its way back to haunt you.... that's how life is" Having said that he promptly gulped it down his throat.
0 comments:
Post a Comment